- What's up?
It's Chris Heria.
Welcome to another vlog.
Today we're working on shoulders
and I'll be showing you the five best handstand variations
that will greatly improve
your handstand balance, strength and coordination.
Now, if you can't handstand yet
and you wanna learn how super fast, check out my video,
how to handstand in five easy steps.
Once you've accomplished the steps in that video,
you're ready to begin what we have for today.
Now, the handstand is a great exercise
that utilizes all the muscles in your body
to work together in order to maintain
and hold a perfectly aligned handstand.
Not only does it build coordination
and body awareness throughout your entire body
which will aid you in other sports
as well as other exercises
but it also develops insane core strength
and powerful shoulders.
And by training handstands you have the ability
to train your shoulders at any time without the need
of any weights in a very limited amount of space.
And there's many benefits
that you get training your shoulders
through handstand that you don't get with weights.
Because the handstand has many additional aspects
like balance and coordination
and with today's five handstand variations
we're gonna be focusing on different aspects
of the handstand to master each component.
Also by training your handstand in different variations
you can ensure that you're continuously challenging
and progressing your handstand, becoming more efficient
with your strength and endurance.
And finally, achieving the perfect handstand hold.
And that's what we'll be working on today.
I want you to follow along with me
with these five exercises that take absolutely no equipment
all you'll need is a wall.
And in fact the wall will only be used for assistance.
The goal is to use the wall
as least as possible.
And these five exercises are specifically designed
to improve your alignment, strength, balance and endurance
in a handstand.
So if you're ready to get started
and to properly follow along, make sure
you download the Heria Pro app in the App Store
or Google Play Store.
Open up to the YouTube Workouts section, find this routine
and let's get started.
Now, the five exercises we'll be doing are
all static exercises, meaning that we're holding a position
for a time.
And the time under tension, meaning the longer
you can maintain the hold for, is what builds your strength
and endurance, tears your muscle fibers and allows you
to build muscle.
So for today, we wanna hold each exercise
for at least 30 seconds.
If you're feeling fatigued,
you can go ahead and come back down, take a second to catch
your breath and go right back up.
The most important thing is to make sure you're breathing.
Keep perfect form, lock out your elbows
and be comfortable with going to a handstand facing the wall
which is something that you should've learned
from the video I mentioned previously,
how to handstand in five easy steps.
And with that said,
before we start the first exercise, let's prepare
our neck, shoulder and wrist.
Starting with our neck, we're gonna look right
to left. (gentle electronic music)
Side, to side.
Your shoulders.
Just doing a circle.
The other way.
Reach up.
Twist your torso.
Lastly, swirl the wrists.
Now, the handstand requires a lot of wrist support.
So you wanna make sure that you warm it up properly
but you don't tire out your wrist.
So let's just do a couple leans forward.
Pressing in with your fingertips.
With them outwards, again, side to side.
Again.
Let's do one hand at a time, slight pressure.
All right, now we're ready to get started.
Now, the first exercise
we're getting into is the most important exercise
to perfecting your handstand hold
and that's gonna be your handstand hold facing the wall.
When holding your handstand facing the wall
you're forcing your body
to position itself in perfect alignment.
Neglecting this exercise will result
in an arched back when doing a handstand
and possibly prolonging the time it would take you
to learn a proper handstand for years.
For those of you that can handstand
but see that you're lacking form or may have an arched back,
just start doing these handstands facing the wall
and you'll develop the muscle memory
of a perfect handstand position
and allow to replicate it anywhere you are without the wall.
So we're gonna go for a 30 second hold.
Try to go as long as you can without using the wall.
So we're gonna walk right up into our handstand
and we're gonna try to get
as close to the wall as possible, forcing us to be
in a perfectly stacked handstand position.
And once you're up against the wall in handstand position
comfortably with perfect form,
you wanna pulse the pressure in your fingertips
so that your feet slowly come off the wall.
Once your feet are
about an inch and a half away from the wall,
you should feel an equilibrium point
where you feel weightless
and it's very easy to maintain your balance.
You wanna try to maintain this hold as long as possible
without the assistance of the wall.
Of course, if you find you're losing your balance,
you could press in with your fingertips
and that will bring your feet back to the wall.
And to be able to maintain this hold
with less assistance from the wall
it's gonna be helpful to do micro-movements.
Try not to do any drastic movements in your head,
your arms or any part of your body
and no matter what, keep your arms straight and locked out.
If your arms start to bend at any of these exercises,
you could run the risk of your face hitting the ground.
All right, so there we have the very first exercise.
Which is the most important exercise
if you're struggling with any part of this exercise
like getting your feet off the wall,
or how to use the pressure within your hands
to maintain your handstand hold an inch off the wall,
then check out my video,
how to handstand in five easy steps.
I give a more in-depth breakdown in exactly how to do this.
And moving on to the next exercise I have for you,
we have handstand toe tap.
And this is another exercise that's gonna greatly improve
your balance as well as your coordination
and shoulder strength.
A lot of times, especially when we're just getting started,
we can't hold the handstand for that long.
Any movement from your legs can disrupt your body position
and throw off your balance.
So we're gonna practice that now,
I want you to try to hold your handstand,
of course, with the least amount
of assistance from the wall as possible
and while you're alternating your legs,
it's okay if you're just getting started
and doing it kind of quick
but the goal is to try to slow that down.
Eventually, reaching slow motion, doing it
as slow as possible.
That's how you know that you're really perfecting
and mastering your handstand.
So let's go for these.
30 seconds.
Try to get perfect alignment with one foot and then switch.
We'll be holding our handstand a bit further away
from the wall this time, alternating our legs
and tapping the wall for support.
And one of the best things
that you can do for balance and coordination
and getting really comfortable with the handstand is
to move your lower body
while you're in a handstand position.
Once you learn how to comfortably move your legs
while holding a handstand,
your balance is gonna insanely increase
and holding a handstand is pretty
much gonna become effortless.
All right, there we have the handstand alternating toe taps.
Now, if you noticed while you were alternating your legs,
you're actually holding your handstand position
without any assistance at all
for a short amount of time
but the slower and more controlled you alternate your legs,
you're gonna increase that time.
Holding a handstand and moving your lower body
without assistance from the wall,
purely free standing, mastering your hand balancing
and coordination.
Now, the next exercise
I have for you is gonna be diamond handstand
and this is really gonna improve your strength
as well as your balance.
By holding a handstand in different positions,
not only are you working different areas of your shoulders
making handstands more manageable and a lot less stressful.
The more you train the harder handstand positions,
the easier the normal handstand is gonna be.
Each handstand position will benefit your balance, strength
and coordination in different ways,
which is why you need to be training them all
as you can't get all the benefits
from just doing one hand position.
So we're gonna go up
into a diamond handstand for 30 seconds.
Try to use the wall as least as possible.
So we're gonna walk up like normal.
You get as close as you can
and then we're gonna start to bring our hands together.
(exhales) Phew.
All right there we have it.
The diamond handstand.
And if you've never tried that before,
then try a couple pulses in your fingertips
to get your feet a little bit off the wall
for a couple of seconds, get comfortable with it
and eventually increase the time.
Now, we're gonna go for the counterpart
of the diamond handstand.
We're gonna go for a wide handstand.
And again, this is gonna improve
your handstand's balance, coordination and strength
in a different way that you don't get it
with a diamond grip or a normal grip.
Let's get right into theses wide handstands for 30 seconds.
Remember, start comfortably against the wall
and then slowly start using less assistance trying
to hold it without the wall.
And as for how wide you should go,
maybe at the beginning just go one hand wider
than shoulder-width apart,
eventually the more you do this,
you'll be able to go wider and wider.
Let's get it.
And for this exercise you wanna make sure
to be very comfortable and safe
when moving into a wide handstand position.
Start off with a grip that's a little bit wider
than normal, master that and increase the distance
between your arms.
Also, when you're just getting started
with this exercise, don't be afraid to use the wall
and slowly work your way off of it,
versus just trying to tap off the wall
and hold it as long as you can.
It's gonna be a lot safer if you take your time
and you're gonna progress a lot faster.
All right.
(exhales) All right, there we have the wide handstand hold
now, moving on to the last handstand variation
I have for you, with an uneven handstand hold.
We're gonna be holding a handstand position with each hand
in a different elevated position.
Doing this is gonna strengthen the muscles required
to do a handstand in each arm individually
and because you're isolating each limb,
you're also getting more balance and more coordination
and endurance because you're controlling more of your body
with one arm than you were before.
And mastering this will eventually transfer you
into one arm handstand holds, making handstands
with two arms super easy.
There's many ways to hold an uneven handstand.
Your opposing arm could pretty much be holding on
to anything else as long as the elevation
on each arm are different.
As long as one hand is placed higher than the other
that's gonna allow you to emphasize more on your lower arm.
Now, for an elevated surface,
you can use a chair or even a stack of books,
but you really don't wanna jump too high.
At first, just choose something
that's slightly higher than the the opposing hand.
Eventually you'll be able to be more free
with the opposing limb
and pretty much be able to hold on to anything else.
But for today, to make an uneven handstand,
we're just gonna get on our fingertips
with the opposing hand.
Now, this may be slightly more difficult
than holding on to something
with your opposing arm, focusing mainly on the arm
that you're trying to work on.
So for today I'll be showing you
how to do it on your fingertips
but you wanna be able to do uneven handstands
in as many different variations as possible.
Let's get these.
So we're gonna walk up.
Get comfortable in our position.
And we're gonna come to one side, bring the fingertips up.
Come on to the other side, bring the fingertips up.
So first we're just getting comfortable going side to side
and as you can see when I go to one side
I position my entire body onto this one arm.
Now, the closer your hands are together, the easier
this is actually gonna be.
It's gonna be easier to lean on one side,
without disrupting the rest of your body.
(exhales) All right.
There was the last exercise, uneven handstands.
The last exercise that you really need
to give you a perfect handstand.
So thanks for following along.
If you were able to complete this with me, congratulations.
You're on your way to getting a perfect handstand hold.
And whether you can do these exercises
without the wall or not,
you should still be doing them near the wall
as that's gonna force you to be
in perfect handstand position and alignment
every time you train your handstand, creating muscle memory
with proper form, so no matter where you do it,
it will always be perfect.
So if you enjoyed the video,
definitely smash that like button.
Leave a comment down below.
Let me know what you want the next video to be about
and subscribe if you haven't already.
I post every single Thursday, 2:00 p.m. USA Eastern Time
and if you comment within the first 30 minutes,
you always have the chance to win some free Heria Apparel.
And don't forget to get this workout on your phone
as well as all my personal workouts
and programs that I've created
with specific goals in mind
like burning fat and simultaneously building solid muscle
with minimal to no equipment.
Become a member at heriapro.com
and download the Heria Pro app in the App Store
or Google Play Store.
You'll be able to take my workouts with you everywhere
and have me as a personal trainer in your pocket.
For more of my content during the week, make sure
you're following me on Instagram.
Almost every single post
I always do some type of giveaway.
So if you wanna have a chance
to be a part of that, make sure you're following me on IG
and for everybody enjoying the music, make sure
you're following me on soundcloud.com/chrisheria
that's where I post all my latest tracks first
so make sure you're following me on there.
You can also find my music on Spotify and Apple Music.
And with that said,
I'll see you guys next Thursday, 2:00 p.m. USA Eastern Time.
Mad love, peace out.
(gentle electronic music)
Smash that like button, guys.
(machine gun rattling)