Handstand Push-Up
Trains the Shoulders.
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Advanced
How to do it
- Kick up into a handstand with your heels resting against a wall, hands a little wider than your shoulders.
- Set your hands far enough from the wall that your body is roughly vertical rather than arched.
- Squeeze your glutes and brace your stomach so the body holds one line.
- Bend the elbows and lower until the top of your head is just above the floor.
- Press back up to straight arms.
- Finish each repetition with the shoulder blades rotated upward and travelling around the ribs, so the arms end genuinely overhead rather than stopping at straight elbows.
Common mistakes
- Arching the lower back to hold the balance. The arch turns the movement into an inclined press against the wall and takes the load out of the vertical line.
- Letting the elbows flare straight out to the sides. Keeping them angled slightly forward keeps the press in a line the shoulder can drive through.
- Stopping the top at straight arms. The last part is the shoulder blades rotating upward, which is serratus anterior and lower trapezius work, and it is the part that makes the position genuinely overhead.
- Starting without a way down. Practising the kick-up and the exit against the wall first is part of learning the movement, not a preliminary to it.