Yuri Marmerstein

One of that cool things about handstand training it prioritizes precision over raw strength or power. Unlike a lot of other disciplines, you can’t just try harder and get better at the skill. You have to get smart and develop the sensitivity to be precise with how much power you use and when.

that’s one of the big differences when doing skill based training rather than trying to increase your attributes. In order to be a well-rounded athlete and mover, I think it’s important to understand both kinds of training.

Really quick dynamic hip mobility circuit.
I think this kind of flexibility is often underrated and under utilized, and you can argue that it’s very functional since it moves at the speed of life.

I always recommend this circuit to someone looking to improve their kicks and get more flexible for that, but I think it’s very useful for general health as well.

Circuit is very simple and only takes a couple minutes to perform. Try doing it a couple times a day for a couple months and see what kind of progress you can make

Still doing rope flow regularly. I think it’s a great practice to include, it has a ton of benefits, and not really in any negatives. And one of the things I really like about it is that it’s pretty low commitment.
Past the initial learning curve, you can do as much or as little as you want and still get a lot out of it. You could use it as a warm-up, physical/mental reset, or morning/nighttime mobility and movement work.

this was originally shown to me in a seminar from years ago and I’m still using it regularly.

Rope in this video is from

To really be comfortable and confident in performing and training your handstand, there needs to be no negative cost associated with doing the movement.

here is a small checklist you can go through to help make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible.

-make sure you’re comfortable with falling forward and bailing out. If there’s any fear or uncertainty with this, it becomes much more difficult to fully commit to and focus on the skill.

-your handstand alignment should be such that it doesn’t cause pain or discomfort in your shoulders, wrists, low back, etc. This could lead to long-term injuries, but in the short term, again it’s hard to really focus on the handstand if holding the position itself causes you discomfort. The goal is to have a vertical line of force through the body so that you can rely on your bone structure to hold you up as much as possible.

-landings and transitions. Lots of people focus on the handstand itself, but getting in and out of it is a huge part of the skill. The transition from feet to hands should be smooth with no impact going into the wrists and shoulders. The landing should be soft and controlled. You technically never leave the ground, so there should not be any impact and you should be able to easily stand up when coming out of a handstand.

once you have a good understanding of these concepts, it gives you a lot more mental freedom to be able to concentrate on the technical skill work.

If you have access to a big flight of stairs, try this conditioning circuit.
crawl down on your hands and feet(lizard/wizard) skill and then you can run back up.

bonus points if you do it in public because people will probably leave you alone. Also really useful if you’re trying to lower the property values of your neighborhood.

Give it a try!

A few shoulder roll variation that are helpful to know