To Improve Your Posture, Learn To Handstand
“Good posture can be successfully acquired only when the entire mechanism of the body is under perfect control.” – Joseph Pilates
I am the worst when it comes to good body posture
- Sitting in front of the computer all day.
- Sleeping on any side but not on my back.
- Lifted weights at the gym and now I have a hernia.
- Sitting in a chair with my back bent like a banana
- And many more…
This resulted in: Both Anterior and Lateral pelvic tilt problem, hernia, front-forwarded shoulders, falling head forward.
When you add all these problems it results in headaches, getting tired fast, poor blood circulation, gaining weight and many other health problems
I literally cannot stand straight. However, I know the longer I postpone working on this the harder it will get in the end. A friend helped me get started and tried to straighten up my posture through gym exercises. I don’t say it didn’t work. But it was boring and not interesting. I was moaning while doing these exercises.
If you want to learn and improve your posture in a fun and challenging way, learn to handstand
I am not here to explain the importance of having good posture. I guess you already know.
However, if you want to go through this journey (because I assure you its gonna be a long-lasting one) having fun and learning some cool skills. Then I strongly encourage you to learn to balance on your arms.
The only way you are gonna achieve a straight handstand is that your palm, shoulders, pelvis, and feet align, in a straight line
To help you understand why handstand is equal to a good posture, I chose a picture that perfectly shows what it looks to have a good handstand. Just pay attention to his body alignment in 2017 while doing the handstand.
It's perfect, right? This is because the only way to have a good, balanced and strong handstand is to align your palms, shoulders, hips, and feet into one perfect vertical line.
Yes, you will be able to catch the balance with a banana handstand but I would not advise taking this as a win yet. This is a win you should keep improving and work towards a perfectly straight handstand. Banana handstands are just a bad habit.
There are many things that need to come together to achieve a perfect line
Handstand is definitely not the easiest skill to learn but is one of the most rewarding for sure. There are things that need to come along a perfect vertical line. You can definitely stay on your hands before this, but this is what you need to be working towards. Once you achieve this, your posture will rock.
You don’t have to be on your hands in a week or in a month. Break it down first
Have patience. If you are gonna follow “Learn to handstand in a week” guys, it's only gonna ruin your motivation. Plan to do this for 6–12 months. Choose consistency over intensity. Meaning, rather than train 60 minutes once a week, train for 10 minutes 6 times a week.
If you don’t feel like training today, no problem. Just do 2 times handstand to the wall and move on.
Break it down. Starting from hand placement, finger engagement, rotated elbows to body alignment, engaged core and open shoulders.
Each one of these steps its gonna take some time. Some of us can learn it faster and some slower. It doesn’t matter, the result will be the same. Have patience you will get there too.
The first step for making a straight line while on hands is to make a straight line while on your feet
Get into the habit of walking into a straight line, sleeping into a straight line and doing everything as straight as possible. So that when you go upside down, your brain knows what it means to be in a straight line.
Start your handstand journey today.
I will leave here some guiding videos that helped me in my handstand journey.
Don’t make this mistake when learning to Handstand
Dylan Werner — True Strengths Series
Have a good one! Stay Healthy.
