6 Reasons to Work on a Handstand
Even if you don’t care if you ever do one!
As an adult, being able to do a handstand may seem like nothing more than a cool party trick. However, working on the skill and strength to do a handstand has many benefits. Here are six reasons you should work on the skills and strength required to do a handstand – even if you don’t care if you ever do one!
- Upper Body Strength: Practicing handstands will place significant load on your arms, shoulders, chest, and upper back muscles. Holding your body weight in an inverted position requires a lot of strength in all these areas, so working on handstand skills will build strength in all those muscles.
- Core Strength: Handstands require engagement of every muscle from fingertips to toes, but especially require intense engagement of your core muscles. Working towards a handstand will build strength for a strong and stable core. If you’re reading this, it’s safe to assume you’re interested in increasing your overall strength and fitness as well as why that’s important outside of the gym. A solid core is good for so much more than visible abs. Core muscles, generally considered everything between your hips and shoulders, are key players in, well, just about everything you do in life. A strong core can improve your posture and reduce the risk of back injury and pain.
- Body Perception (proprioception): Training a handstand will train your proprioception, which is your sense of where your body is and what it’s doing. The subtle adjustments your body will learn how to do will increase your body-awareness help you be more coordinated. Being more aware of how your body moves through space helps prevent things like trips and falls and makes it easier to learn other new skills.
- Balance: Handstands challenge your vestibular system, which is responsible for balance and spatial orientation. Training for handstands will strengthen that system by making it learn how keep you balanced while upside down. Improving balance can reduce the risk of falls, particularly in older adults. Falls are a common cause of injuries and fractures, and balance training helps enhance stability, reducing the likelihood of accidents. The earlier in your life you start training good balance, the more likely you are to retain it as you get older.
- Muscular Control: Achieving and maintaining a handstand requires precise control of your muscles. Training towards being able to do a handstand will teach you to engage and relax various muscle groups to stay upright. Muscle control is an important part of coordination and balance. The better your conscious muscle control is, the better your unconscious muscle control is.
- It’s Good for Your Brain: Building muscle strength is important, but strengthening your brain is also very important. Learning new skills is like giving your brain a special workout. It helps your brain become better at remembering things, solving problems, and learning new stuff. Learning to be upside down – including all the progressions to learn to be upside – make your brain do some heavy lifting in terms of learning. You have to develop all sorts of pathways in your brain to learn the balance and muscle control needed to hold yourself upside down.
There you have it. Six reasons working on progressions for handstands will help you get stronger, live longer, and be healthier doing it! Even if you never even do a full handstand. And you never know, you might surprise yourself and end up doing that handstand you didn’t think you’d ever be capable of after all. Crazy things can happen when work on build up strength and confidence.
Why Lifting Weights Is for Everyone
The Importance of Rest in Your Fitness Routine
and why knowing it is important
1: Fat is bad for you/Carbs are bad for you.
Like with most things, the answer is: it depends. The best shoe for a runner is not the same as the best shoe for a weightlifter. However, for working out in a gym like Sasquatch with a mix of many different movements that train balance and agility as well as strength stability is key. Kettlebell swings, box jumps, lunges, all types of squats – yes even just air squats – require stability to perform safely and get the most out of your workout. A shoe with a flatter, more rigid sole will help protect you from things like ankle sprains, strains, and even fractures that can occur when your shoe doesn’t provide enough stability for your activity. Think about it: if you have to carry a heavy box for several hundred feet do you want to be doing that on a path made out of mattresses? Or one made of solid stable ground? A shoe with a thick cushion on the bottom is not going to provide the stable base you need to keep your feet, knees, ankles etc. safe and stable in the gym. Your feet are your base. Your entire body depends on your feet to stand. If your base isn’t stable, the rest of you can’t be either. What happens if you put something rigid – like a glass of water – on a pillow on your couch? Bet it doesn’t stay standing up very well. That’s why you put that glass of water on a flat stable surface like a coffee table. The following shoes (not sponsored) are some examples of shoes that provide good support and stability: Reebok Nano (any number model) Nike Metcon (any number model) NoBull Project Inov8 F-Lite 245 Cushioned shoes have their place, but they are not a good base for moving weight around or doing anything that requires balance or agility. If you want to get stronger you have to get stable first. The first priority is to protect your joints. To do that, you need to start off with a good solid base.
EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption), also known as the "afterburn effect," refers to the increased oxygen consumption and energy expenditure that occurs after a workout. When you engage in intense exercise, such as high-intensity strength training, your body requires additional oxygen to replenish energy stores and restore physiological systems to their pre-exercise state. If you care about losing fat, you can see why increased EPOC is an advantage. Anything that burns more calories without you having to do more work makes losing fat easier. When you exercise, your body utilizes energy from various sources, such as glycogen (stored glucose) and fat, to fuel muscles and keep you moving. Intense exercise can deplete the easily available stored energy. EPOC is the energy needed to replenish those energy stores – like plugging in an iPad to replenish its battery – remove metabolic byproducts, and rebuild muscles stressed during the workout. After an intense exercise session, your body's metabolism remains elevated as it works to recover. This elevated metabolic rate contributes to increased calorie burning during the post-exercise period. The magnitude and duration of EPOC depend on many factors, including exercise intensity, duration, and individual fitness levels. More muscle equals more EPOC. Higher intensity during a workout equals more EPOC. Keep in mind that what “intensity” means varies from workout to workout. On a Squat day “intensity” is usually the weight you use, on Sprint days “intensity” is how fast you can go and maintain it round after round. Long, steady-state cardio workouts absolutely have their place in well-rounded fitness programs (you may notice we do at least one a week most weeks at Sasquatch). However, if that’s all you ever do you will not reap the same benefits from EPOC as when you mix it up with weight training and sprints. High-intensity workouts that challenge large muscle groups (like Front/Back Squats, Deadlifts, Cleans, Snatches etc.) and create a significant oxygen debt tend to elicit a greater EPOC effect. Activities like heavy resistance training (anything with weights), and interval training (sprint-rest-sprint workouts) can result in a prolonged post-exercise calorie burn. A more intense workout means increased EPOC.
Increased Bone Density: Lifting weights stimulates the bones to become stronger and denser. The mechanical stress placed on the bones during weight training triggers bone remodeling, which causes an increase in bone mineral density. This is particularly crucial for individuals with osteoporosis, as it helps to combat – and can even reverse – bone loss and reduce the risk of fractures. Improved Muscle Strength and Balance: Weight training exercises target multiple muscle groups, including those around the hips, spine, and wrists, which are commonly affected by osteoporosis-related fractures. By strengthening these muscles, weight training enhances stability, balance, and coordination, reducing the likelihood of falls and subsequent fractures. Enhanced Joint Health and Function: Weight training engages the joints, promoting their flexibility, mobility, and overall health. Regular weight training exercises can help alleviate joint stiffness and pain associated with osteoporosis. Moreover, strengthening the muscles around the joints provides added support and protection, minimizing stress on the joints and potentially reducing the risk of joint-related injuries.
Bet they aren’t what you think.
How to get a six pack in one day: Go to the grocery store.
1. Workout consistently. This one may seem obvious, but it has to be said. The better condition your muscles are in, the less sore they will get. If you workout once or twice a week one time a month, you will never get over the initial hurdle of workouts making you extra sore because your muscles are not used to being used. 2. Get in a good warm up. Give your muscles a chance to ease in to being ready for that tough workout and they will thank you by getting less sore. 3. Do a cool-down. Instead of just stopping abruptly and going home to sit on the couch, keep moving for a short time post-workout. This keeps the blood moving and helps the muscles start to recover. 4. Move Throughout the Day. If you have time for a long walk, awesome! Take that walk. Get the blood moving through those muscles. If you don’t have a ton of time, even short walks around your office/house/yurt/whatever will help get blood moving through those muscles and flush some of that soreness out. You could even throw in some air squats, lunges, and desk push-ups if you really want to get that heart rate up! 5. Sleep! Make sure you’re getting enough sleep for your body to recover. Remember, recovery is just as important as the workouts you do. 6. Get that post-workout protein in. Consuming protein shortly after a workout can help lessen soreness and will help build that lean muscle!
