How I Got A Free Handstand Pushup In 1 Year: The 4 Steps Anyone Can Take To Build An Excellent Foundation

jesiah

New member
After my 1 year transformation post some people asked me about what I did to get the free handstand pushup.

Here’s a video with the 4 steps I first took to build the foundation:


Well, the truth is that if you follow these steps you’ll spend enough time building the foundation and then you won’t get stuck in plateaus like most people.

I’ve seen so many people doing it wrong that I wanted to lay out a proper plan so that you can stick to it and get real results.

And yes you can follow this plan even if you don’t have a 30 second handstand (the standard requirement to do presses and free handstand pushups).

But please also train your handstand or you’ll have to do the handstand pushups next to the wall and that’s not cool haha.

1. Introducing The Basics​


You may already be familiar with the pike pushup (the number 1 exercise to build a foundation for the HSPU) but it’s worth reviewing it as to reap most of the benefits you want to have perfect form.

If you want to go deeper with pike pushup form I recommend you to check out Antranik's reddit & blog post.

These are the main points:
  • Lean forward as much as possible when going down. If you don’t get into the habit of leaning forward you will never balance the free HSPU, plus you’ll be hitting more the upper chest which is always nice).
  • Keep you forearms vertical or perpendicular to the ground. A signal that you’re not leaning forward enough is having the forearms pointing backwards. This again will hinder your balance on the future as it will put your center of gravity behind your hands.
  • Keep a 45º angle between your uppers arms and torso (in other words, tuck your elbows). When your upper arms are too close to your torso you make the movement too triceps dependent and you can’t leverage as good the force of your chest. But when your upper arms are too far from your torso you’ll put yourself in a more unstable position. So aim for a 45º upper arm - torso angle for a good combination of force and control.
  • Lastly if you want perfect form, open your shoulders when you reach the top position. Most people shoulder position at the top looks more like a pushup than a handstand. Try getting in the habit of finishing the move with your arms in line with the upper part of your spine. At this point don’t worry about your forearms pointing backwards.
With that being said I recommend you then to train the Pike Pushup once a week for at least six weeks:
  • Pike Pushups for 5 sets of 4 to 6 reps, tempo of 4s down and 1s up and at least 2 minutes rest.
Here the goal is to practice the proper movement pattern following the previous points while building a good base of strength.

2. Scaling The Basics​


So as most people I started bodyweight training to improve my physique, so I was mostly doing sets of more than 8 reps. But at some point I started to obses more about strength and skills and at that point I realized I was taking it too far in the other direction.

When I first was training more for strength and skills I was doing everytime low reps with too high intensity. After a while I got stuck in plateaus and my joints were screaming me to stop. I was definitely missing some conditioning and muscle.

That’s why in the second step I want you to take a step back and do some higher rep work for muscle and conditioning as now you’ve already mastered the movement pattern of the pike pushup:
  • Pike Pushups for 4 sets 10 to 14 reps, tempo of 2s down and 1s up and 1 minute rest.
As in the first step, doing this exercise once a week for 6 weeks is good enough for most people.

3. Leveling Up The Progression​


At this point you want to level up the pike pushup progression. Doing a handstand pushup at the wall would be still too challenging. Maybe you could do few back to wall HSPU if you’ve low bodyweight but I don’t really like back to wall as it makes the “forward lean” cue virtually impossible.

So the best exercise here is the L Pike Pushup. The same points from the regular pike pushup apply but now you’ll do them with your feet elevated. This will be closer to a chest to wall handstand pushup but less intense.
  • L Pike Pushups for 4 sets of 5 to 8 reps, tempo of 4s down and 1s up and at least 2 minutes rest.
If that’s still too hard I recommend you to limit your range of motion. On the other hand, you can use parallettes or a step to increase the ROM and make it harder.

But the key is to always track what’s your current ROM as that way you’ll make sure that you’re progressively increasing the intensity which is the name of the game.

4. Mastering The Foundation​


On the last step I’ll introduce you to what has been for me the key to unlock both HSPU and bent arm press handstand: The Pike Pushup Plus.

Aside from doing the pike pushup plus, you’ll also be doing regular pike pushups for conditioning / hypertrophy.

So this time I recommend you to have two calisthenics workouts per week. One with skills (pike pushup plus) and one for conditioning (high rep pike pushups).
  • Day 1. Pike Pushups Plus for 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps, tempo of 4s down and 1s up and at least 2 minutes rest (use rest pause between reps if needed).
  • Day 2. Pike Pushups for 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps, tempo of 2s down and 1s up and 1 minute rest.
For the Pike Pushup Plus you follow the same points as for the regular pike pushups but with one difference:
  • Once you reach the bottom position you lift your feet from the ground for a second or two and you drop them down to the floor.
Here the key is to lift your feet without extending your elbows. That would be too much at this point as doing this would mean you are already doing a bent arm press handstand.

So once you’re lifting your feet focus on holding that bottom position with your elbows bent while leaning forward. This one thing will be priceless when it comes to unlocking the free HSPU and the bent arm press handstand.

Summary (TLDR)​


These are the exercises that you want to be focusing on each step to build an excellent foundation for the HSPU (links to video demonstration on each exercise):
  1. Pike Pushups for 5 sets of 4 to 6 reps, tempo of 4s down and 1s up and at least 2 minutes rest.
  2. Pike Pushups for 4 sets of10 to 14 reps, tempo of 2s down and 1s up and 1 minute rest.
  3. L Pike Pushups for 4 sets of 5 to 8 reps, tempo of 4s down and 1s up and at least 2 minutes rest.
  4. Day 1 - Pike Pushups Plus for 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps, tempo of 4s down and 1s up and at least 2 minutes rest (use rest pause between reps if needed). Day 2 - Pike Pushups for 3 sets 10 to 12 reps, tempo of 2s down and 1s up and 1 minute rest.
I really recommend you to go for it as the HSPU is one of the most fun and badass exercises. It’s cool to get stronger and bigger but if you can add the body control on top of that you’ll experience what for me is true fitness.

Finally, big thanks to Tom Merrick for sharing with me this awesome progressions.

(Edit: included the sets)
 
@jesiah Thanks for a great tutorial! You’ve got a real positive vibe on you in the video; your enthusiasm works contagious. Keep it up :)
 
@jesiah Fantastic guide. These are essentially the progressions I used to get 2 HSPU at a bodyweight of 223lbs/101kg. Manipulating tempo and using higher reps is very underrated.
 
@jesiah Been doing heavy dumbbell overhead presses for years and could never do a handstand, let alone the push-up - thank you so much for this!
 
@devilsadvocate Strangely watched this video longingly after breaking my collarbone 3 weeks ago. Miss being able to lift my arm comfortably above my head, so really looking forward to being able to train this properly again when it's healed.
 
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