How I Got The Press To Handstand In Less Than A Year: The 4 Steps Anyone Can Take To Build An Excellent Foundation

jesiah

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Some months ago I did a similar post for the Handstand Pushup and received great feedback (thank you!). So I decided to post now a beginner routine for the press. For a video with the full routine click here:


According to multiple gymnastic gurus the press to handstand is one of the best fitness goals you can have as it’s one of the most complete bodyweight skills (strength, mobility and balance).

But at the same it’s one of the skills that it doesn’t necessarily have a simple and straightforward progression This is why…

One person may need to work more on strength while another may need to improve his mobility above anything else and also you can even find someone very athletic who may just need to work directly on the movement pattern of the press.

With that in mind, I tried to put a routine which covers the different areas of the straight arm straddle press so that anyone can stick to it and build an excellent foundation.

The routine has 4 phases and every phase should last around 6 weeks. On each phase you’ll be doing the 4 exercises that I’ll list below. Doing this once a week is enough. Max twice a week.

Phase 1:​


On phase 1 you’ll be doing what’s in my opinion the best stretch for hamstrings (Single Leg Good Mornings).

The more stiff your hamstrings are the harder your press is gonna be as it will be like if you’re trying to drive a car with your foot on the brake pedal.

To gain straight arm strength you’ll be doing the Kneeling Press To Pike. This is a great exercise for learning how to rapidly fire your shoulder and upper back muscles which is mandatory on the first part of the press.

But we can’t forget about compression. It doesn’t matter how flexible you’re that if you can’t use this range of motion on the extremes it will be pretty much useless and even dangerous.

That’s why we do compression exercises like the Straddle Pulses. Thanks to exercises like this is how you manage to lift your hips from the starting position from the press.

Finally I like to finish this with an easier variation of the press to start drilling the movement pattern. In this case you’ll be doing the Headstand Tuck Press.

Exercises:

Single Leg Good Mornings: 2 sets, 10r + 10s hold per leg, 60s rest

Kneeling Press To Pike: 3 sets, 5-10r (1-2-1)s, 90s rest

Straddle Pulses: 3 sets, 8-12r, 60s rest

Headstand Tuck Press: 3 sets, 4-6r, (1-1-3)s, as much as needed

Phase 2:​


To maximize mobility gains it’s good to work on both Extreme Range Conditioning (ERC) and Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF). On the first phase we worked on ERC with the pulses and now we’ll start working on PNF by doing the Seated Pike Crush.

On this phase we’ll be working on our shoulder mobility because the more you can open your shoulders the easier everything is gonna be.

For straight arm strength here you’ll be doing the Planche Lean To Press which is great for strengthening the scapula in multiple plains.

Lastly you’ll be doing a harder variation of the headstand press to increase control.

Exercises:

Seated Pike Crush: 3 sets, 3 x 10/5s, 60s rest

Downward Dog: 2 sets, 10r + 10s, 60s rest

Planche Lean To Press: 3 sets, 5-8r, (1-2-2), 90s rest

Headstand Straddle Press: 3 sets, 4-6r, (1-1-3)s, as much as needed

Phase 3:​


On third phase we’ll do similar exercises with the exception of the Tuck Handstand. If you’re serious about getting the press, improving your handstand or you just want a big bang for the buck, tuck handstands are the way to go.

At this point we’ll do this chest to wall to improve shoulder mobility and also increase strength. The closer you can get to the wall the more intense it’s gonna be.

Exercises:

Single Leg Good Mornings: 2 sets, 10r + 10s hold per leg, 60s rest

Seated Straddle Crush: 3 sets, 3 x 10/5s, 60s rest

Tuck Handstand Wall Hold: 3 sets, 10-20s, 90s rest

Headstand Pike Press: 3 sets, 4-6r, (1-1-3)s, as much as needed

Phase 4:​


On the fourth phase we’ll start using the tuck handstand we learned on phase 3 to start getting the first taste of a press. We’re gonna do that by going from a straight handstand into a tuck handstand.

This exercise is gonna teach a lot of valuable less which are key for the press, such as:
  • Keeping your hips over your shoulders while you’re flexing your hips and knees to get into a tuck
  • Using your traps to balance and control the movement
If the Straight To Tuck resembles the upper part of the press, the Pike To L-Sit is great for the lower part.

With the Pike To L-Sit you’ll start on the initial position of the press and you’ll lower yourself down as slowly as possible into an L-Sit. If that’s still too hard you can do it on a tuck position. Oh and use parallettes / boxes that are at least 1 foot above the floor or you’ll need crazy mobility to pull it off.

Also the beauty of doing this one is that after mastering it you’ll probably be confident to go from L-Sit to Handstand ;)

Exercises:

Wall Assisted Straight To Tuck: 3 sets, 1-3r, (3-1-2)s, as much as needed

Seated Pike Crush: 3 sets, 3 x 10/5s, 60s rest

Pike To L-Sit: 4 sets, 2-5 reps, (5-2-1)s, 90s rest

Pancake Reach Stick Lifts: 3 sets, 3 x 10/5s, 60s rest

Summary (TLDR)​


If your interest in fitness goes beyond muscle I really recommend you to go for this skill. Aside from being a cool skill the press will help you target different critical areas that are normally forgotten with the typical bro routines and it will make you an overall more functional human being.

Here are the videos for the exercises of each of phase of my beginners progression:

- Phase 1: Single Leg Good Mornings, Kneeling Press To Pike, Straddle Pulses, Headstand Tuck Press

- Phase 2: Seated Pike Crush, Downward Dog, Planche Lean To Press, Headstand Straddle Press

- Phase 3: Single Leg Good Mornings, Seated Straddle Crush, Tuck Handstand Wall Hold, Headstand Pike Press

- Phase 4: Wall Assisted Straight To Tuck, Seated Pike Crush, Pike To L-Sit, Pancake Reach Stick Lifts

Finally, big thanks to Tom Merrick for sharing with me most of this awesome drills and progressions.
 
@jesiah Hi OP,

Thank you for the great post and the great video! You look like a super pleasant guy. Completely unrelated questions: are you Italian? And where did you film this? That's a lovely setting you're in.

Some more relevant questions: :)
  • it looks like decent hamstring flexibility is a must. At about 3 mins in the video, you have great form while doing the Seated Pike Crush. I know that a lot of people, myself included, have trouble doing that without rounding the back; I've been working on hamstring flexibility but don't think I'd be able to do this correctly, even after several weeks of work. Did you have decent flexibility even before starting this program? You have great form, for sure! Others may need more work than just 6 weeks to get to that point.
  • I'm travelling, and so can't carry around parallel bars / grips like you have. Do you have any suggestions? Can I just do this on flat ground?
  • More general question: I've only recently started getting fitter, dealing with injuries etc. I've been wondering what a good goal would be for me ... in your opinion, is this something that a relative beginner can slowly work towards? It does look fun and interesting, and almost meditative.
Thank you again for this post. It's very interesting, and guides like this are very nice for new-ish people like me.

With gratitude and respect, cheers!
jz
 
@cr0cus I'm from Barcelona and I filmed in the Greek Theater Park from same city :)

1) To give you a reference I could touch my feet when I started training for the press (let's say I started on Phase 3 of the program). Also it's ok to round a bit your back if you do it conciously and you don't experience pain.

2) Yes you can do it on the ground or use small pushup that you can easily carry while traveling. I had a preference for parallettes as I used to experience strong wrist pain due to loose ligaments.

3) Press to Handstand is definetly a great goal. If you want "quicker wins" I would recommend you things like touching your toes, 40 second chest to wall handstand or 15 second L-Sit.

Thanks for your nice words and good luck with your journey!
 
@jesiah Thanks so much for taking to time to film and share this! I'm taking a handstand class in February from my aerial gym, but I feel in no way prepared. Your progression could help!

However, I can't do a headstand, or whenever I've tried they don't really work out, but I've only been given advice by one instructor who mainly said you kick up into it. Does anyone have advice or progressions for a headstand like the exercises in this video?
 
@ibrahimm No problem! As a progression you can do level 1 and 2 of finger pulls for headstands. If you don't know what finger pulls are search in my channel "the best exercise to learn the handstand fast".
 
@ibrahimm Same for me.

This looks like a great program and phase 1 seems very doable for me except for the tucked headstand. I cant even get my feet off the ground when I try.

I can do a handstand with my toes on a wall. But can never get to free standing either.
 
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