Are tight and weak shoulders impacting your handstands - Part 2

8 Nov

In part 1 of this post I talked about how a lack of shoulder flexion affects our handstand alignment. Often, this presents itself as a banana handstand.

As a quick recap, tight pecs, biceps, lats and teres major are the main muscles that impact shoulder flexion range of motion.

Foam rolling and stretching can help to lengthen these muscles and improve our overhead flexibility.

However, we can also add strength training to speed up the process while increasing shoulder strength and stability.

If the above muscles are short and tight, the opposing muscles may be weak.

For example, the latissimus dorsi and the pectoral muscles internally rotate the shoulder. Tight lats and pecs pull the shoulder into internal rotation, which lengthens (stretches) the rotator cuff muscles (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis.).

This often leads to weak shoulder external rotators and poor shoulder flexion.

By strengthening the rotator cuff muscles, we can lengthen the lats and pecs and improve shoulder flexion.

Stretching the tight muscles and strengthening the weak muscles is the fastest way to improve flexibility.

Which muscle do we need to strengthen to improve shoulder flexion?

Triceps, lats, pecs, biceps, serratus, abdominals and even hip flexors can limit our ability to take the shoulder into 180 degrees of flexion.

The opposite muscles are rhomboids, delts, trapezius (upper, mid and lower), rhomboids, rotator cuff, spinal erectors, teres major and minor, and even the obliques.

There's a lot to consider.

Chances are, not all of these muscles are weak. However, I've worked with online students who've seen massive improvements in shoulder flexion by stretching their abdominals and strengthening their spinal erectors.

Adult handstand seekers’ most common muscle weakness are delts, rhomboids, mid- and lower-traps, and rotator cuffs.

With a 12-weeks of strength and flexibility training, we often see significant improvements in shoulder flexion, leading to improvement in handstand alignment and balance.

What does this look like?

In phase 1, I find it best to focus on isolating the weak muscles and building better mind-muscle awareness.

A lot of people don't know how to contract their lower traps, rhomboids, or rotator cuff muscles. They don't know what it feels like.

It's hard to strengthen a muscle when you can't feel it working.

It's for this reason I like to start with isometric holds. The program might look like this:

A1. Prone T, Isometric and Lift-Offs

3 x [:10+:10+:10 Isometric + 6-8reps], rest :45

A2. Shoulder External Rotation, Prone, Single Arm, Lift-Offs

3 x [5-6reps ea w/ 5sec hold at the top of each rep], rest :45

A3. Trap 3 Raise, Prone Ankles Crossed

3 x [5-6reps ea w/ 5sec hold at the top of each rep], rest :45

After 4-6weeks of phase 1, we can start to increase the range of motion, intensity, and difficulty with movements like:

A1. Reverse Flies, Bent-Over Head Supported, Single-Arm, Dumbbell

3 x [8-10ea], 2110, rest :60

A2. Shoulder External Rotation, Seated, Knee up, Pronated Grip, Dumbbell

3 x [8-10ea], 4010, rest :60

A3. Trap 3 Raise, Bent-Over, Head Supported, Unilateral, Dumbbell

3 x [8-10ea], 3110, rest :60

At the same time, we can also be training the handstand to improve shoulder strength and flexibility.

The goal is to open the shoulder angle to 180 degrees of flexion or as close as possible. Keeping the shoulders elevated while performing handstands is critical, which will also help increase shoulder flexion and strength.

I like to start with nose-to-wall handstands for most adults because they force us to open the shoulder angle and stack the wrist, elbows, shoulders, knees, hips and ankles in a nice vertical alignment.

You will need a certain shoulder flexibility and strength level to achieve the nose-to-wall handstand. If you're not there yet, you must work on your shoulder flexibility and strength (as above) and exercises like 45-degree wall-facing handstands and wall walk-ins.

Once you can hold the nose-to-wall handstand for 45+ seconds, it's time to move your head to look down at the floor. As you do this, your wrists, elbows, shoulders, knees, hips, and ankles must stay stacked.

Often, when we extend the cervical spine, shifting the head to look down at the floor, the thoracic and lumbar spine want to follow. We lose our vertical alignment, which is not what we want.

Hence, we need to practice moving the head without changing the alignment, and that's where the nose-to-wall head shifts can help.

Moving the head back and forth between having the nose touching the wall and looking down at the floor is an effective way to learn how to maintain 180 degrees of shoulder flexion while looking down at the floor.

Once you can achieve this, you can strengthen the 180-degree shoulder flexion position even more.

One of the best ways to do this is to move into a tuck handstand. The tuck handstand lowers the centre of mass and increases the load on the shoulders. We can use this load to help build high levels of handstand-specific shoulder strength.

As we slide our feet down the wall and move into the tuck shape, the load increased load on the shoulders is surprisingly heavy. We must fight hard to keep the shoulders elevated and maintain the 180 degrees of shoulder flexion.

A common mistake is to lean the shoulders away from the wall and close the shoulder angle. This takes weight off the shoulders and makes it easier to hold the wall-facing tuck handstand, but it defeats the purpose of the exercises.

We use the wall-facing tuck handstand to build strength in the 180-degree shoulder flexion position. This only works if you can maintain the alignment and not lean the shoulders away from the wall.

It can be helpful to do repetitions of sliding in and out of the tuck. Moving from a straight handstand to a tuck handstand increases the load on the shoulders. We then hold the tuck shape for 5-10 seconds before sliding back to a straight handstand, which lightens the load on the shoulders.

These short tuck holds allow us to strengthen the positions gradually.

Performing five reps with a 5-second hold in each tuck is a good milestone for most people.

You can build to 3 reps with a 10-second hold before progressing to wall-facing tucks.

Finally, we can move to longer holds, 20-30 seconds in the wall facing tuck with the shoulders elevated, the shoulder angle open (180 degrees of shoulder flexion), and the eyes looking down at the floor.

The combination of shoulder flexibility (covered in part 1), shoulder structural balance strength, and handstand-specific shoulder strength is the most effective way I've found to prepare adults for handstands physically. It covers many bases, decreasing the chances of injury and speeding up progress over time. Progress can often feel slow initially, but in the big picture, you’ll be glad you took the time to build a strong foundation.

Learning to do a handstand can be a daunting task, especially for adults who don't know where to start or lack the confidence to overcome the fear of falling.

I get it. I’ve helped hundreds of adults overcome their fears and unlock a freestanding handstand.

However, you don't have to give up on your dream of doing a handstand just yet.

Introducing the FREE TSTM Adult Beginners Handstand Program!

This program has been designed by an expert (someone who didn’t learn to handstand until he was 35 years old) to help adults learn the art of handstands.

It is perfect for those struggling to build the strength, flexibility, balance, and confidence to stand on their hands successfully.

Whether you're too afraid to be upside down on your hands or simply don't know where to start, this program is the solution you have been looking for.

Don't let your age hold you back from achieving your handstand goals. You're never too old to learn this new skill.

So, if you're an adult who wants to learn to do a handstand, check out the TSTM Adult Beginners Handstand Program.