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The trick is to use your shoulders and wrists (and elbows to a less extent) for balance, like your hips, ankles, and knees respectively. Fingers help, but they're not the main contributors to balance.

Source: gymnast for over a decade in my younger years

Edit: to add, most people don't have the shoulder strength to hold a handstand, so doing workouts to strengthen your shoulders and upper back is going to contribute a lot more than just doing handstands alone.




A gymnast does a handstand very differently from “normal” people. Due to multiple reasons. Learning how to do a handstand like a gymnast is like learning how to jump like a cat.

Source: breakdancer in my younger years, used to practice together with gymnasts.


Once I got control in an inverted position, I came to understand what all the gymnasts were talking about. But approaching a hand balance going gymnast drills is generally a waste of time for a normal person. Gymnast handstands look much better though and they have much more control from what I've seen.


Perhaps, but that's how one would hold a handstand for the duration closer to what a gymnast would. Attempting to keep balance with one's fingers is only going to get you so far with a very limited range.


I don't think my shoulder strength is that bad. But I have been trying to work on it doing military press, pike pushups and the like. But, I just keep falling over and I don't know what part to move to counter-act it. It's pretty frustrating actually.


It's tension created from the shoulder muscles, upper back, and pecs. Think about when you're doing a sit up: your hip muscles, lower back, and core help you sit up and slow going back down. It's these same muscles that keep you balanced when you're sitting and standing because managing balance where your center of mass acts upon gravity requires less work than at the extremities.

The same principle applies to a handstand, but it is instead your shoulders, pecs, and upper back. I was being a bit broad when I said shoulders, sorry.


My experience is that overhead shoulder mobility is extremely important to correctly stacking the shoulders and body over the balance point. If you don't have that (I don't), then the handstand feels really heavy and hard to hold.

This video looks like it might help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOLOojV9kB8




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