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Now why, oh why? Oh why? Do so many student’s go wrong here?

Why?

I would be lying to you if I said I don’t know.

But I do.

It’s complicated.

I take that back, It’s damn complicated.

So let me get you moving in the right direction.

Not working on stacking the hips properly stops you from going anywhere.

Although you understand this from learning how to balance in handstand, it’s often forgotten.

Remember:

The fundamental position of balance in handstand is stacking the hips over the shoulders over the wrists.

Don’t forget to keep this in mind when learning how to press.

Why not stacking the hips stops you from lifting

Here’s the thing, in order for the legs to go up, something has to go forward.

Make sense?

In this case it’s the hips. The hips actually have to shift BEYOND the shoulders in order to get the legs off the ground.

Don’t mistake the shoulders for the hips. Students learning to press go too far forward with the shoulders and not enough with the hips.

Don’t turn the press into a planche.

It’s important to take video of yourself so that you can verify what part of your body is actually moving forward.

That’s key.

I’ve seen students mistake the shoulders for the hips and then work on the wrong motion for years.

Simply knowing how to do handstand doesn’t mean you’ll automatically learn how to press into a handstand.

It’s takes a concerted effort.

The press handstand is a nebulous concept for most. But it doesn’t have to be.

It’s just that there’s a lot of moving parts to distinguish between.

Still following me?

Ok. So you understand shifting forward.

Now what is required to actually shift forward?

Students don’t shift forward correctly for two reasons:

1. They think they are but they aren’t
2. They physically can’t

What physically stops you from shifting forward correctly?

First your hamstrings.

Consider this for a moment:

The starting point of a press is Paschimottanasana (seated forward fold), but standing up.

This is a HUGE THING.

Go back and look at your paschimottanasana.

Can you get yourself completely flat?

Can you not only flatten yourself but completely hinge from the hips without your back rounding at all?

If you can’t do that, work on getting yourself COMPLETELY flat in paschimottanasana first.

Trying to learn a press without being able to flatten yourself completely alters the biomechanics of the movement.

How to test your hamstrings:

I’m going to assume you know how to do a handstand already if you’re working on a press.

• Start from a handstand
•  Keep your legs straight
•  Lower them as much as possible
• It’s ok if you fall with a thud

But did you feel even a little inkling of your hamstrings wanting to bend?

If you did, you need work.

Let’s talk about a pike.

Why a pike is useful

This is what I’m not going to assume: that you know how to hold a pike.

You can’t learn a press (correctly) without learning how to pike.

Let me say it just a little bit louder so you hear me:

YOU CAN’T LEARN TO PRESS CORRECTLY WITHOUT LEARNING A PIKE

Sorry for yelling.

Ok.

What does a pike teach you?

Again, hip placement.

In order to hold your legs at a 90 degree angle from your torso you MUST move your hips BEYOND your shoulders.

You’ll fall otherwise.

Visualize a pike less like a perfect right angle and more like the number “7”.

That will help you understand what your hips are supposed to be doing in a pike.

Learn how to enter a pike from 2 ways:

• Jump into it from downward dog
•  Lower into it from handstand

What… extra credit?

Try and enter pike from straight arm crow (!!!). I know, it’s hard. But this is the kind of strength you need to consistently press.

The more you consistently nail pike, the better you’ll be at automatically moving your hips to the correct position when you shift forward.

Back to my original thought.

If you don’t have the proper hamstring mobility you won’t learn how to press.

But to add to it, if you don’t have an ample amount of strength, you won’t learn how to press either.

What else can a pike do for you?

Strengthen your hip flexors.

Don’t neglect this area of your body either.

Wow, really?

Yes, your hip flexors are also important for pressing.

Your core provides the base.

Your hip flexors move your legs up (only when the base it stable).

Your back muscles hold you in place (kinda like a seatbelt).

My point is this:

It takes your entire body working together harmoniously in order to press effortlessly.

Most students don’t think of it this way. They see it only as a feat of strength.

But it’s more of a testament to flexibility than anything. It just requires a lot of strength. 🙂

Do you kinda have an idea now of what your hip flexors are doing?

If you can’t do a pike, maybe it’s your hip flexors preventing you from holding?

Have you considered that?

If it is, do Navasana (Boat Pose). By the way, it’s my favorite if you didn’t know that!

Can you hold Navasana with your legs straight for 30 seconds?

If not, your hip flexors need work.

Because Navasana is so important here’s a setup and feel guide:

• Start sitting on the ground
• Extend your legs out in front on you
• Stretch your hands forward
• Make sure you feel your inner thighs squeezing together and rotating in slightly
• This will make your pelvic floor muscle switch engage and turn on the transverse abdominis light
• Don’t round your back
• Point AND Flex your feet and spread your toes as much as possible

There’s no such thing as muscling a press handstand.

No proper core engagement, no press handstand.

Sorry.

Do you understand the importance of your hamstrings and the hip flexors now?

Good.

Without these you won’t get the hips in the right place.

Now what?

Let’s talk about strength for bit.

What’s required?

These are things you should be able to do if you want to press:

• Hold an L-sit for 15-20 seconds
• Hold a handstand
• Straight arm crow
• Eka Pada Bakasana

If you can’t. Don’t panic. But stop neglecting them.

Here’s a secret:

Poses and skills shouldn’t take 10 years to learn.

We all know the yogi who says:

“I’ve been doing yoga for 15 years and still can’t get it”

I don’t want you to be one of those.

If you aren’t finding consistent, albeit not daily, but upward trending progress in something, you’re skipping something vitally important that you should learn first.

Still with me here?

Think of ever pose, transition, or skill you learn as a pyramid.

What you’re attempting to learn is at the peak.

Everything below are poses/transitions/skills meant to help you.

For example a press handstand:

Press handstand is at the peak.

L-sit, handstand, straight arm crow, and one leg crow are all below it.

And every one of these poses has poses below it. And it keeps going.

Find your spot on the tree and work there.

Make sense?

It if you understand this you’ll stop wasting time and learning things faster.

What about time frame?

Everyone has time concerns. Why?

It’s how they judge “success”.

And to an extent, it’s true. You don’t want to waste time.

Even worse, you don’t want to practice thinking you’re doing the right thing when you’re not.

So how long does it take to press to handstand?

From Handstand, realistically, anywhere between 6-12 months. And this is a ROUGH ROUGH estimate.

It’s different for everyone.

And this is without a coach watching you ever step of the way.

I’ve personally helped people nail the press in 3 months.

But that’s because I catch them the second I see something wrong.

If you’re doing *exclusively* the right thing day in and day out, you can learn any pose, skill, or transition super fast.

Problem is, MOST students spend MOST of their time time working on the wrong thing. And not even knowing it.

Ready to change?

Listen close.

Start working on only the things that matter. Don’t get sidetracked by the general “authoritative publications” when learning.

Broad is no good. Being detailed is.

Being pose-centric is useless.

Here’s the problem with your average run-of-the-mill yoga advice:

It focuses on the shape of the pose and not what’s going on behind the scenes.

Stop looking at what’s on the surface. Go under the surface.

Think about the delivery man who faithfully delivers the produce every morning to the 5-star restaurant you love.

Think about the poor guys who sweep the stale popcorn and red licorice off the floors of the movie theater between shows.

Think about the farmers that grow the cotton for the t-shirt you wear 3 days in a row.

You get the idea?

These are thankless but necessary jobs.

Do you understand where I’m going with this?

You’ll never get praised on how tactfully you engage your core in a handstand. Rather you’ll get complimented on the handstand itself.

It’s bad for your progression.

You’ll get a big head over the wrong thing.

This is how you’ll successfully navigate the labyrinth which is press handstand.

2 Pieces of Advice I Wish Someone Told Me While I Was Learning

1. Stop using your shoulders and traps and learn the proper mechanics in the hips by elevating your feet on blocks.

Maybe you’ve tried pressing to handstand and all you do is fall forward.

And you think repeating this enough will eventually lead you up.

Wrong.

Going up instead of forward is a function of the hips.

Wrong mechanics don’t eventually make right mechanics. They just waste time.

So here’s how you can start to get the motion correct:

Hamstring flexibility is a must to do this. Remember, what I said earlier?

•  Start with your feet on blocks
•  Get acclimated to what it’s like to have “longer” legs
•  If you can’t reach the floor with your hands stop and work on hamstring flexibility
•  Shift forward
•  It’s a lot harder to over shift the shoulders in this position because your hips are higher up
•  It’ll feel scary at first
•  Keep practicing
•  This encourages the proper “up and forward” action of the hips versus the over shifting of the shoulders

2. Trick Your Body Into the Proper Position

This is the ultimate distraction technique.

And it also helps you learn how to float.

•  Start in downward dog
•  Place a block right below the bottom of your ribcage
•  Now take froggy hops
•  Work on trying to “catch” the block with your feet
•  First try to land with your feet squeezing the block and not touching the floor
•  Then try to “catch” and lift it up to crow (and eventually handstand)

Put this to good use.

Be committed.

Want even more press handstand training?

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