Fast Fitness - Handstand Rows
Friday, August 01, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Readers have been writing in, excited about doing handstands for the first time or improving the handstand they do to get whole body functional fun exercise. My student Danielle demonstrates:
- Hold a handstand, either using Easy handstand or Step Up To Handstand. Don't overarch the lower back (overarch is pictured). Instead of overarch/hyperlordosis, hold neutral spine in handstand.
- Shift your weight to stand on one hand. Grasp a hand weight in the other hand
- Do rows, and any variety of arm free-weight movements that you want to improve.
There is no need to bend over forward to do rows. It does not train functional posture, and unequally squeezes lower discs outward, which adds to degeneration and herniation forces that are common during bad daily sitting and unhealthy bending. You don't need more unhealthy things while exercising.
- To understand herniation forces on discs from bad forward bending, click: The Cause of Disc and Back Pain and Disc Pain - Not a Mystery, Easy to Fix
- To understand the damaging force on the lower spine of bad backward bending (overarching, hyperlordosis): Prevent Back Surgery
- To reduce overarching/hyperlordosis during handstand: Fast Fitness - Fixing Your Handstand to Neutral Spine.
Photos by Dr. Jolie Bookspan
Labels: arm, balance, disc, fast fitness, handstand, lordosis, shoulder, strength, wrist
2 Comments:
At Monday, August 04, 2008 11:00:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
>> Readers have been writing in, excited about doing handstands for the first time or improving the handstand they do to get whole body functional fun exercise.
Yup, that's me! I've been working out for years, but learning about neutral spine and incorporating assisted/supported handstands into my workouts is taking things to a whole new level. I'm really excited about the things I've been learning on this blog.
I do a lot of 8 x 3 work, alternating with 3 x 8 work. This last workout I did 8 sets of 20-second handstands, and let me tell you, my triceps feel 'em! And unlike doing military presses, my shoulders aren't sore from being impinged!!!
I plan to increase my handstand time by 5 seconds every workout. BTW, handstands pair nicely with pull-ups. I left the gym mentally alert, but boy, was my CNS fried. What a *great* workout!!!
Jolie, thank you for sharing some unique insights. You're touching lives and truly helping people to improve their functional quality of life.
At Tuesday, September 23, 2008 4:45:00 PM,
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM said…
Terry Lee, thank you for great spirit and kind comments on this and other Fitness Fixer posts. My student, pictured in this post, is demonstrating too much inward sway in the lower back. We posted it for readers to see what to avoid. With your good body sense and energy, you could easily take some photos of you changing overarched to neutral while doing these rows. Send them in and I can feature you in a reader inspiring story.
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