What if I told you that there is a simple exercise that you could do that would pack on solid muscle mass to your shoulders. Dramatically increase your pressing power and functional strength. And this simple exercise would only take 15 minutes per week. It doesn’t cost a cent, doesn’t require any exercise equipment, and can be done practically anywhere... would you be interested? Well there is such an exercise and it is the handstand push up. This is one of the best exercises that you can do for building functional strength and muscle mass throughout the entire upper body. You can consider the handstand push up to be the equivilant to the barbell military press or shoulder press. |
However, one major advantage that bodyweight exercises (such as handstand push ups) have over traditional weight training exercises is that they move your entire body in a real 3 dimensional environment. Exercises where you move your entire body through space are much more demanding and provide a greater level of nero-muscular activation then exercises where you just move your limbs. That is why squats are harder then leg presses, pull ups harder then pull downs, and handstand push ups are harder then shoulder presses, etc.
Handstand push ups work all 3 heads of the deltoids, the upper chest, the upper back, and the triceps heavily. Secondary stress is also placed on the core muscles of the mid-section and the forearms from balancing and supporting your body.
With a regular push up you are only lifting about 60% of your bodyweight, but with a handstand push up you are lifting 100% of your bodyweight. Due to the difficulty of the exercise, beginners should start off just practicing getting their body in the handstand position with their feet supported against a wall. And gradually work up to holding this position for 30 seconds or more.
Blood pressure to the head can be a problem at first, but the body will get used to it overtime. A great thing that you can use to help get yourself used to being upside down is an inversion table. There are a lot of health benefits to using an inversion table and they are getting more common. You can usually get them at any major department store in the exercise equipment section.
You can use an inversion table to help your body become adjusted to being upside down.
Once you are comfortable holding the handstand push up position for at least 30 seconds. Start doing partial range of motion reps, just slightly bending your elbows and locking them out. Work up to doing a couple sets of 25+ short partial pumping reps.
Once the partial reps are easy to perform, you can gradually start going deeper into your handstand push ups, eventually touching your head to the floor at the bottom of each rep. Work up to doing sets of 10+ full range of motion reps, touching your head to the floor each time.
Below you can check out a quick 2 minute video clip demonstarting how to get into position and perform handstand push ups. Make sure to turn up your speakers so you can hear me explain the exercises.
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