Challenge: Handstand workshop
Date: 13.12.15
Duration: 1.5 h
Location: Central London
I like Yoga due to its great stretching elements (perfect for runners) and strengthening of the deeper muscle tissues. I’ve been to a Yoga retreat this year and loved it. Impressed from the advanced postures and challenged by hand balances I was very interested when I heard about this handstand workshop in central London.
Zeynep is a Yoga instructor with a passion for Rocket Yoga. Her original background is journalism and she is still a freelance TV presenter.
We started the workshop with an intense warm up for all relevant muscle groups and joints. I was glad afterwards that we spent at least 20 min using specific exercises to warm up as the impact of a handstand was quite intense. Imagine pressing your own bodyweight up with only your hands.
Warm up: circle your hands
Christmas Socks theme!
Very well structured!
- First we leant how to position the hand (middle finger facing straight forward),
- Secondly Zeynep ask us to do another exercise pre hand stand. This was very important as we learnt where the hip supposed to be while being upside down. It was a partner exercise: hands on the floor and leaning full onto the hand while pivoting the hip over my head. Basically the first step before doing a handstand by pushing your full body weight into the floor and lifting your feed of the ground on the same time (only a few centimeters).
- Third step was a serious preperation for the handstand by using one leg to swing straight up while the other only comes up half way (left pic). My partner was holding her arm up parallel to the floor to stop my leg from swinging too far.
- Finally the handstand swinging the 2nd leg up joining the other in a perfect straight line above my head (right pic).
Wow I was impressed how easy it looked when Zeynep stepped into it and how much hard work was actually behind it. After 1.5 h workout I felt my arms and shoulders but the next day reminded me of a total body workout! Because one of the most important part was tucking my pelvis in (no arch in my back) and activating the core muscles as much as the rest of my body.
Brilliant workshop where I leant a lot about body awareness, balance and strengthening. This class was suitable for all levels as Zeynep was teaching it step by step and was assisting when needed. Thanks for the active afternoon.
Now it’s time to practice…