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Get Ready for Handstands: Wrist Prep

It's tempting to just kick up against the wall, but preparing your wrists will yield a much stronger and more stable position.

Justin Lind

Written by Last updated on Nov 22, 2021

Beautiful handstands sit on a foundation of strong and stable hands and wrists. When working to progress in our handstands, we can easily fall into the temptation to simply start going upside down. Of course, this work is invaluable, but we need to first prepare the foundation to support our inversions.

Beautiful handstands sit on a foundation of strong and stable hands and wrists. When working to progress in our handstands, we can easily fall into the temptation to simply start going upside down. Of course, this work is invaluable, but we need to first prepare the foundation to support our inversions.

Follow along with this short video for a circuit to prepare your wrists for handstand work. Use these movements in longer sessions to build the strength and mobility for a proper handstand position. You can also quickly run through the series as a warm up before any wrist-intensive training session.

This circuit is designed to give you the tools for a solid handstand foundation. You will build the strength and stability to support a free-standing handstand, the wrist mobility to allow for a beautifully aligned position, and habits and awareness to hone your balance.

Remember a few key points as you follow along:

  • What You Get is What You Give: Do not rush through this or simply go through the motions. Press into your end ranges of motion. Pay attention to how each movement feels, and explore with slightly different hand positions, finger spacing, etc.
  • Active Hands and Fingers: Handstand control and balance hinge on very active hands and fingers. Keep your contact with the ground as firm as possible. “Grip” the ground, as though it is a huge basketball that you are trying to palm.

This is the first in an in-depth series on all of the pertinent parts and pieces of perfect handstands. Stay tuned each week as we progress toward a beautiful, free-standing handstand. Each subsequent week will refer back to this video as a warm-up before continuing on.

Justin Lind

About Justin Lind

Justin Lind has been an athlete and student his whole life. While hobbies and sports have come and gone, one thing has remained: a commitment to constant improvement of movement quality. Besides an obsession for health and athletics, Justin remains the consummate student and teacher.

Justin has a passion for learning how to glean the most valuable information from many different communities and philosophies. A former mechanical engineer turned coach and writer; he applies his analytical and structural ways of thinking to the world of health, fitness, and athletics.

While training heavily as a competitive Olympic lifter and CrossFit regionals athlete, Justin suffered a back injury that completely shifted his fitness and movement paradigm. He committed to understanding the flip side of intense training: recovery, mobility, and self-care. Justin soon left engineering to focus on creating empowered athletes who are highly in-tune with their bodies.

In addition to a B.S. in mechanical engineering from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, Justin holds certifications in CrossFit Level 1, RKC Level II, and USA Gymnastics.

Justin is currently travelingthe U.S. full-time. He offers remote coaching and workshops for both kettlebells and gymnastics skills at CoachJustinLind.com.

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