maratoolHandstand Push-Ups
How to do the handstand push-ups
- With your back to the wall bend at the waist and place both hands on the floor at shoulder width.
- Kick yourself up against the wall with your arms straight. Your body should be upside down with the arms and legs fully extended. Keep your whole body as straight as possible. Tip: If doing this for the first time, have a spotter help you. Also, make sure that you keep facing the wall with your head, rather than looking down.
- Slowly lower yourself to the ground as you inhale until your head almost touches the floor. Tip: It is of utmost importance that you come down slow in order to avoid head injury.
- Push yourself back up slowly as you exhale until your elbows are nearly locked.
- Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the deltoids, which raise and rotate the upper arm at the shoulder joint.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the triceps straighten the elbow to finish the movement.
How this movement works
The working muscles shorten as they drive the load away from you, and more than one joint changes angle to do it. Load spreads down a chain instead of sitting on one muscle, which is why a compound push handles more weight than any single-joint alternative — and why joint position, not the muscle, is usually what fails first.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
No equipment at all. The resistance is your own bodyweight, so you progress by changing leverage, range or tempo rather than by adding plates — and you can do it anywhere.
Every exercise using:Body only
These train the shoulders too, using equipment this one does not:
- Incline Shoulder Press Dumbbelldumbbell
- Internal Cable Rotationcable
- Internal Rotation with Bandband
- Jerk Balancebarbell
- Kettlebell Arnold Presskettlebell
Difficulty
Listed at expert level. It asks for range, stability or speed that takes time to build, and it punishes a rushed set-up much harder than an easier movement would.
Of the 141 shoulders exercises in this database, 7 are listed at expert level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.