If I were having as much trouble in the pursuit of physical triumphs as I have been having trying to sit down and create some content for this site, I would really have to ask myself what I have been doing with my life. Thankfully I’m actually seeing constant progress as I have been diligent about just taking a little bit of time out of each day to invert. Today was the first day in a really long time that I have actually done a timed handstand with nose to wall, ensuring my shoulders are completely open, my joints are stacked and I am eliminating as much (if not all) of the round from my back. I’m not going to lie, it was a rough 60+ seconds.
Mostly I have just been inverting everywhere and focusing specifically on the free-standing handstand. In early June I joined a Facebook inversion group: 86 Days of Summer Handstands, and in doing so committed to doing a handstand a day for the duration of the challenge. While I may have skipped 1 or 2 days max since the challenge began nearly 60+ days ago, I have made up for it by increasing my number of daily attempts. Now it’s handstands at lunch, handstands at work, handstands walking in the door at home, handstands in the hallway, handstands in the bedroom just before bed, all the handstands! I listen to my body and stop when I’m tired and while my initial goal has just been to achieve a 30 second freestanding handstand, ultimately my goal is just to practice consistently and see what that yields.
So far I am seeing exciting progress! 2 days ago my husband demanded an impromptu handstand for his Twitch.tv stream: Waifu does the handstand and magically made 17 solid seconds, while shifting from a stag to a pencil which is also new. It isn’t something you can necessarily see but I have also noticed that I am finally able to breathe a bit in my handstand without falling. Crazy how a little rise and fall through the chest always used to take me down. If I can just keep practicing who knows what I might accomplish before the year is out.
My final first this week was achieving the supported handstand dead lift. There is a micro-bend in the legs, but they are straight enough for a first success and there is no jumping so I will definitely take it. I will continue to practice and really work the negatives and control my toes descent towards the floor. I was able to do about 2 press lifts sequentially and toes stopped inches from the floor so lots of conditioning to do there. All the same, I feel like it has been 2-3 years I’ve been running around, hitting the occasional practice handstand and spending the rest of the time thinking out it. I’ve managed to achieve more stability in just two months of minimal regular practice than in the previous 2 years. Crazy!
Pole Pegasus Adventures 