Oh, we know it. It’s ALL practice. But sometimes…sometimes we need a reminder. Here’s a sweet little video about a guy with a dream to stand on his hands for 3 seconds, three seconds. He tried and he tried, practiced and practiced…until…
It’s the little things. Even if we never get to stand on our hands for any seconds at all.
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Earlier…
Awesome!! So uplifting!! (oops! no pun!) Thank you for sharing!
aw. that’s so great:)
I think this is my Million and one try today.. and I was just about thinking that I wasn’t sure if I could do it… but seeing you in your suit at your office (I too practice in my office sometimes) made it all worth it! 😉 Awesome!
Absolutely awesome! Keep up with the great work! Perfect practice makes perfect!
This is soooo wonderful….thank you. Handstand is one of my nemesis … I am determine to do it though and you just gave me a boost to keep trying. THANKS!!!!
I’m not a teacher, but I’ve been doing handstands since 1986, and I think I have some insight now.
I’ve always done these next to a wall, because I have medical issues, I’m very lopsided, and could hurt myself if I fall. I always felt like I failed because I couldn’t get up and do 50 breaths without touching the wall. I basically learned it like in the video, sink or swim.
What I’ve discovered is that, to me at least, it’s better to spend time in handstand using the wall, of course being much closer than in the video, so your feet can touch it to avoid falling. Spend some time there, don’t rush, build up your strength and feel what it’s like to align yourself, and when you’re ready, move your feet one at a time from the wall. Staying touching the wall allows you to learn how to carry the weight through your bones, and line up correctly, teaching your body how to stand like this.
I suppose teachers reading this will be horrified but I do believe it’s more sensible and teaches you how to do it right, rather than relying on strength so much.
Scott, I’m a teacher, and your instructions are as sensible as any I’ve ever heard. I always use a wall for handstand (when I make it up there).
Great little vid.
I’ve made something of a hobby of handstands. I’d strongly encourage any yogis interested in learning / improving theirs to look outside yoga. In scores of yoga handstand workshops with dozens of teachers, some of them very well known, and thousands of classes I’ve only found three or four yoga teachers with any real understanding of the pose. Once I stepped outside yoga and started training with acrobatics coaches I found a great deal more knowledge, understood the reasons behind some yoga “alignment” none of the yoga teachers could explain convincingly, and set about the long, long, process of undoing all the bad (and bad for my body) habits I’d developed teaching myself and learning from ignorant teachers.
Love love love this! I am currently working on handstand and he is so right: practice and it will come! It worked with headstand and many other inversions/arm balances that I’ve learned. You must have patience and belief in yourself and *someday* with enough *practice* it will come!
Awesome!!!
I love yoga practice. There are pose like this that I have been doing for years and years. It seems like I never progress, and then I really become truthful with myself and watch during the day if I am trying to open there, and then I find the dark spot. It’s more richer than pain, more icky than a nightmare, some sort of knot that is tied up and its all I can do just to be there. Again and again I am returning to this now. The point for me is all about forward bend, and where it hits me in the upper hamstrings. I have been working on the splits too.
I started out not even able to touch my hands on the props in splits. So high up. So I started doing a SHR routine, splits, then head to knee, then runners and reach back to the ankle. I’m gonna be doing the splits flat out in 2014, I just know it.
Thank you for sharing your journey! This is something that I too have recently been obsessed with, errr I mean, practicing. I am doing handstands (or attempting to) everywhere I go and it is so true. Energy flows where attention goes!