| | Strong Foundations Theme Tonight 5:45 - 7:15 at Yoga Lab “Playground” I can’t believe it’s the end of February already! For my last Flip it Feb Strong Foundations class, we’ll play with some of my favorite drills (from the rockin’ Lara Heimann of course) for trying handstands away from the wall. |
Notice I said “play with”, not “work on”. I actually believe this spirit of playfulness is key. Especially if you tend to feel fear when trying handstand away from the wall (which was and sometimes still is my main barrier), give this a try to help get out of your head and flip your fear into falling out with flair and fun!
Learning how to fall-out safely by cartwheeling rather than flipping over into a backbend is an important skill for playing with handstand away from the wall.
Try this:
1) If you’re already comfortable with handstands at the wall, come into handstand at the wall and try picking up one hand to cartwheel out. When you pick up the hand, the pelvis follows. Set this mapping. For a while I was stuck here. Both hands felt glued to the ground - try looking at your hand and talking to it, tell it to pick up.
2) Or, try starting with this. Do a cartwheel! Did you ever do cartwheels on the playground as a kid? Remember how fun that was? Not so scary? Tap into that memory and playfulness and try a few cartwheels without overthinking it. Feel how fun it is to go upside down and be on your hands. Notice how you put one hand down at a time and then pick up one hand at a time, and the pelvis follows.
3) Then try that same cartwheel feeling a little more narrowly, placing both hands down at the same time in front of you rather than one at a time. Still pick up a hand to cartwheel out. (You can see in the video I try this a few times testing my balance in handstand, then overshoot and cartwheel out. But right after that, I had my strongest hold of the day.)
4) Then try starting with your hands already on the floor, like 3-legged down dog. But still pick up the hand to cartwheel out. Hopefully all of that previous cartwheel play will set the mapping to pick up a hand to fall out rather than flip over.
Come and play in Strong Foundations Tonight!
See you there
Music: Lullatone “The Biggest Pile of Leaves You Have Ever Seen”
Learning how to fall-out safely by cartwheeling rather than flipping over into a backbend is an important skill for playing with handstand away from the wall.
Try this:
1) If you’re already comfortable with handstands at the wall, come into handstand at the wall and try picking up one hand to cartwheel out. When you pick up the hand, the pelvis follows. Set this mapping. For a while I was stuck here. Both hands felt glued to the ground - try looking at your hand and talking to it, tell it to pick up.
2) Or, try starting with this. Do a cartwheel! Did you ever do cartwheels on the playground as a kid? Remember how fun that was? Not so scary? Tap into that memory and playfulness and try a few cartwheels without overthinking it. Feel how fun it is to go upside down and be on your hands. Notice how you put one hand down at a time and then pick up one hand at a time, and the pelvis follows.
3) Then try that same cartwheel feeling a little more narrowly, placing both hands down at the same time in front of you rather than one at a time. Still pick up a hand to cartwheel out. (You can see in the video I try this a few times testing my balance in handstand, then overshoot and cartwheel out. But right after that, I had my strongest hold of the day.)
4) Then try starting with your hands already on the floor, like 3-legged down dog. But still pick up the hand to cartwheel out. Hopefully all of that previous cartwheel play will set the mapping to pick up a hand to fall out rather than flip over.
Come and play in Strong Foundations Tonight!
See you there
Music: Lullatone “The Biggest Pile of Leaves You Have Ever Seen”
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