Handstanders are already a community.
On the beach, in the mountains, underwater, next to some skyscrapers, at the door of a museum or in the middle of a road... The handstander fever doing a handstand around the world –And photographing himself for social networks (some, others not) – live one of his sweetest moments. And no, it's not just the recognition it generates. There are endless physical and mental benefits behind this ancient practice.
The handbalancing coaches have become a kind of gurus: the events and seminars dedicated to improving technique to do a handstand, to hold it longer, to do various tricks... and even retreats to improve and create handstander communities around the world are growing at an astonishing speed. It is a new way of being in places, A lifestyle.
Experts recommend keeping your body straight.
THE ART OF HANDBALANCE
Miguel Sant'ana is one of these hand-balancing teachers international. He is Brasilian, he came to the hand balance of the world of capoiera and, currently, he has been working in Hong Kong teaching for years. He lives from his passion for him hand balance art and inspires his students, who are legion, to practice and improve a technique halfway between yoga, calisthenics and acrobatics. This same posture is found in fact in all these disciplines in which he receives very different names: Adho Mukha Vrksasana in yoga or bananeira in capoeira, to name a few.
But is this way of seeing the world turned upside down new? The Greeks already worked acrobatics (from the Greek akros, 'high', and bat, 'walking', that is, 'walking on tiptoe'). In fact, there are vessels, Greek hydras, some dating from 340-330 BC, where reveals practicing this inverted balance technique. Also the ancient Yogis or the acrobats of Ancient Egypt practiced it, reason why it is certain that this ancient discipline could go back to the 6,000 years old.
There are 'handbalancing teachers' who teach you the technique.
HANDSTAND FOR ALL MOMENTS
What do you feel sad? Practice handstands. What are you afraid of an uncertain future? Start practicing handstand. That you have morale on the ground? Do a handstand and upload these moments to your profile... It will lift your spirits in a few seconds.
The technique itself consists of keep the body straight with arms and legs fully extended, hands about shoulder-width apart, and legs together.
From here on, all variations are possible and are fundamentally based on a proper balance and upper body strength”, explain some of the components of @handstandnation, a community of 46,200 handstanders who are uploading their photos doing a handstand around the world in the most unexpected and fun places and on the most unlikely supports: from a surfboard to a person's body.
A real tour of the universe of handstanders at the click of a button that will give you an idea of what this world is like that, in the end, will catch you.
There are also women and many, in this handstanders universe. One of them, champion of Calisthenics in Catalonia and based in Barcelona, although Italian, is Elleonora della Torre. She tells us that she learned to do a handstand when she was little because she danced and recovered in a short time, training that yes, again the ability to do it. "To learn it well you have to train a lot and throw it away every now and then,” she tells us.
Although Eleonora is now more involved in the Calisthenics street lifting modality –And she comes from that world: pull-ups, dips and squats that she now practices with ballast!, that is, with added weight–, she keeps training the handstand: "It helps you to have more strength in the core, in the shoulders and in the back."
Furthermore, she adds, “in my case I I prefer to use parallel bars to do a handstand And don't do it on the ground. I use wooden ones, with good grip, the Gorilant, since on the ground requires greater wrist mobility. For me it is more comfortable to do it this way since what I am pursuing is, above all, balance and strength. This is one of the exercises that is first learned in calisthenics.”
The athlete, who explains that there are many women training this discipline but few competing, she decided to leave everything in Italy and move to Barcelona, where "there is the possibility of training on the street and there are numerous calisthenics parks. In Spain in general, there are quite a few calisthenics parks”. Another way to get to the handstand from a more physical point of view.
Due to the benefits that the investment at the mental level –and not only physical–, for the world of yoga, the handstand, or Adho Mukha Vrksasana in Sanskrit, has many other advantages. For example, raises energy levels to the upper chakras, irrigates the brain, improves memory and concentration, balances and **helps to eliminate and overcome fears. **
So who knows? You may end up looking for a handstand coach in your city to encourage you to do your first pines on the beach or where it catches you and upload them –or not– to the networks. A new genre of travel photography is, definitely.