Specifically, I’m working on handstands and can see I have a ways to go in core strength and arm and shoulder strength.
I realize that in trying to do the poses I’m also working on the strength I need to acquire, but sometime it seems like an all or nothing proposition. I try to do a few handstands, can’t do them, and then am too tired to do more.
Could it be any better to also work with weights and build strength that way as well?
I have to admit that handstands is a mostly static exercise and it demands stamina and coordination more than strength.
But if you feel weight training can help you - just do it.
Taking into account your goals, may be efficient to use pauses in different points of moves.
Personally I would not advise to do weights for you to do handstand ,you no doubt need to work the rest of your body for example the legs .handstand is a bit of an ego pose ,good for showing off ! especially with variations ,it can actually build up too much muscle in the shoulder thus bring imbalance if not done with awareness , it is not one of the more important poses in the tools of asana . Im sure you could go to gymnastics ,and they would give you good advice on how to do handstand and im sure that it would be different from a yogic sensibility. As Sasha pointed out stamina coordination are more important than strength , when I get these in my practise handstand is fairly effortless ,mainly it is not effortless.
Thomas you havent told us what your job is .ho ho !!
[QUOTE=thomas;39817]Specifically, I’m working on handstands and can see I have a ways to go in core strength and arm and shoulder strength.
I realize that in trying to do the poses I’m also working on the strength I need to acquire, but sometime it seems like an all or nothing proposition. I try to do a few handstands, can’t do them, and then am too tired to do more.
Could it be any better to also work with weights and build strength that way as well?[/QUOTE]
Power (ashtanga) yoga would be better for this purpose…
Hi Thomas. Good advise from above.
Some other thoughts. I use to lift weights many years ago, and still do occasionally, but I must tell you yoga has given this older body incredible strength and definition. Just yoga! The repetition of doing a balanced practice will gradually build and lengthen those muscles and increase stamina. You get the strength by doing the poses. Weight lifting can create an imbalance by building but not lengthening.
Best way, as I said in another post, is to work on the core. The core supports the back. If the core is stable, your back will likely be also. This is very important in poses like handstand. If your back curves or slumps, you’ll be putting too much weight on the arms and shoulders, and as CharlieDharma said, that will create an imbalance. A curved back can also mean tight groins and armpits. Poses like Downward dog and baddha konasana can help. Try keeping the front ribs toward the torso and lengthening the tailbone down toward the heels. Roll you thighs in.
Power yoga is what I teach and would be a great practice to strengthen, lengthen, and increase stamina. I’m not a huge fan of ashtanga. Power gives you more flexibility to sequence.
But, the option is yours. Weight lifting can surely be done along with yoga.
Hey Thomas,
As stated above, handstand is mostly about balance, control and stamina. No amount of linear, repetitious or isolated “muscle” exercises will build the continuity you need to raise your feet off the floor without kicking up, for example. That’s all about synergy: leverage, alignment and rotation, ultimately, awareness and control, and of course, breathing.
But there is one free-weight exercise I think is helpful, and that is just to raise two dumbbells overhead with straight arms, parallel to the frontal plane, and hold them statically for as long as you can while practicing your breathing. Feel how the weight loads in a spiral fashion, from the palms of your hands all the way down to your heels. Feel how it’s rotation in the shoulders that drives the weights upward against the compression of the ribs and abdomen with exhalation.
That spiral, or double-spiral, is the foundation of handstand that extends through the torso, hips and legs, all the way down (or up) to your toes. It’s only a shifting of weight and balance, and using the weight of your legs to raise the hips, so it’s more of a roll than lifting or pressing.
Try this: start with your feet as wide apart as you can, your toes turned slightly inside the heels. Place the heels of your hands about shoulder-width or slightly wider and inline with the tips of your toes, or an inch or two in front. Rotate your elbows and shoulders inward and drive downward against the floor, just as you did with the dumbbells, and raise only up to your tip toes…WITH EXHALATION! Contract your abs as you squeeze all that air out. That is your point of departure. Your next movement is an outward rotation, from the heels into the hips, WITH INHALATION, which carries the hips up. Visualize the point where your feet will come together overhead. Think only that you’re raising the room overhead. Don’t look down at the floor. Let the head hang down relaxed and look to where the wall meets the floor as your horizon. Once you’re up, you will find the relaxed head acts like a tail or rudder with which you can use to steer the body up and make slight adjustments in balance to stay there.
A common mistake with handstand is trying raise yourself up with exhalation. If you exhale on the way up, you’re contracting muscles that have to elongate and it will never happen, or if so, it’s only momentarily until you inhale again and fall.
There’s a little more to staying up, but that will come later. I hope that helps. It’s worth going for. Good luck!
siva
Well first you have to define what you believe yoga to be before you step outside of it… I am a yoga teacher and alot of what we do are physical exercises from physio’s, pilates, anything really… Hatha yoga is about bringing your body into a comfortable place… and doing th necessary physical practices to get there… if you have to hold some weight in your hand to build your strength then do it… but check your intent before you do… ask yourself why you want to do a handstand anyway? what will it achieve?
[QUOTE=AumshantiAum;40092]Well first you have to define what you believe yoga to be before you step outside of it… I am a yoga teacher and alot of what we do are physical exercises from physio’s, pilates, anything really… Hatha yoga is about bringing your body into a comfortable place… and doing th necessary physical practices to get there… if you have to hold some weight in your hand to build your strength then do it… but check your intent before you do… ask yourself why you want to do a handstand anyway? what will it achieve?[/QUOTE]
What would be wrong with wanting to do a handstand “just because”?
What would be wrong with achieving something at age 55 that I never would have believed I could have done when 30? What would be wrong with that giving a little boost to my confidence in my old age?
What would be wrong with the exhiliration of being able to balance myself on my hands?
Some people do rock climbing. Some people join bowling leagues. Some people ski. Etc. etc. And most of them want to excel, yet what does knocking pins down at a bowling alley really amount to? What does it achieve?
Lastly, I see a handstand as a combination and perfection of many of the asanas.
I may never get there, but I am enjoying trying.
And if all I can say is that it is a fun thing to try, and will be even more fun to actually do, then I would say I most defiantely have “achieved” something worthwhile. And it helps keep me interested in my overall yoga practice too.
Thanks for your comments, though, and thank you siva for all the details. I will study your post again.
One thing I would like to ask you siva, is that you say the head should be straight down, yet why do so many do their handstands looking down at the floor? (both in yoga and gymnastics).