Get Upside Down

Adho Mukha Vrksasana

Thanks to Instagram I am totally obsessed with being able to do a handstand in the middle of the room. These people are amazing. It's like gravity just doesn't affect them. I have done a handstand pretty much every day since @carsonclaycalhoun hosted #handstandmadness back in March. And guess what? I still can't handstand in the middle of the room. But I keep trying.

I just went to an Inversion workshop with the amazing Kathryn Budig a few weekends ago in Austin. She had a lot of really helpful tips. I keep hearing her voice in my head as I practice. It was scary and fun and I'm very glad I went. If you are interested in doing handstands, I strongly suggest you go to a workshop. You wont get very deep inversion help, or ample time to practice going upside down, in a typical 60-minute flow class. You have to take the extra time if you want to do something extra ordinary.

So maybe I still can't handstand without a wall to help me from toppling over into a backbend. But I have learned a thing or two in my journey. Here is what little I do know about getting upside down:

It's fun. 

It's like an addiction. The more I do it, the more I want to do it. I will seriously be sitting watching TV and have this strong urge to kick up into a handstand. I have been talking to friends and felt like I wanted to just be upside down. It's weird. My brain says "A handstand would be fun right now...do one."

To play with handstands, you have to let go of fear. What are you afraid of? Falling? Well, you most definitely will fall. But most likely, it won't hurt at all. Just be smart. Don't do it over jagged rocks or near a glass coffee table with lit candles. Yes, girl twerking upside on YouTube, I'm talking to you. 

Start facing a wall, in downdog, with heels to the baseboards. Experiment with picking up one leg and pressing it into the wall. Then lift the other leg and press both feet firmly into the wall. There. That's a handstand. 

It's made me stronger. 

Handstands will strengthen your shoulders, arms and wrists. They will tone your core by working the whole torso. While balancing on your hands upside down, you are constantly stabilizing your muscles and working the hell out of your abs and back. 

I have started working handstand practice into my gym routine. I was totally nervous at first. I can't handstand without balancing against a wall, so I felt silly doing it at the gym with all of these people watching me, and seeing that I can't really handstand. But one day I found a relatively quiet corner and practiced. After doing some shoulder press or lateral flies or core work, it feels really great to get into a handstand. The muscles you need to turn on for handstands are already turned on after some weight training. It's a great way to really feel which muscles are being used. Sometimes I practice balancing, and kick right back up into handstand the moment I fall out of it. And other times I lean my whole body against the wall, taking balance out completely, and just hold it as long as I can, seriously fatiguing my muscles. 

It'll wake you up and make you happy.

Getting upside down will send lots of freshly oxygenated blood to your brain and will give your brain a boost. And the intensity of the strength needed to hold a handstand gets your heart pumping and increases energy.

Handstands can also make you feel happier by reducing the stress hormone, cortisol. When the blood rushes through your neck and into your brain, your endocrine system gets stimulated.  The endocrine system is made out of glands and each one of these glands secretes different hormones into your bloodstream. When the adrenal glands are working, the production of the cortisol is reduced. 

It's cool as hell.

They look so damn cool. Look, don't I look cool?