Simple Steps to Headstand Success

2015 was the year of the headstand. Half a dozen clients this year came to me wishing they could do a headstand. Some thought it would be a fun performance goal and demonstration of upper body and core strength. Some felt self conscious doing inversions during yoga class against a wall. And one had a long term goal of doing a full, unassisted handstand (just because).

Full disclosure, I’m no gymnast. I love yoga and try to take it to class once a week to balance out my lifting and cardio program. But I typically sit out the inversions and always end up flopping on my ass when I try crow pose (progress not perfection). But I figured if I can coach olympic lifts I can coach anything!

So I turned to Kathleen Beachler (Personal Training Manager at Equinox Pine Street and former gymnast) to help. Checkout the video below as she coaches me through a basic tripod headstand, a great foundational move for getting comfortable with inversions, building core strength and improving stability.

I was surprised at how quickly I could get into an inversion without using a wall and how relatively easy it was to get my knees off my elbows. As you can see, I have some work to do to get my legs fully extended (again, progress not perfection). I used the few simple steps Kathleen coaches in this video with my clients and across the board they were doing tripod headstands in a matter of minutes.

Give it a try!

Small suggestion: start with your mat against a wall until you get comfortable and then move to the middle of the room. Trust me on this one.