Doing 50 repetitions of a vertical push-up, also known as a handstand push-up or HSPU, is no easy feat. I’ve been practicing this move in CrossFit for a while, but I decided to try practicing it at home for a week to level up my technique.
I live in a small apartment in London, so I have to be pretty selective about how much of the best gym equipment I lug home with me. With that in mind, all you need for this bodyweight workout is your own body weight, and depending on your experience, maybe an ab mat too.
I’ll tell you what happened when I did 50 upside down push-ups with my head on the mat a day, plus the benefits of this gymnastics exercise and why you should add it to your routine.
How to do handstand push-ups
How you approach this exercise is entirely up to you depending on your experience and upper body strength. Here is how I approached this exercise, along with some scaling options.
- Start by doing a handstand against a wall. I prefer to do handstands with my body away from the wall.
- Engage your core, contract your torso, avoid arching your lower back, and straighten your legs so that your body is in line with the wall.
- Stretch your arms out and maintain a strong, pillar-like posture from head to toe.
- Bend your elbows and lower your head to the ground
- Explosively push off the ground, straightening your arms and lifting your body into a handstand.
There are many ways to progress with this exercise, from handstand positions to push-ups.
After learning the technique and setting up my abdominal mat so I could perform them with proper form every time, I tried my handstand pushups. Here’s what I learned:
Surprisingly tough
Unless you have a great deal of upper body and core strength and pushing power, handstand pushups are not an exercise you can just “do.” In other words, it takes some time to get good at them. I don’t recommend attempting handstand pushups until you can perform a series of consecutive pushups.
The vertical press targets your deltoids (shoulders) more than a standard push-up, and also works your triceps, pectoral muscles, lats, traps and core muscles which move and stabilize your body.
That said, HSPU requires full-body tension to support and stabilize your weight while inverted, making it an intense bodyweight training exercise. I can only do around 6-8 repetitions at a time, and I divided the repetitions into sets accordingly. It was a pretty intense exercise.
I scaled up the exercises, you can too
I stacked two abdominal mats on top of each other to reduce the distance between my head and the floor and make the exercise easier. You can also use yoga blocks, books, or anything that helps fill the gap. Gradually move them away to build upper body strength.
If you still can’t lower your head all the way, try another variation called a Kipping HSPU: Start in a handstand position and follow the steps above, bending your knees and drawing them in to your chest. From here, kick your feet up into the air against the wall and use the momentum to launch yourself into a handstand.
Handstands may be too much for some people, so if you can’t start in a handstand position, the next best step is to learn how to do pike pushups using the ground or a box, which puts the emphasis on your shoulders instead of your chest like regular pushups.
Start with your feet on the floor, then raise your feet onto a box or bench to bring your body into a more upright position.
The next step is to do an easy handstand. I used the wall walk, a popular CrossFit exercise, as a warm-up, which is also a common technique used to prepare for a handstand.
Start in a plank position (easy version) or lie face down (difficult version) with your feet pressed against the wall behind you. Lift your body and step your feet onto the wall, then begin walking your hands towards the wall while simultaneously walking your feet along the wall until you’re in a vertical position.
Practice walking downward and reversing the movement until you’re back to the starting position. This move will help you develop shoulder and core stability and get used to being upside down.
As the week went on I felt better and better.
Admittedly, I already had experience with this exercise, but it was fun to hone my technique over the course of a week without feeling any pressure. HSPU requires a lot of control and stabilization, and you have to focus on contracting as many muscles as possible and pre-tensioning your body.
Over time, this movement can improve balance, coordination, and awareness of your limbs in space. Throughout the week, I was able to remove one of the ab mats for most of the repetitions, whereas before I was torn between using just one or stacking two.
I also felt like my balance was a little better and I had more control over the exercises, and with dedicated practice that has only improved.
But progress didn’t happen overnight
Remember, it takes time. Make it a priority to ensure you do about 6-10 repetitions of your chosen variation in a row across several sets before moving on to the next exercise. Spend time building up each exercise before moving on to the next.
As you begin to develop HSPU, try training with your back against a wall, with your back against a wall, or even without a wall and without support. It can take months, even years, to go from push-ups to full handstand push-ups without support, or push-ups against a wall.
What did I learn from the week? It’s important to practice patience and let go of your ego. I have a ton of work to do if I want to progress from the ab mat to the floor, but it was fun getting used to the movements and building upper body strength.
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