Handstands, Scary but Beneficial
Handstands! They are scary, hard and don’t (usually) involve a pole so why should I train them?
There are many great benefits for Pole Dancers to train handstands!
Pole dancers tend to spend A LOT of time pulling; we pull ourselves into the pole, we pull ourselves up the pole, we pull to lower ourselves down the pole, we pull to stop ourselves to falling off the pole, we pull to climb, to spin, to make pretty shapes... you get the idea. To do handstands we must PUSH! We must train both the push and the pull and for most Pole Dancers (who don’t train handstands) there isn’t much balance between the two. Now even though there is a lot of pulling, there are also a lot of tricks that require a really strong push (particularly overhead push) such as Butterflys, Ayeshas, Handsprings! If you look at these tricks, you will notice they look very similar to a handstand, just on the pole. Unfortunately, many Pole Dancers get to this level and have never trained handstands (and their overhead push) so struggle with these tricks a lot.
Outside of our overhead push strength, training our handstands also works our shoulder mobility, wrist mobility, core strength, shoulder stability and forearm strength just to name a few and I’m sure you’d agree that all of these play an important role on the pole as well.
Lastly, we have the unsung hero of handstand training… improving our PROPRIOCEPTION! Proprioception is our body’s ability to detect where we are in space, and more specifically where our limbs are. Ever had the moment in a trick where you have no idea where your legs are and what they are doing? Yep, that’s our proprioception failing us in that moment. Training our handstands helps to train our brains to pay close attention to where our limbs are and what they are doing because that leg relaxing a little and drifting out of that pretty handstand line is all it takes to lose balance and ruin that personal best hold time we were about to smash. Or even harder working on those handstands surrounded by poles (or other things) that we don’t want to hit as we bail on our handstand.
