Turn your world upside down
There’s a new fitness craze hitting studios up and down the land - the handstand. Sarah Catherall looks at its health benefits.
It may seem like a childish activity, one that many of us haven’t done since we were kids, but handstands are returning as a new fitness activity.
As people line up for circus classes and pole dancing sessions, they’re also signing up for handstand classes as the gymnastics practice moves into the mainstream.
In a light-filled Pilates studio in Wellington’s CBD, Aaron Burr spends several hours a week leading handstand classes. The 29-year-old teaches conditioning and strengthening classes, preparing students to master the perfect handstand. It takes time, though, and many of his private students are given a six-week training programme to get the body ready for them.
The benefits of mastering a handstand? Strong shoulders, wrists and forearms, along with improved balance, stamina and mobility. ‘‘Handstands really help sort out posture issues, and help with connecting everything,’’ he says.
‘‘It’s not very often people get the chance to be upside down. When you can hold one for a while, you start to realise how different everything looks. A handstand is a physical meditation.’’
Burr turned to circus arts when he was 21, joining the all-female stilt-walking company Empress Stiltdance, as an aerialist, before working as a stilt and Chinese pole performer here and offshore.
One of his handstand students today is pilates instructor Anna Cochrane, who owns Thrive Studio where he teaches. The studio mantra is strong, fit and flexible, and a handstand is one practice they say will help meet that goal.
In a fully supported handstand, Burr gets the 32-year-old to walk her feet up the wall she faces, and spots her as she holds the handstand. She then comes out into the middle of the room, where he coaches her to hold a freestanding handstand for more than 10 seconds. When Burr demonstrates, he makes it look easy, holding his body perfectly still as he gracefully drops back to the ground.
‘‘If you see someone holding a perfectly still handstand, it represents that they’ve got the mental strength and stamina and persistence to literally fall down hundreds, if not thousands, of times and get up and do it again,’’ Cochrane says.
‘‘Trying to do a handstand becomes a mental exercise. There’s also a lot of strength and flexibility required. People often just give up. If you see someone holding a perfect handstand, that’s a really good sign about someone.’’
After years of working as a skydiving instructor, Cochrane trained as a Pilates teacher, while also developing her own skills as an aerial artist and teaching and performing circus aerials. Working in a day job as an ambulance officer, last year she beat the world record for the highest static trapeze act ever performed which she achieved while suspended from a hot air balloon. Holding the pose for more than five minutes at an altitude of 3100 and 3500 metres, she heard a rib pop, and is still nursing a dislocated rib. ’’It doesn’t hurt anymore but was probably the most painful session I’ve done on a trapeze.’’
But that impressive feat was a sign of what fires her up – Cochrane has never been drawn to the ordinary, and relishes unconventional activities which push her both physically and mentally.
A handstand falls into that category. While hanging upside down, everything else falls away. ’’My handstand journey is at the very start,’’ she says.
‘‘People haven’t often done a handstand since they were really young, and they secretly want to try but don’t know where to do it. It’s a bit like circus skills that have been opened up to the public, so much so that there is a Bachelor of circus arts now.’’
Children are typically fearless about going upside down, but for adults, the idea is often scary. Breaking down the fear of doing a handstand can extend to other life challenges.
‘‘Being persistent and doing things over and over again can carry on to other parts of your life.
‘‘More often than not, we don’t reach our potential. Even if you just focus on this one skill it reminds you that you can stick with something and become good at something.’’
One student is a former body builder who wanted to learn a new skill, who can now do a handstand and also touch his toes. Another balances his newfound passion with yoga, and his doctor told him to keep up what he is doing as he has never been healthier. Burr thinks gym-goers who once pushed weights are looking for more rewarding body strengthening exercises.
‘‘People are realising that there’s a lot more to moving than just lifting things up and down and being able to do something with that strength is a lot more rewarding,’’ he says.
‘‘With a handstand, you also have a tangible goal that you’re working towards.’’
How long should a handstand last? There is no ideal. ‘‘It depends on the person and body type and where you’re at in your handstand journey. It varies so much.’’
But he says a handstand is harder than a headstand – the latter is often taught in yoga classes, and while both rely on balance and a strong core, there is a broader, tripod base to improve stability.