I love headstands and today I am breaking down the headstand so that you can love them too. After reading this, go check out my latest YouTube video to watch a step-by-step guide to “Headstands Made Simple”, before you know it you’ll be seeing the world from a different viewpoint.

BENEFITS OF DOING A HEADSTAND

I can’t even tell you how many benefits come along with doing headstands. They make you super strong, they help you improve your balance and focus, and a headstand brings blood flow to places in your body that don’t normally receive a lot of blood… so you’re increasing your circulation through your whole body, which also has some great mood enhancing effects. Staying upside down forces you to work your abs like crazy as well as other key muscle groups in your legs. Headstands also increase your mood and help circulation by bringing blood to your brain and lungs. So many benefits!

If you’ve never done a headstand before, it can seem very daunting. But when you break it down step by step, it’s totally doable.

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO DOING A HEADSTAND

  1. Come up on to all fours – This is the starting position.
  2. Make sure your palms are facing towards the mat and your wrists are under your shoulders creating a 90-degree angle. This arm position should serve as a marker to where your elbows should ultimately go.
  3. Put your head on the mat.
  4. Your hands should be to the side of your body, just slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
  5. Build your foundation. Practice by tightening your core. Squeeze, then bend forward & relax your back.
  6. Walk your legs in slowly and press your navel in, tightening your core.
  7. Press one leg up to the ceiling, squeeze your glute, tighten your core and point your toe up.
  8. Slowly bring the second leg up and both knees to your chest. Hold and stabilize your balance then point both toes towards the ceiling.
  9. Hold and breathe. You did it! Hold this position and tighten everything.
  10. Gradually come out of position the same way you went into it, one leg at a time. Two legs reach upward, breathe on the way in.

That’s the breakdown. Don’t feel like you need to pop into a headstand today.  Instead, practice each progression over the next few days until you feel comfortable and then move onto the next one.  This will help you build your foundation and what seemed scary at first will soon feel like second nature. ‪And once you have the hang of it, you can mix in a bunch of fun variations. 

Enjoy your newfound skills and let me know if you have any questions about doing headstands. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to my YouTube channel so you don’t miss out on any of my other exercise tutorials. See you soon!