WHICH IS BEST, CHEST TO WALL OR BACK TO WALL HANDSTAND? 

Many people come into disagreement about what is superior.. Chest facing the wall or back facing the wall.

It seems worth clearing up since many people have been told they should only do it one way or the other. 

Truth is
you can do great handstands in BTW & CTW positions
you can do terrible handstands in BTW & CTW positions

Great VS Terrible is subjective, it is important to remember that!

So let’s dive in. 


A STRAIGHT BACK TO WALL HANDSTAND

Having your back toward the wall DOES NOT immediately imply that you will have an arched back and horrible handstand. You can choose whether or not to arch your back. You can play around with moving from arched to straight whilst upside down and get used to making the change, this can be a valuable skill once you are practicing freestanding handstands and need to make adjustments. Both positions will be useful for you eventually.

Image of a girl doing a handstand

As you can see in the picture above. Kat’s wrists, shoulders and hips are fairly stacked. Her back is not arching & this shape is pretty similar to what she often kicks up into when she is freestanding. If she was freestanding, she would be making small adjustments back & forth to ensure she doesn’t overbalance.


GET CLOSER TO THE WALL

If you are pretty good with accuracy in your kick up, you can try getting fingertips even closer to the wall (as close as possible). This way you can test your limits of balancing “alongside” and it helps align you really well. The more you close the gap, the straighter you can force yourself to be.


CONTROL THE POWER IN YOUR KICK UP

You can learn kick ups back to the wall. The wall is the most reliable of spotters! The key is to not over-rely on the wall. It’s up to you to figure out how to control your power in the kick up, it’s an important part of the handstand journey.

There many great reasons for practicing both chest to wall and back to wall handstands, we wouldn’t recommend banishing one exercise forever because someone once said it was bad.


Need help with your Handstands? Let us help you at our Marrickville studio.

We look forward to seeing you in the gym!

– Dalecki Strength