Suggested time for this exercise: 30 - 45 minutes.
January is kicking off, and if you’re like me, you have a mitigated opinion around New Year Resolutions 🥂…
What I like to do though is to set some time to reflect on the past year - taking a honest look at the trajectory of my life and slightly adjusting things here and there, where possible, to make sure I don’t deviate unknowingly.
Sure, but what does that have to do with my handstands, you ask?
More than a hobby, handstands can be a very deep, mindful practice.
A container in your life where you can grow in body and spirit.
A mirror of the ebb and flow of your mind too.
And if it’s something you do more than once a week, something you truly enjoy and want to get good at, there is value in examining your handstand practice.
You don’t have to be hell bent on performance and tracking your numbers for this to be relevant.
Handstands are not an easy walk in the park.
Let’s face it, if they were, you would probably not have stuck with it.
Because of the ups and downs they will take us through, it makes sense to be intentional in the way you train.
Let’s face it, if they were, you would probably not have stuck with it.
Because of the ups and downs they will take us through, it makes sense to be intentional in the way you train.
In this guide, I want to invite you to set time to reflect on your handstand practice this year - what it brought you, what it took away from you (yes, that too), and how you can tweak it in 2025 for better, even more enjoyable handstands.
Step 1 to 4 will be able clarifying your goals with handstands. Don’t worry about it too much - goals are like the wind that blows in our sails. We can know in advance where we want to head, but it’s also totally fine to set out to the sea and see where it takes you.
Step 5 and 6 tackle an important and overlooked part of handstands: the mental game and reflection over what really works and really doesn’t click with you. The point: making sure you squeeze as much joy as possible out of your practice.
Step 7 will bring everything together in a visual, summarised way that you can keep with you for the year to come.
Step 1: Why you handstand?
We’ll start with the easiest: your #1 goal 🎯
Open your journal, your phone note app or take a sheet of paper, and at the very top of it start writing the one thing that brought you to handstands.
Whether you just started or have been on your hands for the last 5 years, there is a drive that made you try seriously… what was it?
Many beginners make the mistake of not being specific enough about this when they start. They “want to be able to handstand”. One of the first things we do in classes and in my online course is to be specific about what that means.
Not everyone wants to be able to hold 60 seconds.
Some see themselves performing one day, others just want to have fun! Crossfitter will want to walk on their hands, while yogis could use a little float into upward dog.
Goals don’t have to be set in stone for life, but they help you shape your practice. Mary Keitany (word-record owner in marathon) and Usain Bolt both run, but they don’t train the same way at all, obviously.
Your goals shape your practice.
The same applies to your handstands - if you’re not specific with what you plan on doing with it, your training will be sometimes inappropriate, miss the mark, and / or make you waste time.
On the contrary, having a sense of direction will make your practice all the more rewarding - you will know with certainty that you’re working exactly on what matters, and overcome the natural obstacles that stem from the practice much more swiftly.
still not sure?
If you’re not too sure about your goal, don’t fret. It is super normal, especially with less than 6 months of practice under your belt.
A lot of my students come to class with the goal of getting stronger, more fit and more mobile while having fun… and Handstands will exactly do that!
If you’re not too sure about your goal, don’t fret. It is super normal, especially with less than 6 months of practice under your belt.
A lot of my students come to class with the goal of getting stronger, more fit and more mobile while having fun… and Handstands will exactly do that!
If that’s you, then your goal, handstand-wise, is to:
hold 10 seconds in the middle of the room, most times! We’ll refine that in due time ;)
hold 10 seconds in the middle of the room, most times! We’ll refine that in due time ;)
Step 2: 6 - 18 month Goals
Time to expand on that list. If you have more than a few months of practice, you probably have seen enough from your peers and social media to want more, eventually.
Maybe it’s a specific advanced shape you’ve seen on instagram. Maybe it’s that feeling of control you felt once and now want to experience on demand…
Right under your #1 goal, start listing a handful of subgoals that you want to achieve upside down this year. It can be a specific transition on the mat, to hold a certain amount of seconds with ease, rock-solid consistency, the press… or all of it!
You don’t have to have to know for sure how much time it will take you, whether or not it will happen exactly before December 2025… This is where the expertise of a good coach can be very useful. Try to aim for something hard but realistic, as far as you can tell.
Example #1: You’re completely new to this. A good goal for this year would be to be able to kick-up against the wall without any fear, be soft and controlled in the process, and know what to do to balance 5 - 8 seconds, while slowly conquering fear.
Example #2: You’re able to catch a 10 second handstand when the stars align. A good goal for this year would be to catch 10 seconds on demand, push your longest hold to 20 seconds, and maybe even start playing with one new shape.
Example #3: You can hold 15 seconds most times in the middle of the room. A good goal this year would be to refine your alignment (more open shoulders), make your hold more silent (relying more on fingers and less on strength), and be able to perform with control sequences of 2 - 3 shapes, while adding seconds to your average hold.
Step 3: Dream big
Time to dream bigger… If you’re new to the practice, this may be completely impossible to fathom - and that’s ok, you can leave that space blank.
But if you’ve done this a while, I’d like to open the door to bigger dreams here.
All too often, we close the gate of the jail we created for ourselves in our own minds.
Just for a minute, imagine yourself able to do…. WHATEVER you wish you could do on your hands in your wildest dreams.
What does that even mean?
Spend a bit of time there. You may surprise yourself with the answer that comes - and whatever comes certainly will color how and what you train 🙂
Step 4: Draw a visual timeline
With all this information at hand, you can now draw a draft timeline of your goals.
Draw an arrow, at the very end of which you can add your dream goals.
Set a one year mark, and add the 2025 goals you have defined earlier along the line.
If you have more than one goal, you’ll need to prioritise. This is an important moment where you’ll need to decide on the right order of things.
It is in most cases useless to chase the straddle up with you don’t have… a straddle.
It is ill-advised to pursue the press if you don’t have 30 seconds with ease freestanding.
It is probably too soon to straddle if your shoulders aren’t open enough for the pike.
etc, etc.
Try to put the horse before the cart and see which goal is related to another, like Russian dolls.
Here again, seeking the help of a teacher would save you time and trouble.
Step 5: Reflect on the past year - gains
If you are new to the practice (less than 4 months), you can skip step 5 and 6.
The definition of insanity? Doing the same over and over and expecting different results.
These last few months of practice, I can guarantee that
- you’ve been doing things that you really enjoy or that really work for you
- you’ve been doing unnecessary things in the way you train.
Let’s start with what worked.
→ What warm-up drill makes you ready to go?
→ What is the ideal time in the day to train?
→ What are the ideal days in the week to train? (yes, yes, it can’t always go according to plan, but it’s worth noting. I’ve noticed myself big changes depending on the time of the day).
→ What’s the ideal training duration for a session?
→ What did you do differently before and during the sessions you felt you made progress in?
→ What makes you finish strong?
→ What drills bring you joy?
→ What makes you proud? Are you doing enough of it?
→ What drills or shapes are within your mastery zone?
Step 6: the past year - pain
Time now to address what didn’t go so well.
Before we do so, remind yourself that this is an absolutely normal part. Our practice isn’t meant to be perfect. Don’t beat yourself up about it.
Observe the patterns and elements that are actually not helping you… and see if you can tweak or remove them altogether.
Of course, some you won’t be able to do anything about - and you will have to fully accept it.
For instance, there is nothing you can do about having good and bad days, ups and downs. Our level of performance will fluctuate - you have to accept that, while you can work on how you navigate your training when it happens.
💪 From a physical standpoint:
→ Did you get injured this year? Was it directly linked to your handstand practice, or due to something else that flares up in handstands?
→ What can you do about this to reduce the likelihood of it happening in 2025? Are you prehabing enough? Working on accessory strength? Resting and recovering enough?
→ Is the weekly volume adequate, or too much? Are you being realistic with it? Are you taking into account the hidden form of training (work, kids, general tiredness) and their impact on your handstands?
→ Did you push yourself too much (over tiring yourself and your joints), not enough (feeling you could have organise yourself better to do more handstands every week) or just enough?
🧠 From a mental point of view:
→ Are you setting too high expectations on yourself, engaging in negative self-talk with yourself, judging your performances and beating yourself up when experiencing a bad day?
→ Do you strike a happy balance between what you need to work on (see step 1 to 4) and what you want to work on (the dessert 🍰)?
→ Was there moments you took your practice too seriously and forgot to be playful and light about it? How can you reconcile better this year being able to move towards your goals while taking things as they are, week by week?
→ Is there a mantra or an anchoring practice you can go through at the beginning and / or the end of your sessions to optimise your mental chatter?
Step 7: the upcoming year
You have now gathered a lot of precious information that should allow you to design a roadmap, or a compass 🧭, for this upcoming year.
More than a month-by-month plan that would be super detailed and super rigid (this only suits a specific profile of people, and still needs the flexibility to be tweaked on a bimonthly basis), what I wish for you to find this year is a sense of direction, enlightened by your clarified drive (goals) and learning from your experience (last year).
Keep the timeline you drew in step 4 somewhere you can see with ease at home. Under it, write the lessons you shouldn’t forget about the physical and mental parts of handstands.
Maybe it’s a little priming routine that sets your body on fire and soothes your mind into the correct mindset.
Maybe it’s a reminder that your practice don’t need to be 75 minute long - and that the turtle wins the race.
Maybe it’s keeping a Best-Of digital file of yours where you will diligently catalog your personal bests whenever they happen. And whenever the handstand blues hits you, take a peak and remember how much you rock.
Maybe it’s a 15 minute prehab routine you’re committing to doing once or twice a week on your days off.
I wish you a fantastic, rewarding, joyful year on your hands 🙌