Forearmstands for Beginners
Forearmstands for Beginners
Been eyeing those bendy yogis and circus folk on Instagram effortlessly balancing on their hands? Lucky for you forearmstands aren’t reserved for the realm of contortionists, anybody can get started with some beginner-friendly handbalancing with a wall-supported forearmstand!
This legs-up-the-wall entrance is my favorite way to introduce them to new students, it leaves you totally in control and able to get used to feeling the weight in your forearms, without having to quite worry about the balance.
This is a bit of a shoulder-y pose, so make sure you’ve done at least a brief shoulder warm up before getting upside down.
How to Do a Wall-Supported Forearmstand
Start sitting in pike on the floor, with your legs extended and feet flat against the wall - we’re measuring out how long your legs are - plant one hand right at your butt. This is where you’ll want your elbow to plant in your forearmstand (our goal is to have a shape where our hips and shoulder stack in a straight line on top of your elbows.
Keeping your hand planted on the floor to “mark” your spot, flip over and plant your elbows down where your butt was just sitting, keeping forearms parallel to each other.
Start to walk your legs up the wall behind you, stopping when you get to hip height (you may need to film yourself or use a mirror, it’s really easy to walk them too high and not realize it). And that’s it, you’re doing a forearmstand!
Mistakes to Avoid
The main thing to focus on is trying to get that “L” shape, it will be harder and less comfortable to hold your forearmstand if you can’t find that proper hip stack (hips stacked over shoulders, shoulders stacked over elbows). Common mistakes include:
Elbows too far away from wall (top left) - while a deep shoulder stretch, this is pretty muscle-y to hold, and you won’t be able to work on your balance.
Elbows too close to the wall (top right) - if you start with elbows too close to the wall, when you start to straighten your legs your butt starts to stick out past your shoulders, and it might cause you to fall to the floor (ouch!). When straightening your legs, straighten them slowly. If it’s starting to feel like your butt is going to pull you to the floor, check your arm placement, you’re probably a little too close to the wall.
Feet too high up the wall (bottom left) - this is the most common mistake for beginners. Thankfully it’s a safe mistake to make! There’s actually nothing inherently “wrong” with this position, but it’s a good habit to try and aim to keep feet at hip height (bottom right) to give you a stable foundation in your wall support.
Give these tips a try and see how it goes - doing your first forearmstand may be a lot easier than you think ;) And if you’re an Instagram-y type, tag me in your pic (@dani.winks), I’d love to see!
Related Content
Recommended Workshop Recording
Who this workshop recording is for:
This workshop is meant for students with some existing shoulder strength and flexibility who are interested in taking it to the next level: continuing to improve their shoulder and back flexibility, and learning how to apply it to a classic contortion floor inversion: the forearm stand (aka pincha mayurasana for you yogis!). Note: this is not a yoga-style class (although you may recognize some yoga poses in some of the drills)!
Suggested Prerequisites:
Being able to comfortably hold a dolphin pose with forearms and palms flat on the ground (knees can be bent). Crazy backbendiness welcome, but not required - the backbend-y variations included in the tutorials can be modified for varying degrees of back flexibility.
If you can already comfortably kick up to the wall, or are interested in further practice, check out the Continuing Forearm Stands workshop as well!
This 75-minute* workshop covers:
An hour long follow-along contortion conditioning class, including
A full body warm up with extra emphasis on back and shoulder mobility
Active flexibility drills to strengthen and stretch shoulders to prepare for supporting our bodyweight, and prepare back for comfortable (and safe) backbends
“Choose your own adventure” style skillwork practice: more than 20 minutes of detailed forearm stand variation tutorials are included and you can choose which ones to practice during any given training session. Tutorials include…
Forearm stand variations walking feet up a wall
How to kick up to the wall (and regressions if you can’t quite kick all the way up)
Flat back and backbend-y forearm balances
Balancing tips
* This workshop was filmed with the intention of fitting a 75-minute practice, but students may choose to trim it down, or extend it and work on more skillork for up to a 90 minute practice.
Required props:
2 yoga blocks
Long strap (can be elastic or stiff)
A sturdy chair or low table (something you can lean on for balance)
Plenty of wall space!
Upon checkout, you will receive a PDF with a link to the workshop recording (Squarespace limits file upload sizes so I can’t actually upload the whole recording here). The recording is for your personal use only, not to be shared with others - thank you!
