Handstand or Downward-Facing Tree Pose or Inversion is one of those appealing poses — challenging, dramatic, and exhilarating that tests our focus and intentions every time we invert.

We all get to admire the pose with the picturesque background, one balancing without the support or any wall behind.

If you are a yoga student, you would have heard of, come across in a yoga class or maybe are working on a handstand as we speak.

Handstands in yoga can be fun for some and a no go for others.

The good news is you do not need to master them to validate your yoga practice. However, if going upside down tickles your fancy, you want to take your sweet time to learn:

the essence of the pose so that you can
develop a solid technique and build your skills

Handstand falls into a category of yoga postures, where your shoulders are flexed, and your arms are raised over your head.

This also applies to postures like:

Downward Facing Dog
Plank, Inversions or even
Upward Facing Bow/Wheel

All these asanas have a baseline when it comes to yoga alignment principles. For example, we are often taught to bring hands shoulders' width apart as a starting point. But for many people, it's just a good point of departure.

When setting up for the handstand, your hands can be shoulder-width apart. However, it is not a must.

Whether you consider yourself at the beginning of your yoga journey or to be a seasoned practitioner, aligning your arms shoulder-width apart isn't WRONG.

However, there are other ways of doing it. Read more on a different perspective to arm balances here.

Try to test yourself where in posture and at which angle you feel most stable. Because in yoga practice as in other physical modalities, there can't be one size that can fit all.

Start With Building Your Handstand Framework.

Handstands may appeal to your eye. They often make you desire or expect a lot from it. And so there is a crucial component to understanding handstand - the framework, where your entire body weight is on.

Hands and fingers, arms and shoulder girdles play an integral part in balancing. You, therefore, need good shoulder strength and muscle support to build your handstand practice.

Here are some foundations of a good framework.

1. Teach Your Hands to Work Like Your Feet.

In handstands and any inversions in yoga, your first line of defence is what is in contact with the ground - the ground provides you with a certain level of resistance.

When standing, your toes are your first line of defence. They help from over shifting in one direction as they grip and hold your base. If you do the opposite and lean back, your heels dig down, and your toes lift.

When you go upside down, your hands do not have the same reflex as feet or ankles, so you must train to build awareness.

And therefore, when learning handstands in yoga, teach your hands to work like your feet.

when you lean too far forward = fingertips have to dig down
when you lean too far back = the heel of your hand has to dig down

2. The Fingers Are a Huge Component of Balance in a Handstand.

However, one of the challenges you may find yourself needing help with in handstand balance is using your fingers correctly.
Generally, we emphasize pressing the base of the hand and heel of the palm down.
Yet, when you look at the entire space used, it’s a pretty minimal surface. So it would be tough to balance that space alone.
It would help to recruit a much bigger area to press down firmly.
Together with fingers that grip the mat and strongly root down, using the entire surface of your palm.

3. Build Your Frame.

An ongoing focus for anyone new or those with established practice yoga practice would be to understand how to approach inverting into a handstand with precision and skill while keeping your shoulders safe.

The most crucial thing in building the skills is time accrual. Therefore, be willing to progress slowly.

Hand placement and the actions you want to encourage through the arms and hands are instrumental in creating safe, thus stable shoulders when practicing handstands.

When establishing the framework for any inverted work, start with your arms & hands. The ground after that provides you with a level of resistance.

Look for a stable shoulder base with well-aligned arms & hands.
Create the distance and space to build strength, frame and control.
Look to broaden the shoulder blades (protracting away from the midline)
Using straight arms to push the floor away. Well-aligned shoulders are a grand entry to developing stability in weight-bearing postures.
You'll have a much bigger base to work with when your fingers grip down. Imagine someone is trying to pull your fingers up. If you can lift the fingers right up, you lose balance and most likely fall.

Once you find your frame, you want to be dextrous with the entire rim of your hand;

GRIP - spread your fingers wide; with fingers, pads grip the mat's fibres. You want to feel firm fingerprints.
HUGH - roll onto the knuckles of your index fingers and thumbs. Internally rotating forearms and externally rotating upper arms. Now look at the eye of your inner elbows and gently hug them in.
PUSH - with the entire circumstance of your palm push down. While maintaining natural curvature in your spine, resist the rounding effect.
PULL - while you grip, hug and push the floor away. Simultaneously create a pulling sensation as if pulling your hands to your feet and bringing all towards the centre line with your feet moving forward.

4. Half Handstand at the Wall.

Generally, there is a rush to balance in the middle of the room.
Nothing wrong with that; however, it is equally essential first to build the strength, stability and understanding of details in the handstand you get while using the wall.

When it comes to handstands, the most important factor is patience. You don't want to be hasty! Instead, you want to develop:

upper body strength
muscular engagement of your core
technique to establish a cohesive frame
get comfortable being upside down

Sometimes, spending time at the wall for an extended period helps build strength and develop skills and feel for being upside down.

To build the strength for your handstand, your priority needs to shift to duration first and balance after that. Practicing handstand at the wall is an excellent preparation, orientation and confidence builder.

Easy Way to Set Up for Handstand at the Wall:

Sit with the legs straight and heels at the wall.
Remember where the hips are.
Do the Downward Facing Dog with hands at the hip marks and short mini Down Dog with heels up against the wall.
Bring the shoulders forward so that the arms are vertical.
Fingers active, upper arms externally rotated, shoulder blades broad, shoulder joints flexed.
Relax the head down and look at the wall.
Take one foot up at the height of the hips, push the wall & lift the other foot.
Front ribs in, the outer armpits continue to lengthen.
Sacrum, tailbone raises towards the ceiling.
The heels of feet push the wall, and the heels of hands push the floor.
Thighs are fully engaged.

Et voilà.

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It is, without a doubt, essential that you approach this pose with precision and awareness if you aim to keep it as part of your repertoire.

I cannot begin to tell you how many people I see struggling with transitions in class. The problem is, typical class settings do not allow time to break down the pose so that you can learn it properly.

While it's commonly practiced as part of a flow sequence, there's a lot more to it than meets the eye.

You know this is for you if you: