Handstand push-ups are one of the best exercises for building incredible strength with nothing besides your bodyweight. There are few other exercises in this class, such as hanging leg raises, one legged squats and pullups. There are a few things that these all have in common. Sadly , few folks can do any if every one of them.

So in this article let’s chat about how to build up to being able to do a handstand pushup. Step one is regular, run-of-the-mill push-ups that everybody should be familiar with. Just set your hands on the ground shoulder width apart, keep the back straight without drooping or raising the hips. Dip between your arms, keeping the elbows in close to the sides and then push back up. The pushup builds stronger triceps, shoulders and pecs.

A good starting point is to be able to handle 3 sets of 25 push ups. Next we make them harder.

The way to try this is to raise the feet up on some variety of box or platform. Ensure its stable enough to hold your weight. Nevertheless it can be anything like a bed or couch if you would like. By raising your feet you’ll increase the amount of weight you’ve got to handle in the pushup. The higher you go the tougher it gets. And you can see that eventually you raise your body enough to do a handstand pushup. In this you’re handling 100% of your weight while the standard pushup is only about half.

Go up in height a step at a time. (And yes you can use the steps of a staircase too.) This way you keep it gradual. At every level you can work on the three sets of 25 reps we discussed earlier. After you hit that level of progression you’ll increase the intensity to the next level.

My recommendation is that when you get to the point where you are angled at 45 degrees then you are most probably ready for hand stand push ups.

There are tons of things that go into doing this move in the right way. After you kick up against the wall begin with just lowering down in control. This is called a negative. Ensure you stick to the ‘control ‘ part or you could finish up hurting yourself. If you want somebody to spot you for assistance when you try it the 1st time do it.

From the negative after you touch the crown of your head to the floor you may push back up. If you have done enough work in preparing up to this step and building your strength you’ll be able to complete your first handstand pushup.

Todd Ludgren is a writer for Lost Art of Hand Balancing where you can learn all sorts of handstand and acrobatic training. Here is an article with much more on how to do a backflip for even more advanced bodyweight training.