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07-05-2006, 08:10 AM
Actually aside from the strength of your arms, people overlook the necessity to have good control over your leg and ab muscles. If your body is wobbly or your legs are wobbly, even if your arms are strong, you'll have trouble balancing. The stiffer you can hold your legs and body, the easier it is to balance.
Also, even moreso than bicep and tricep strength, you need to work on shoulder and pectoral strength. You usually have your arms locked when you're in a handstand anyway. It doesn't help you balance too much unless you're doing unlocked handstands. You'll want to be able to keep your body standing still using your shoulders and upper body muscles rather than your arms.
Similarly, it isn't just your thigh muscles and your lower leg muscles that keep you standing up. It's also your butt/hip muscles and your abs. If you suddenly soften your abs, your body falls backward, causing you to collapse. If your hips/butt muscles suddenly soften you fall forward, causing you to fall too. By nature, because we're already used to doing so, we keep them stiff, but we don't notice it.
The same can happen when you're in a handstand. The more control you have over your abs and your leg muscles, the easier it is to hold your handstand.
Handstand pushups can build your shoulder muscles depending on the position of your hands. Pointing them inward forces more shoulder and pec strength usage, while pointing them straight forward will use more bicep/tricep strength.
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