Handstand roll out, bad for spine?

[Colibri]

Rolling straight forward from a stomach to wall handstand can't be fantastic for the spine can it? I am doing it wrong at the moment but is it possible to do it without any major long term damage? I personally keep landing on the top of the thoracic curve, hurting it. Any ideas?

[Cole Dano]

What are you rolling on, is there any padding?

[Colibri]

Nope, but I do try to lay a blanket down. Wooden laminate floor :oops:

[Cole Dano]

There's your problem.

I actually talked with Mikael about this as i only have a hardwood floor and as not comfortable to roll out on it. He told me that even he doesn't like to roll out on a hard floor.

Best advice put down something softer that doesn't hurt to land on, or learn to cartwheel out.

I finally got comfortable with it by going to circus school where there are pads, padded floors etc. Still don't want to do it on a floor though for the same reasons as you.

[Colibri]

I guess I could do it on a padded floor until I become comfortable enough to move away from a wall. I suppose I wouldn't have to roll out then, I could just go back to standing if it's a freestanding HS

[Blairbob]

No, it's not super comfortable but should not really be harmful to your spine unless you have some existing spinal problem in your cervical or thoracic spine.

Look for something better than a blanket. A pillow, or go get a couch pillow.

If you only have the blanket, fold it up a bit to make it thicker.

Still I've rolled on laminate or wood floors or concrete. It's not pleasant, but it is doable with correct technique.

[timg]

My rollouts hurt one million times less after i read an article on drillsandskills http://www.drillsandskills.com/article/7

and watched this youtube vid A80LGSY5Eok

my major problem was tucking my feet too soon, which i attribute to my small practice space and not wanting to bang my feet on the table

[Matthew Barrett]

If you're always going to be working on hard floors you should consider doing some back flexibility work. It won't take long and soon you would be able to safely drop your feet into a bridge with great control from the handstand. From there you can use the wall to walk your hands up.

It's just my preference though because I like to lower slowly out of my handstands on hard surfaces.

[Vagabond]

Huh... Why don't you all cartwheel out instead of rolling or falling into bridge? Both of these falls are very annoying to do compared to just take a step forward with one hand and put your foot on the ground. That's what I make my students do. It's very good cause we're practicing handstands on concrete. The handstand to front roll or bridge is a good skill to practice, but when working on handstands, carthweeling out is usually a lot better. And if you don't want to take the bad habit of walking when you try to hold a handstand, you just have to cartwheel at the last moment.

[timg]

  Vagabond said:

Huh... Why don't you all cartwheel out instead of rolling or falling into bridge? Both of these falls are very annoying to do compared to just take a step forward with one hand and put your foot on the ground. That's what I make my students do. It's very good cause we're practicing handstands on concrete. The handstand to front roll or bridge is a good skill to practice, but when working on handstands, carthweeling out is usually a lot better. And if you don't want to take the bad habit of walking when you try to hold a handstand, you just have to cartwheel at the last moment.

I stopped cartwheeling out as i felt like it put too much strain on my wrists with the shock etc. Especially since i would try my utmost to counterbalance and therefore left cartwheeling out to the last possible moment. Where i used to train was a little uneven and i didn't have enough control with hand placement under that sort of pressure. Rolling out comes with a much lower chance of wrist injury when you are pushing 90kgs and if a few bruises or mild discomfort is the trade off for that, well i'm happy.

[jl5555]

I have to believe that your reason for not cartwheeling out are somewhat misplaced.

Cartwheeling out is really just a negative down from handstand and, I think, one of those parts of the HS skill that ought to be practiced. Much of the HS is that identification of the core muscles and development of control and tension there to enable a solid line HS. When doing stomach to wall HS the cartwheel out is a great opportunity to work on that negative control down. You shouldn't just fall out of the HS, you should control it down as much as you want to control it going up. If you're saying you are encountering shock coming out of your HS that tells me you're really not controlling the negative and, perhaps, not far enough along in your progressions. Nevertheless, don't discount a really nice controlled negative "cartwheel" out of your HS. It will also be invaluable when you do freestanding HS as your body will now know where to go in case you don't kick or press up exactly into HS.

[Joshua Naterman]

This is one of those moments when thick spinal erectors come in handy.