I’m about as far removed from a typical gymnast as you can get. Not only am I 6’5″ and very firmly in the heavyweight class, I’m also bottom-heavy (i.e. I carry a lot of weight in my legs) which makes me ill-suited to any type of handbalancing…yet I’ve still become pretty decent. Check this out:

The “Secrets” of handbalancing, if there are any, are simply knowing what to do and then putting in plenty of practice time. I’m not ready to run off and join the circus quite yet, but I can still impress the neighbors any time I want. Of course, handbalancing isn’t just about showing off, the upper-body strength and shoulder stability built through handbalancing have gone a long way toward improving pressing power and other facets of upper body strength — so it will pay to add some practice to your program.