How Hula Hooping Can Help Your Handstands - Guest Post

Hula hooping and handstands… Believe it or not, they go together like strawberries and chocolate and make for a pretty delicious and highly complimentary combo.

These two activities are a match made in heaven!

First off, let's talk about how handstand training can boost your hula hooping skills. This means that if you’re a handstand-er, your probably going to find hooping easier than the average human.

When you're hooping, having a strong core is key for keeping that hoop spinning and stable for both on and off body moves. For those of you reading this who aren’t hula hoopers, on-body moves includes waist, chest and neck hooping and off-body moves cover a range of techy fun things including arm-hooping, isolations and weaves.

Handstands are a core-blasting workout. By working on your handstands, you'll be building a solid core that will translate to better control and stability when hooping.

The more you practice handstands, the more aware you'll become of your body positioning and balance, and the stronger you’ll become which will make your hooping not only look smoother and more effortless, but will ultimately help you drop into your hooping and find your flow.

The good news is that it works both ways!

Hula hooping can also help you improve your handstands.

Keeping that hoop spinning is a full-body workout that will strengthen and stabilise your core as well as giving you ridiculous grip, shoulder and wrist strength which comes in handy when you’re trying to hold a handstand.

The constant engagement of your core while hooping will make it easier to maintain proper alignment and control when you're working on your handstands.


Here are a few ways to integrate hula hooping into your handstand training:

You can do these hoop drills in your breaks between handstand sets or as stand-alone fun little fitness boosters. Hooping is a great way to ‘rest’ when you’re doing more intense hand stand training.

  1. Arm hooping for shoulder strength and mobility




  1. Waist hooping: Whatever you do, don’t make circles with your hips! Try a side to side rocking motion or a forward-back pushing motion. Start with feet apart and slowly work up to feet together. If you really want to challenge yourself, you can try feet together, tiptoes and arms reaching up to the sky. 5 minutes of waist hooping each day will really refine your abs.





  1. Isolations for super-human grip strength and a tricep tickle



Give it a go! Get into the spin!

And, if you have any questions or want more hoop tutorials, check out the Hoop Sparx website. It’s a pretty fun place – think hen’s parties, roving performers, kids parties, circus things and even giant bubbles!

With sparkles,

Donna Sparx xo







sundi pereira

Handstand Classes, Workshops and Short Courses Melbourne

For all things related to the wonderful world of hand balancing and handstands, handstand classes, handstand workshops and handstand short courses Suby Handstands has got you covered in Melbourne.

Whether you want to work in a group setting with Melbourne based handstand classes or Melbourne based handstand short courses or on a one to one basis with private handstand lessons you are going to experience growth in your practice.

Many people believe that the best way to progress their handstand is to repeat the same thing over and over again thinking that one day it will lead to some sort of miracle and finally click. I can tell you best way to progress is in fact to practice, but to practice the RIGHT things for your specific level, awareness and body. This is the way forward in your handstand training.

Participating in handstand classes or private handstand lessons is the best way to find the keys to unlock the gates to progress and stop experiencing frustration and fear in your handstand practice.

So you’ve mastered handstand at the wall and are ready to take it to the middle of the room? But every time you hop up, it feels like you can only hold the pose for a nanosecond. What gives? How can you learn to stick your balance in the center of the room?

If you’re looking to move your handstand away from the wall, odds are you’re already familiar with kicking up into the pose. Even so, starting with a solid, well-aligned foundation and kicking up with confidence can strongly increase your chances of balancing in handstand.

Press handstands are one of the coolest gymnastics/acrobatic skills out there

They are a demonstration of control, power and body awareness that can be done virtually anywhere.

Press handstand is a beautiful skill but one that is made up of many physical attributes. Flexibility, core strength, shoulder strength, skill and technique all equally play an important role. Having coaching to assess which area's you individually need to develop is vital to learn press to handstand safely and efficiently. I can help you put together a training plan to achieve your inversion, arm balance and hand balancing goals.

Tuck handstand is another awesome skill to work on.

As the name implies, a Tuck handstand is a bent leg position where the knees are pulling towards the chest, versus a handstand where the legs are fully extended with toes pointing directly towards the sky.

It helps to develop correct should alignment, shoulder strength, shoulder flexibility and is the gateway to many other cool handstand shapes. There is 2-3 amazing handstand drills that drastically help develop tuck handstand.

What about handstand pushups? A brilliant display of body control and raw power.

Just like you wouldn’t want someone performing a ton of kipping pull-ups when they don’t have the strength to do one strict pull-up, we don’t want someone doing a ton of kipping handstand push-ups if they don’t have the strength to do a strict handstand push-up. The shoulder strength required to complete a handstand push-up is great, and some may not have that strength just yet. Have no fear, I have created a simple training program to help you build your upper body strength to reach the goal of obtaining a strict handstand push-up. With dedication, patience and hard work, you too can successfully attain the handstand pushup.

As soon as you’re able to balance a handstand by the wall for just a few seconds without using the wall for support, it’s time to start adding some freestanding handstand exercises to your practice. BUT don’t leave the wall behind entirely just yet, it will still be one of the most useful tools for awhile to help maintain your conditioning and continue developing sound balance mechanics.

It can seem both terrifying and impossible to move your handstand practice away from the wall. Because what’s gonna happen if you fall? Some parts of the fear of falling out of a handstand are rational, others are entirely irrational.

let me help you address and overcome the rational fear of falling when you practice the freestanding handstand.

Learn how to handstand by learning :

How to fall

The benefits of going upside down

The muscles worked in a handstand

How to warm up before doing a handstand

Step-by-step directions for doing a handstand

Common handstand mistakes to avoid

As for how long it'll take you to master a handstand? It's pretty individual. Some will get it right away, while it takes a lot longer for others. Remember that it’s as much a mental discipline as a physical one and keep trying, knowing that you will get there.

So let get started. Click on the Handstand classes Melbourne page and take your practice to the next level whilst cultivating discipline and self understanding.