Handstand Push Up
A step-by-step form guide from the Ægir Iron exercise library: how to do the lift, what to watch for, and the muscles it trains.
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Parallettes
This is a technical lift, best learned under a coach’s eye before loading heavy.
HOW TO PERFORM
- Kick up to a handstand facing the wall, hands a little wider than the shoulders, or set up on parallettes.
- Hold the body tight and hollow with the ribs down, and bend the elbows to lower until the head lightly touches the floor.
- Press back up to a full lockout without letting the back arch.
- Come down under control at the end of the set.
FORM TIPS
- Build it with pike push ups and negatives first. On parallettes the head passes below the hands, so the deeper range is a separate progression rather than the same exercise.
TARGET MUSCLES
Primary
- Shoulders
Secondary
- Triceps
In the app
This guide covers these exercises in the Ægir Iron library:
- Handstand Push Up
- Parallette Handstand Push Up
Log it in Ægir Iron to track your PRs and estimated 1RM, and to see the sets each muscle gets every week. Free for individual lifters.