Alignment · No wall, or at the wall

Kick-tuck to full

You kick straight up into a tuck, knees pulled toward your chest, and hold it for a beat. Then you slowly extend your legs to a full handstand, and come back to the tuck the same way before coming down.

As your legs unfold, your center of gravity rises and moves away from your hands, and your shoulders have to open to keep your hips over them. A lack of shoulder opening shows up here straight away. Learn the starting position at the wall first, with the wall tuck hold.

Family

Alignment

Equipment

Open floor space

Type

Reps

Train this exercise in the app

How to do it

1. Kick straight up into a tuck, knees toward your chest, and hold it for a beat.
2. Push hard through your hands, hips over your shoulders.
3. Slowly extend your legs to a full handstand.
4. Fold your legs back into the tuck, still slowly.
5. Come down with control.

The two mistakes that make you fall

Letting your hips move as you extend your legs. Your legs go up, your hips go with them, and you lose the stack you had in the tuck. Keep your hips over your shoulders from start to finish: your legs unfold around them.

Going too fast. A quick extension goes through the full handstand without stopping there, and a quick fold makes you lose your balance. The movement is slow in both directions, and that slowness is what forces you to stay balanced at every moment.

Related exercises

Wall tuck holdKnees tucked, hips over your hands: you learn to stack your body on your shoulders.ShouldersHoldFull hold (feet together)The handstand as you picture it: legs together from start to finish, body stacked from hands to feet.AlignmentHoldWall tuck bailThe gentlest way to learn coming down, from a tucked position against the wall.ConfidenceReps

All exercises: the catalog