My days are always better when I start them with some handstand pushups against the wall. It's better than coffee at waking me up and is an excellent source of feedback on body weight status. Also takes very little time.
I highly recommend incorporating at least a static hand stand against the wall into your morning routine, then try work up to turning it into full blown handstand pushups just a little bit at a time.
Used to just do pushups daily, then my friend's girlfriend who did acrobatics and crap talked me into doing handstands with her one day. Never looked back, material QoL improvement ever since, thanks Stefi!
Why not just do incline or decline push-ups? Or weighted pull ups? I feel like handstand push-ups increase your risk of serious arm nerve compression injuries, like ulnar nerve compression at the wrist.
Had to do the same. However, I do handstand push ups on small parallettes[0] which keeps the wrist in the similar position as doing fist push ups, but doesn't hurt my knuckles.
I misspoke a bit — I specifically was referring to a neutral wrist position when pressing (be it bench, overhead, pushes) w/r/t extension. I’ve seen excessive wrist extension in these movements cause repetitive strain injuries, in my case they lessened significantly when switching to a neutral wrist angle.
I’d imagine flexion also ain’t great to press with, but excessive extension seems to be way more common (and in common push up technique, the norm)
It doesn't seem like an issue for me, if it did I'd explore alternatives.
I already do lots of pushups daily and have for decades, the handstand pushups are just something I enjoy in the morning. It's more how I finish my morning stretches than exercise.
The lots of pushups probably already has my wrists well prepared for the activity.
It’s not great for your shoulder long term. As a rule of thumb, when lifting heavy weight if your hands are not in front of your body you are putting unnecessary stress on the joint. A handstand would put your hands right above your head. Overhead pressing is bad for the shoulder, better alternative is Landmine presses at 45 degree, or decline push-ups.
Or just do more morning handstands like I've been doing for decades without any ill effect, and ignore your unsolicited unnecessary prescribed solution for a nonexistent problem. I'll spend the money and space that would be wasted on gymnastic rings on something more generally useful, thank you very much.
I have a powerful aversion to introducing any generally unavailable facility to my daily fitness maintenance routine. Practically everyone I know who has gone down that path has a tendency to turn it into an excuse for not maintaining their fitness. Out camping? Oh shit, I don't have access to $dependency, guess I'll be a lazy slob today. Late for work? Oh shit, can't make it to the gym today. Pandemic? Oh shit, can't make it to the gym and exercise anymore because it's closed.
Nope, nope, nope. Every time you advise someone to introduce an additional dependency into their fitness maintenance, you're arguably lowering the probability they will consistently perform it. Quit it. My personal dependency threshold stops at a wall and some floor/ground space. Even this has become a bit annoying when I'm sailing, but I have found I can still manage stabilized handstand pushups below-deck with my feet braced against the low ceiling.
Aren't you still putting the same pressures on the shoulders and wrists per the previous poster? I discovered the rings at age 46, and I love them. I fell off exercise when I moved back to the US at age 52, and COVID helped me excuse my way to the worst shape I have been in my entire life. I was using the book, "Building the Gymnastic Body: The Science of Gymnastics Strength Training".
I think the US as a developed nation suffered as many COVID deaths as it did due to the nation's average fitness and high percentage of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. I have metal plates in my left wrist due to a fall injury, and I had no issues with handstands and the rings. I would say my wrist flexibility and mobility improved.
That’s bs and not sustainable.
Choose a routine that won’t kill you when you get a little older. I can do muscle ups, headstand, handstands and all these calisthenics things but not that early in the morning without warmup
I highly recommend incorporating at least a static hand stand against the wall into your morning routine, then try work up to turning it into full blown handstand pushups just a little bit at a time.
Used to just do pushups daily, then my friend's girlfriend who did acrobatics and crap talked me into doing handstands with her one day. Never looked back, material QoL improvement ever since, thanks Stefi!