So, one month ago I began doing handstands daily to see how much I could improve after only 30 days of trying.  Here are the results:

Positive:

  • Improved physical performance (from getting up once, holding it for only 2 seconds after 5 tries to getting up for at least 30 seconds on a first try)
  • Family had a lot of fun doing nightly “exercises” together
  • Personal sense of accomplishment and general feel-goodness after improvements from only a few days of practice
  • Encouraged us to do more physically, since we would get in “workout” clothes and focus on physical activity – Stacy began running a mile 2-3x a week before handstands… and got under 10 minutes by the end of the month as well!

Negative:

  • Standing on your head daily, for up to 5-10 minutes (since we’d practice several times) without any “ramping-up” caused blood vessels to pop on Stacy’s face

Due to the “negative” result after a week or so, Stacy started doing hand-stands every other day or so – rather than every day.  It helped to heal the blood vessels within a few days and I found I was still able to progress – although probably not as much.

My (lofty) goal was to be able to handstand without the wall and hold it by the end of the month.  I could get up without the wall, but I’m not able to balance yet… I’m going to continue to practice in hopes of meeting that goal in the next couple of weeks.

Overall, I highly suggest finding something that will make you proud to achieve and GO FOR IT.  This was much fun and improved our health – with only 5-10 minutes a day for 1 month.  Can’t say that about much else!

About Stacy

Stacy Toth has written 307 post in this blog.

Stacy is the matriarch of the Paleo Parents family. After beginning a paleo diet and founding PaleoParents.com in 2010, she lost 135 pounds and found health and happiness for the whole family. The following three years have been a progressive journey with a mission to educate people about nourishing their bodies by eating real foods. Stacy can be found on all forms of social media as @PaleoParents as well as the top-rated The Paleo View Podcast and her two cookbooks, Eat Like a Dinosaur and Beyond Bacon.

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  • Fitdaffy

    You GO, girl!  Wootwoot!  :D

    • http://PaleoParents.com Stacy & Matt

      Thanks!  I’m not as impressed as some friends have made the feat out to be – perhaps since Gymnastics was my preferred sport in elementary school and I remember how insignificant handstands were in that scene.  I’d LOVE to get back into doing handsprings and backbends once I get some more weight off! 

  • http://twitter.com/thatpatti thatpatti

     what’s the deal with handstands?

    • http://PaleoParents.com Stacy & Matt

      What’s not awesome about being able to do a handstand? It’s something that’s easy to learn, but takes practice. It’s hard to keep the endurance, but you can build that up. It works balance, arms, shoulders and core. Handstands also really impress the ladies when you can just pull it off out of nowhere.

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