I have done Hand Balancing in the past doing enough to wear I held a free-standing Handstand for a short but amazing amount of time especially at my size. The ultimate form of upper body masteryb is without question the Handstand. For decades, athletes from all over the world have done some form of Hand Balancing in their lifetime; from wrestlers to acrobats, gymnasts, bodybuilders, Trapeze Artists, Weight Lifters and many others. Did you know the most successful bodybuilder of the 30's and 40's was in fact a master Hand Balancer? His name was John Grimek; he held Weight Lifting Titles, Mr. Universe Titles, a 2-Time Mr. America Winner, Olympic Champion & one of the best Muscle Posers of his era credited many of his accomplishments to Hand Balancing. One of the greatest wrestlers of his generation Karl Gotch believed that when you became good at Handstands, you had mastered your body-weight pretty good.
It is one of the most difficult aspects of training because for one just getting over the fear of being upside down makes many people cringe and further more it's more than just holding with your arms; your core, your legs, shoulders, wrists, chest and hips all have to be in sync with each other otherwise you will fall on your ass or worse. It's also a very distinctive form of Isometrics where once you can hold a Handstand whether using a wall or not you are developing an insane level of strength and focus that can carry over to other areas of your training. Some of the strongest pressers in the world have used Handstand Push-ups as one of their main exercises since lifting your own body-weight isn't easy enough.
If you're willing to learn you don't need to go to a Gymnastic School to get lessons although having a coach can most certainly help your progress, you can learn Hand Balancing in the comfort of your own home. For building the strength to do Handstand Push-ups against the wall my best pick would be Legendary Strength's Ultimate Guide To Handstand Push-ups; this book will take you from basic holds to little tid bits of being able to do the push-ups and learning some major differences just from the way you tilt your head. Really cool stuff. For being able to do them free-handed without any wall I put my money on Eddie Baran's Gymnastic Handstands Course; this book/DVD Combo will teach you the fundamentals of Free-Standing Handstands from holds to push-up to even able to walk on your hands in a straight handstand. Be able to do amazing things and do a skill not many can do.
Now if you want to take it a step further and gain skills only less than a handful of an entire population can do why not learn the steps from Calisthenic Kingz Official Guide To Mastering Handstands & Handstand Push-Ups and built up to being able to do one of the most difficult push-ups in existence The Diamond Handstand Push-up. Order all three courses if you want or pick any of the three, whatever works for you. Doing Hand Balancing is a lot of fun and once you really get into it, it becomes more like play. Ed Baran didn't get into Gymnastics until the age of 35, imagine that for a second; most men that age are retired and had their time, Ed was just starting and now over the age of 50 he's still at it and has one of the most impressive physiques around. It's never too late to learn so what's truly stopping you from doing something awesome? Here's something really cool, just last year before turning 31 I did a video of doing a Free-Standing Handstand Push-up when I was roughly at a Body-Weight of over 250 lb. You think a 180 lb. man has a tough time, add 70 lb. to that and it is one of the rarest things around. See the video below....
Many years prior to that I made a video when I was roughly mid-20's doing Handstand Push-ups at around 235 lbs. starting in a HEADSTAND. I swear to this day I don't know how I did it or what but I got it on film and it was really awesome I was able to do that. One of these days I aught go after this feat again. Who knows, check it out below....
Many things are possible when you are so damn passionate and put in the work that drives you and gives you something to strive for. I made it possible by training hard, smart and working towards that goal and I did it in less than a few years, took me more years just to be able to do one FSHSP and the courses I learned from didn't come until years later. I know if you work at it and practice you can definitely get there faster than I ever did. Make it happen.
