How can I improve my "bananeira" (hand-stand / walk head-down)?

Question

This is a very common capoeira movement and I've seen similar things in some kung-fu styles.

I can do it for a couple of seconds (or 2,3 steps) for about two years now, but never managed to go past this barrier. Does anyone have tips ?

Answer 1

I do:

1. Increase your arms and torso Strength.
2. Work on your wrists. Strength and flexibility.
3. You have to increase your body constrictive Strength. (to keep your body hard, independant of the position.
4. Find out your balance point while upside down.
5. During a handstand, Try to push the ground and at the same time do not let your gravity center to raise.
6. Work with both hands, and each Hand individually.
7. Shoulder Press while on a handstand. It will make it more comfortable soon.

Yeah Thats it! Good workout!

Answer 2

From what you describe, it sounds like the problem you have is maintaining your balance using other parts of your body other than your arms. While your arms and hands will bear the weight while in a handstand, you should also focus on using your core strength (abs and back) to hold yourself up. The idea is similar to standing up straight on your feet and using your core to maintain an upright posture (otherwise you slouch). The concept is flipped upside-down for a handstand. Having strong arms will not help much if the the rest of your body is tipping over.

While you can improve your arm and wrist strength (it will help), you should also focus on doing exercises to strengthen your abdominal and back muscles. There are many, many different types of strength exercises you can perform to improve your core. Some of these include:

• Deadlifts
• Supermans or a back extension (like a reverse situp)
• Inverted rows
• Crunches and sit-ups (there are several variations of these types of exercises)
• Leg lifts

Those suggestions aren't a training regimen necessarily (you didn't mention any details of what your current training or physicality is). You can decide for yourself what you think is appropriate for your body and fitness level.

In terms of addressing balance, you can try doing a handstand but with your feet and legs separated (like going outwards in a center split). This is actually something I learned from juggling. The purpose of doing this is to spread your weight over a distributed area rather than keeping it concentrated in a smaller space. It will force your body to figure out which way to move and and train your muscles to realign your center of mass so that you don't lose balance. Once you start getting used to that feeling, you can slowly move your feet and legs closer together. The movements you make to correct your balance will become smaller and more subtle as you bring the weight into the middle.

Answer 3

Everyone is talking about strength… good but unnecessary. It is good to have strong arms—and I am pretty sure you already do—to hold you up upside-down. But if you have the wrong technique, strength will always fail. If not, how does water continually seep into rocks when rocks have spent all their evolution perfecting the art of hardness?

The key/idea behind a bananeira is your centre of gravity—the fourth point in Bolinha's answer. (p.s it would be rather artistic is Bolinha also thought about this and made this the middle point—i.e. central point—in listings.)

To get better at this, you need a wall, a tree or some vertical post.

1. Do a half forward flip with your hands near (but not at) the foot of the wall, your legs should be up against the wall.
2. Support yourself this way for a while and get to understand your imbalance.
3. Once you feel ready, push slightly off the wall and try to maintain a straight back.
4. The key is to have your shoulders and hips on the same vertical line.
5. When you begin to feel unstable, fall back to the wall and reiterate from 2.

Once you get the technique, you would understand why strength is not needed, you will understand why even kids can do the bananeira—well, in this case, bananeira tres apoios (:

Answer 4

In addition to the above points on developing core strength and determining your point of balance, I'll also add a tip I ran into in a parkour video. A lot of fine control of your forward and backward balance is done with the palm of your hands. Go up into a handstand against a wall (I've had a few people suggest walking up the wall backwards instead of flipping yourself forward because it gives you a more gradual entrance into it and avoids the risk of you either missing a narrower target (I often practice with the door-jambs at home to avoid marking up the interior walls) or banging parts of your body into the unyielding surface). Try pushing with the top and bottom of your palm, and moving your wrists. Notice how pushing down on the top of your palm will balance you backwards and the bottom of your palm balances you forwards. Get a feeling for how much influence your hands will have for those fine adjustments.