Learning handstands, in my opinion, is one of the coolest things that happened in the fitness industry in the last decade. Together with the emergence of skill-based training like calisthenics and gymnastics type workouts, getting fit seems to have gotten more exciting. But unlike a regular gym program where you can easily just lift heavier weights and do it 3x a week, these types of training require more practice and a common question is how often do you need to train to acquire the skills to be proficient in them.

As a general rule, a beginner learning handstands should practice three times a week for the first three to six months of training to prepare the joints for loading in handstands practice. Once a level is reached where acquiring the skill to balance is required, handstands training should be done five times a week or more.

Here’s a table to compare what you can achieve in your handstand training in relation to the frequency of practice you want to commit.

Disclaimer: This table is based on the information I have gathered from different practitioners who practice different training routines. So, the quality, style of training, and whether you are guided by a teacher may show different results in your practice. You can use this as a rough guideline so you will have an idea of how much time commitment you need to give to your handstand training based on your goal.

Handstand for fitness and fun: one to two times a week 

If your goal is to add variety to your fitness regimen, then practicing at this frequency would make sense. But whether you will commit for 2 months or 2 years, it is very unlikely that you will be able to consistently kick up and balance in a handstand position in the middle of the room.

You will still achieve a good strength level in your shoulders and some very basic handstand drills. If you start with a higher strength level, you may be able to do some decent wall handstands, but that ends there. Here is an article I wrote about how to work on your fitness with handstand training.

Three times per week handstand practice for Serious beginners 

In the early part of your handstand training, around the first 3 to 6 months, you will need to get used to loading your arms, wrist, and shoulders in an overhead position. Though the majority of the hand balancers will tell you that working on handstands doesn’t really require that much strength, you will still need a decent amount of it before you seriously train for handstands.

A three times a week practice schedule will be best to work on this either by practicing on your own or attending a handstands class. Doing it too frequently at this stage may stress the joints of your wrist and elbows as it hasn’t adapted to the type of loading you get from your new handstand practice.

You don’t even have to dedicate a full hour session at this level; attending a Calisthenics class designed for beginners with some elements of handstand drills may do the job, or you can do a short handstand practice before starting your session. Here is an article I wrote about the muscles that work in handstands. It will help you better understand how to approach your training.

Training at this frequency will build a decent amount of strength specific to handstands, but it will still be quite challenging to achieve the freestanding handstands. There may be some exceptions to this but most likely because of the background of the individual. For example, a breakdancer who really doesn’t train handstands will be able to achieve the skill by devoting a few days a week as their practice has high transferability to do handstands.

But if you are already in your 30s and only warming up the seat of your office chair is your exercise regimen for the past decade, you may need to spend a longer time build your foundation.

Five to six times per week to learn to balance in handstands

Once you have adapted to handstand-specific training and want to realize your dream of being able to kick up into a handstand position any time and anywhere, you need to ramp up your training further.

There is a big gap from the time you are able to hold 60 seconds handstands on the wall to 60 seconds freestanding handstands. When I say big, that could mean months to years of training. That is considering that you are doing your drills correctly.

Your practice doesn’t have to be long every session, but there will be sessions that you need to log in for more than an hour, depending on your goal. Suppose your goal is to be able to hold your handstands for 30 seconds; in that case, a short 30-minute practice at this frequency may work, but if you want to work on advanced shapes and different handstand entries, you will have to devote longer practice time for you to achieve it.

Here is what Jared Sagendorf, an advanced handstand practitioner, said when I ask him about training frequency and duration.

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A post shared by Jared Sagendorf (@jared.sagendorf)

“I'm not a pro but there are different levels of professionals. There are people who have an awesome one-arm handstand but aren't really doing a solo act and probably have a lot of other skills they can perform. Then there are people who do five minutes solo acts on one cane and specialize entirely in hand balancing and are good enough to make that interesting to a paying audience. From the professionals, I have personally met, 6-8 hours 6 days a week is pretty standard to achieve the level of skill needed for the second category.”

Five to six times per week of 6-8 hours per session for Performer level

Let me share with you the answer of a retired professional Hand balancer, Louis-Vincent Ladouceur, on what he told me about his training when he was performing on stage.

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A post shared by Louis-Vincent Ladouceur (@equilouis)

“While getting ready for performing at the pro level (years ago), I used to do : 6 days a week, 6 hours a day : -4h working on OAHS (about 80 to 100 sets of 30s on each hand) -1h strength training. (HSPU, Stalder, manna, OACU) -1h flexibility training. (Split, pike, back and shoulder) Sunday was my day off, so only 1h30min work on OAHS. I did pretty much every skill, full, figas, flag, OAP, switch, etc. I got real good, real fast. Kept that routine for a few years.”

In case you don’t understand the jargon, here’s what it means:

OAHS - One arm handstands
HSPU - Handstand push up
OACU - One arm chin-up
OAP - One arm press

I have nothing much to say here. But it is good for us mere mortals to know how much the professionals put effort into their training to do a performance. I feel guilty from the past for the lack of appreciation when watching these guys perform. Now the next time you see them on stage, clapping your hands harder would be the least you can do.

So in simple conclusion, how frequent you need to train in your handstands will really depend on your goals and how much time you want to commit to them. You may need to adjust your goals after reading this post, and that is ok as that is how life is in general anyway. Enjoy your inverted journey!