Reps Only exercise

Handstand Push-up form, muscles worked, and workout tracking

The handstand push-up is an advanced bodyweight press performed fully inverted, lowering the head to the floor and pressing back up, loading the deltoids, triceps, and upper chest with nearly all of your body weight. Gymnasts and strength athletes use it as a benchmark of overhead pressing strength and balance, developing shoulder power and total-body tension that few weighted movements replicate.

Handstand Push-up illustration

How to do Handstand Push-up

  1. 1Kick up into a handstand against a wall or free-balancing, with hands slightly wider than shoulder width and fingers spread for grip.
  2. 2Squeeze your glutes and brace your core so your body forms one rigid line from wrists to heels.
  3. 3Inhale as you bend your elbows and lower the crown of your head under control toward the floor, elbows tracking about 45 degrees from your body.
  4. 4Do not let your back arch heavily or your elbows flare straight out to the sides.
  5. 5Exhale as you press powerfully back to a full lockout, and come down to rest before form breaks.

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Track Handstand Push-up in Plates

Save this movement to a workout template, log sets and rest periods, and keep your training history in one focused gym tracker.