Disclaimer: This post is NOT sponsored, but I DO have an on going collaboration with WoodPower because I like their products and their brand. Sustainable wooden production and solid, durable handstand equipment. If you use my affiliate code: “BERG” to buy any of their products from https://woodpower.com I get a small kick-back from the sale.

One of the beautiful things about handstands is that you can basically train them anywhere. At the beach, at the park, at home, the playground or the gym, all of these places and more are fair game for training handstands. So, if that’s the case, why would we need to buy equipment for something where all that we need is our hands and a place to put them? In this introduction to calisthenics equipment for handstanding, I will go over 4 pieces of handstand equipment that I use and recommend. These are: the handstand board, parallettes, and handstand blocks and handstand canes. I’ll go over their different uses, the advantages of using each, and why I recommend you do consider getting yourself some handstand equipment. 

Different Types of Equipment and Their Uses

Handstand Board 

There are two reasons for using a handstand board: 

1. When you’re practicing in a place with soft ground, you need a stable surface to handstand on. When the ground is soft, it means that your fingers sink into the ground, and this makes it harder to balance. You need to balance on the hard ground in order to get the sensory feedback that you need in order to balance the handstand. 

2. In some cases, hand-standing on soft ground also puts a lot of pressure on the backside of the palm. The backside of the palm will push further into the ground, and then you get a steeper angle at your wrist. This can cause wrist pain and also makes us more prone to wrist injury. 

Finally, the wooden board provides a consistent surface for training. 

Handstand Blocks

Wooden handstand blocks - although they don’t necessarily need to be wooden - come in two forms. They come in a slanted/curved shape, as well as a regular square shape. 

There are a couple reasons for training with handstand blocks. First, training handstands on blocks can re-distribute the weight on your wrists, as it’s a little bit different from doing handstands on the floor. By using some variation in your training, you spare your wrists from over training. 

Especially with the curved, or slanted handstand blocks, you are sparing your wrist some pressure by putting your wrist at less of an angle. Using curved blocks for handstanding is good for being able to continue training if your wrists are sore from lots of training, but I don’t recommend using them all the time. In other words, if you are training at a high volume, or have a small wrist injury using slanted, or curved handstand blocks is helpful to lessen the pressure on your wrists so you can train at a higher volume and/or when you have an injury you are healing from. 

Another thing about blocks is that you can start to learn to use just your palm for balancing, rather than your fingers. You can do this by straightening your fingers while hand-standing, rather than wrapping them around the blocks as it will feel natural at first to do. This will be especially helpful when/if you start training towards a One Armed Handstand.

Another use for the handstand blocks, and great exercise for working towards the One Armed Handstand, is Block Walks. With Block Walks, you bring one hand off the block and onto the floor(or board), then back up again. You can mess around with different combinations of this exercise to help with your One Armed Handstand work. Block Walks also help with emphasizing your shoulder push - really elevating your shoulder as much as possible - which is an important part of the handstand. 

Finally, blocks are a good first step before using canes, since canes are basically just blocks on sticks. I’ll get into that more below.

Some people enjoy using blocks more, especially for one armed handstand training. Others might prefer the floor more. I suppose it’s subjective from person to person. 

Parallettes fro handstands, or calisthenics training

Parallettes come in different sizes - you have taller ones, shorter ones, longer and shorter. In my Youtube video I am using the long ones from WoodPower. 

As with the equipment mentioned above, using parallettes is a great way to bring variety into your training, while potentially lowering your risk of injury in the long run as you are putting pressure on different places in your wrist. 

If you already have wrist pain from doing handstands on the floor, for example, you might actually be able to handstands on parallettes, as the weight is distributed much differently with them than on the floor. With the parallettes, the wrist is not bent at a 90 degree angle like it would be with the floor. Rather than the pressure being in the middle of the wrist, the pressure will be put mostly on the medial/inside of your wrist, as seen in the photo. 

Another function for the parallettes is to learn how to handstands on parallel bars in a safe manner. Parallettes are good for training parallel bar handstands at a low elevation. You aren’t given too many chances to fall when you are training parallel bars that are high off the ground :).

Some exercises may also feel easier with parallettes, such as the planche. As well, some people might prefer to do Handstand Push Ups on parallettes rather than the floor. 

Handstand Canes

Handstand canes are one more piece of equipment worth mentioning. I find them to be very useful for handstand training. In particular, canes are helpful for training One Armed Handstands, and in my opinion the OAHS is actually easier using canes. 

That’s basically all of the handstand equipment I wanted to cover with you guys today. Especially if you’re handstanding a lot, I recommend you do consider getting some for yourself, whether you make it yourself or buy it. Using equipment introduces variety into your handstand training and mixes up where you’re putting pressure on your wrists, reducing your risk of wrist injury and allowing you to train at a higher volume. Regarding wrist injuries, I’ve made another video dedicated fully to minimizing your risk of injury, how you can train with wrist injury, and how you can train away injury. 

From the photos and video about handstand equipment, you’ll see right away that handstand equipment is very simple. It’s basically just simple woodwork that you could easily do yourself if you wanted. However for convenience there are companies, like WoodPower, who do this for us :). All of my handstand equipment is made by WoodPower, and I’d definitely recommend their stuff. If you do decide you’d like to buy stuff from WoodPower, feel free to use my discount code: BERG.

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