Understanding Handstanding!

​HELPING HANDSTANDS..........After a weekend teaching 60 plus people how to handstand I thought id pass on a few things that i see time and time again that could make life a lot easier if you fancy playing with handstand...and lets be clear, there is no need to do handstand EVER. But if you want to its quite fun!
1- if your shoulders are behind your wrists before you begin you will find it very difficult to stack your body in a straight line as your bodyweight is too far back. You are trying to defy the laws of physics!
2-you need to stack hips above wrists NOT hips above shoulders necessarily
3-dont worry about straightening your legs until you can hold handstand with your legs in splits position (like a tight rope walkers stick ) or with your knees pulled into your chest. Both of these lower your centre of gravity and stop your pelvis from wobbling about so much. This means less forces moving down at the floor for the hands to control. 
4-Once you can hold it like that for 30 seconds regularly , then worry about straightening your legs. Whats with this need to straighten the legs anyway? Seems to me its about recreating some picture we have n our minds eye.
5- you will have a slightly banana back because you are looking forwards. Don't worry about this, you wont get rid of that bend until you control the core more and drop the ears in line with the arms.
Once again a straight back is just our minds picture of what we think looks pretty, we arent doing gymnastics, it is about awareness not what looks nice. The lower back has a natural bend in it for a very good reason! Control it, don't allow it to hyperextend but you dont need to straighten it!!! Look at any of the old pics of iyengar or sivananda, they control the bend in their backs, they don't straighten out smile emoticon
6-Strength to adjust in the hands (this comes from the forearm muscles) is absolutely key, Develop this, get a finger strengthener, practice taking weight forward in plank. KEEP THE WEIGHT OUT OF THE HEEL OF YOUR PALM AND TAKE IT FURTHER FORWARDS!
Of course there is a lot more to it, which is why my workshops are several hours long but thats a good place to start.
Good luck and enjoy the journey, forget the destination! ‪#‎yogalikewater‬‪#‎yogasansfrontiers‬