Doing handstands can be a bit tricky unless you have been a gymnast for a long time. It is an exercise that requires good physical fitness, especially strong forearms and core muscles, to stand upside down. This means you need to work on these two areas to do solid handstands. If you want to start doing handstands, you need more than just physical fitness. You need training equipment and other things that will help you do solid and safe handstands. Here are 5 main tips for doing handstands: 1. Start With Weight and Core Training If you are overweight and have weak core muscles, it will be difficult to do safe handstands. Your hands and core muscles might be too weak to handle your body weight when in an upside-down position. That’s why it is recommended that you start with weight and core training. Lose some weight to reduce pressure on the wrists, elbows, and shoulders. Training core muscles before doing handstands also helps to prevent spine injuries. 2. Use The Right Equipment When ready for handstands, start with buying training equipment, especially if you are practicing at home. The importance of proper equipment is in order to increase your safety as well as to enhance the training. Get yourself a good exercise mat that is thicker to prevent injuries when landing. You will also need quality handstand blocks for hip, hand and back support, as well as to bring bolsters into the studio. These three are some of the essential training equipment for handstands. 3. Body Position The most important thing when practicing handstands is body position. Everything from the palms, elbows to the hips must be aligned for safe handstands. The arms should be straight and always locked by your ears in order for arms to hold the body weight. Keep the hips stacked to the shoulders to reduce pressure on the spine and to maintain a streamlined position from the legs all the way down to the palms. 4. Keep Breathing The handstand position activates a lot of muscles. It also includes multiple movements, especially when getting ready to spring. This confusion makes it easy to forget to breathe. You need a lot of oxygen to the muscles as well as to remove carbon dioxide. That’s why breathing is crucial when doing handstands. Proper breathing also helps you to relax and stay in this position for longer. Holding your breath, which is common with beginners, increases fatigue hence resulting in shorter handstands. 5. Clean Exit How you exit the handstand position is very crucial for your health. The wrong exit can cause injuries to your hands and the spine. The best way to exit is to start with bending one leg to let the weight lightly float down to reduce the landing impact. Wait until you feel your normal breathing has returned before you lower the other leg. The landing on the mat should be slow and soft to prevent injuries. Handstands are intense exercises that require good physical fitness, proper diet and proper equipment to avoid injuries. Observe these tips if you want to do safe handstands. We highly recommend working with a professional trainer.

What comes in your mind when carbs are mentioned? To most fitness-conscious people think of adding weight. But how true is it that carbs are responsible for unhealthy weight gain? Well, that’s a misconception because of distorted information about carbohydrates. It’s not about the carbohydrates but the type of carbohydrates. The high and low carb diet is irrelevant – the most important thing is the type of carbs. You need to healthy carbs and not just any carbohydrates. Do you know that whole wheat bread is better than refined white bread? That’s true, and yet they are both carbs. So, if you are planning to lose weight or keep fit, you don’t need to limit the number of carbs you take. The most important thing is knowing how healthy the carbs you are eating are. 4 Best Tips for Adding Healthy Carbs in Your Diet For healthy carbs intake, you need a plan on what and when to consume carbs. Here is one of the healthy ways to add carbohydrates to your diet. Start the Day with Whole Grains Starting the day with whole-grain will give you the energy that you need to keep you going. Whole grains provide you with the healthy carbs needed to power your morning hours. We highly recommend that you go for old fashioned oats and not the instant oatmeal. The later will be giving you unhealthy carbohydrates. A cold cereal that lists whole grain first in their ingredient list will also work fine. But they should have low sugar content. The cereal should also have less than 8 grams of sugar per serving and at least 4 grams of fibre. Get Grain Bread For Lunch Now that you had healthy carbs for breakfast, you need to add more carbs for lunch. The choice shouldn’t be difficult to pick – a grain bread will be ideal for lunch. But don’t go picking any bread that you come across. Look for the ‘whole wheat’ or ‘whole rye’ listing on the bread. It should be the first item in the ingredient list. If made from the whole grain only, the healthier the bread will be. You also need to check the amount of sodium in the bread. So, be very careful when reading the ingredient list because it matters a lot. Not Always Bread Most of us have this habit of having bread as part of the meals. You must not always eat bread. There are other healthier alternatives. Do you know that even brown bread could be made from the fine ground floor? Well, there are also other products used, such as sodium for baking bread. So, you might not be eating healthy, after all. For example, you can try whole grain such as brown rice instead of bread. Avoid Potatoes There was a lot of debate about potatoes in the diet. But it was settled by scientific research that proved potatoes can promote weight gain. That’s why we recommend avoiding it most of the time and go for healthier alternatives. A good alternative would be beans and legumes. The two have slowly digested carbohydrates. This means they will keep you full for a longer time hence reducing calorie intake. That’s how you keep fit and maintain a healthy weight. Don’t forget to control your portions. In conclusion, you shouldn’t fear that eating carbs will get you fat. What you need is to eat the right type of carbohydrates that will help you maintain fitness. Go for healthy carbs and not junk.