Handstands?

[lyorn]

I just had a weird encounter in the gym. I like to close my sessions with some stretching, and then do something for fun and balance. Currently it's handstands against the wall.

Today, a guy (who can walk on his hands while cracking jokes, btw) asked me if I was doing gymnastics or acrobatics, and I said, no, I'm just practising handstands for fun. He said that it's rare for a woman to do handstands at all.

Which left me baffled. Is it actually rare? And if so, is there any reason for it?

Comments

[holyschist]

Uh, really? IDK, maybe it's because I did gymnastics, but I was really into handstands (and walking on my hands) for a long time (can't do it these days because of wrist damage). Women generally need to be more careful about tucking in shirts, but I don't see any other reasons women wouldn't do handstands, unless perhaps they have physical discomfort issues related to breasts.

[lyorn]

Strangely, my shoulder, which hates me doing push-ups, has no problems with handstands at all. I hope that one day I'll be back to where I was when I was ten when it comes to walking on my hands, and then maybe even get beyond that and manage more than five steps...

[holyschist]

Not really strange--it's a totally different form of force exerted. My wrists can handle pushups on my fists, but not anything that involves placing my palms flat on the ground and putting weight on them.

[lizzieladie]

Huh. The only thing that I can think of is that maybe he hasn't met many women who he knows have the upper body strength to do one. It's especially weird that you were doing one against the wall when he said that - I do those a lot and my upper body is not that strong. I would have guessed that most people whose arms joints are okay and who are even a little bit in shape could handle doing one against a wall, regardless of gender. If he were talking about free-standing ones it would make marginally more sense to me even though I'm not still not sure it would be accurate.

[lyorn]

The only thing that I can think of is that maybe he hasn't met many women who he knows have the upper body strength to do one.

I have thought about that, but as you say, it's unlikely. Not that much upper body strength involved. But he might not know that.

Or he just wanted to start a conversation? I'm off the clue train in a bad way when it comes to that...

[natmerc]

Frankly, I don't see many people do handstands at all -- men or women The only places where you really see it regularly are in gymnastics/crossfit and yoga. If you're in one of those, sure, but otherwise? It's more of a "lookee what I can do!" goofing around, but that's it.

He should go to more yoga classes. :)

I did it for the first time last fall (against a wall in crossfit) and it was really neat, because it was one of the goals I'd set, but I never expected I couldn't do it if I worked at it.

[lyorn]

Might be the "goofing around" factor. There is a lot of seriousness in the gym...

[rydra_wong]

Huh. Handstand is a yoga pose, among other things, and yoga classes are usually overwhelmingly-female ...

I'm wondering if the guy in question comes from a background (parkour or something like that?) which does skew male, and that would explain why he has the impression that it's a "guy thing".

[lyorn]

Maybe. I noticed him because he is the only one doing gymnastics, and is good at it.

[supermouse]

I stopped doing it as a pre-teen because I got abuse for doing so - it was 'childish', I was told.
Sometimes I wish I could go back in time...

[lyorn]

Oh gods, if I consider all the things I gave up in my early teens because I was told I was too old or too fat... I have a list of things as long as my arm to catch up on now that I'm forty...

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Ooh, now I totally wanna try handstands-against-the-wall next time I'm at the gym.