Workshops

The Handstand Path

4-Week Workshop with Scott Brown, Sundays in February 1:30pm - 4:00pm

The Handstand Path

4-Week Workshop with Scott Brown, RYT200, LYT Level 1

Sundays in February 1:30pm - 4:00pm (STUDIO)

Sunday Feb 5, 12, 19, & 26

Price

Registration: $85. Yoga Lab UNLIMITED Members get 10% Off! (Members - check your email for a discount code).

Capacity is limited to 12 participants. Preregistration required.

Location:

Yoga Lab Studio

124 McAllister Alley, State College, PA 16801

Parking in the McAllister Garage is FREE on Sundays!

What to Bring:

Yoga mat, water, small snack (optional), smartphone. We have mats at the studio but encourage you to bring your own.

Two of the more common obstacles to success in an inversion practice are fear and optimal mechanics/technique…and quite often the two are related. This is not to say these are the only obstacles, but having a better understanding of the movements helps demystify the process and the underlying understanding this provides can go a long way to providing confidence in one’s ability, thus serving to minimize the impact of fear. This workshop is predicated on yoga being the primary outlet for participants, but the methodology is applicable for non-yoga practitioners as well.

Sessions:

Each session is structured to focus on one of the four primary entry methods to Handstand (1. Scissor/L; 2. Tuck; 3. Straddle; 4. Pike). Sessions will touch on incremental strategies/drills to build your practice both at the wall and, ultimately, away from the wall, as well as the intangible aspects of an inversion practice (such as proprioception and the mental challenges of a demanding practice). And while different entries will be introduced over the course of the workshop, the scissor/L entry will remain a recurring focus throughout. Sessions will consist of a topic overview, a warm-up, an approx 45min session-specific LYT yoga flow (which will incorporate postures/poses relevant to the entry method that also reinforce technique and serve to promote foundational strength building), and will close with drill work and open practice to help encourage progress beyond the workshop space.

Participants do not presently need to be able to balance away from the wall, but some degree of inversion experience/practice coupled with a yoga practice and/or a consistent resistance training based exercise program would be helpful.

Session 1. Courage: Moving Past Fear

Sunday Feb 5, 1:30 - 4:00pm

Using the Scissor/L entry as our framework, we’ll explore the mechanics of stacking shoulders-over-wrists and hips-over-shoulders in pursuit of fully stacking ourselves in handstand. Increasing familiarity with weight bearing on the hands and optimizing mechanics will be a primary objective.

Session 2. Confidence: Moving In Space

Sunday Feb 12, 1:30 - 4:00pm

Using the Tuck entry as our framework, we’ll explore the challenges of inverting when our weight is not fully balanced over our hands. While tuck is a more technically challenging entry, it’s a smaller “movement” that can provide opportunities for developmental “success” balancing while also serving as a potential gateway to handstand. Increasing familiarity with the role of “compression” and how it can benefit all phases of practice will be a primary objective.

Session 3. Consistency: Moving In Time

Sunday Feb 19, 1:30 - 4:00pm

Using the Straddle entry as our framework, we’ll explore the challenges of adding more leg movement into inverting and how that impacts balance. By this session you might find that remaining consistent/motivated in your home practice has become challenging. Examining the subtleties of progress will be a primary objective and how involving different entry practices can be informative and “refreshing”/motivating.

Session 4. Change: Moving On…

Sunday Feb 26, 1:30 - 4:00pm

Using the Pike entry as our framework, we’ll explore the challenges that overcoming increased momentum can add into inverting. Examining the greater demand placed on core will be focal and how mindful engagement/alignment can bring ease and greater control to the practice. We’ll also look at where your inversion practice can go beyond what’s been covered in the workshop.

FAQs

  • Having attended many single session workshops myself, I’ve found they tend to provide more “sizzle” than “steak”, especially where long-term motivation is concerned. This format seeks to provide a measure of ongoing accountability that is intended as a positive factor.

  • The Handstand Path was designed as a “comprehensive” unit, so priority is being given to those who sign up for it on the whole. Should all 12 spots not fill, single session sign-ups will be available 1 week prior to the beginning of the 1st session at an individual rate of $35 per session.

  • Participants do not presently need to be able to balance away from the wall, but some degree of inversion experience/practice coupled with a yoga practice and/or a consistent resistance training based exercise program would be helpful.

  • That depends on your starting “baseline” and how much work you put in, but it’s probably safest not to hold that as an expectation. The Handstand Path is intended to be foundational and provide tools that will help you throughout your inversion journey, however long that may be.

  • You can cancel up to 1-week before the workshop begins for a full refund. After that the workshop is nonrefundable. If your schedule changes please cancel early to open up a spot for someone else.

“My motivation for teaching this workshop is to, hopefully, help make a daunting and elusive physical goal seem more attainable by providing insights obtained from my experiences going through the process both on my own and as an active “consumer” of hand balancing methodologies via other workshops; a process that, for me, had a starting point where kicking up onto the wall was a prospect that terrified me.”

— Scott Brown