Flipping your body upside down can be incredibly intimidating. You feel out of control, and the ground feels so far away. People keep saying, “Just tuck your chin and roll,” but it certainly doesn’t feel that easy. Here are five quick tips for feeling more comfortable on your hands.

How to Beat Your Fear of Handstands with 5 Simple Tricks

1. Start With Your Feet on the Ground

We’re going to scale this back. Way back…

… by not flipping over at all.

Because part of this fear likely stems from supporting and balancing your whole body on just your hands, we want to start by having you support and balance some of your body on your hands.

Start in a downward dog position. Yes, this is a yoga pose. And yes, it’s going to help you tremendously.

What you want to do is practice shifting some of the weight into your hands with your feet still firmly planted on the ground. This is going to help you start to get used to the idea of balancing everything on your hands — without the fear of falling.

2. Graduate to a Box

Feeling better? Good! Let’s keep going.

Next, we’re going to do the same thing, but on a plyo box. You might already have some experience with this if you’ve ever used a box to scale handstand push-ups.

In this case, we’re going to get in that position and just hold it there. So, your toes will be on the box, your hands will be planted on the ground, and your body will be in an L shape, with your bum in the air.

Once again, try shifting your weight forward slightly.

What’s great about this exercise is that it’s a good middle point between having your feet on the ground and standing upright in a full-blown handstand. You get a better taste of it, without having to commit fully.

3. Move to the Wall

Once you’re comfortable on the box, it’s time to move to the wall. There are two ways to do this, and the method you pick mostly depends on your own comfort level.

One option is to kick up with your back to the wall. A lot of athletes opt for this because with the wall supporting their back, they’re not as scared of falling.

The other option is to face the wall. To get in this position, you either do a wall walk until you’re in a handstand, or you can sort of cartwheel into that position. This one requires a little more comfort and coordination. However, it may offer a bigger reward: Without the wall at your back, you’re going to better conquer that fear of fall backward.

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4. Practice Somersaults

We know this sounds silly but hear us out.

Your friends were right when they told you to tuck and roll. You just need to get comfortable with it. Rehearsing somersaults can help you get there — and prepare you for when you inevitably need to safely bail out of a handstand.

5. Work on Your Cartwheels

Cartwheels are great because if you think about it, they’re essentially a controlled fall. And what happens when you miss or come out of a handstand?

It’s a controlled fall.

Be patient with yourself as you go through these steps — Rome wasn’t built in a day! With time, you’ll be demolishing handstands like a total pro.

Learn more about how to scale handstand push-ups.