Max Riffner

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Handstands like Batman

So, I don’t know about you all, but when I was a kid, I wanted to be Batman really bad. Minus the whole parents dying thing of course, but yeah, I had a big Bat-wish. Don’t get me wrong; I liked Spider-Man and Superman a whole lot also, but since those were somewhat improbable scenarios compared to Batman, I didn’t really consider them as much.

Batman doesn’t have powers. Batman is the pinnacle of human achievement, both physically and mentally. And he did it all himself.

Obviously I went ga-ga when Batman Begins came out this summer, not only because I don’t really like the Tim Burton movies or the crap that followed it, but because you got to see Bruce Wayne in training. I always liked those scenes in the comic when I was a kid also. I remember one scene where after a night of fighting crime, Batman comes home and does handstand push-ups. This was back when regular push-ups were hard for me. My mind was blown away when he could do handstand push-ups. So of course, I get it in my mind that since I wanted to be Batman, you have to be able to do those handstand push-ups.

Talk about setting myself up for failure.

Years passed, and as I grew out of my Batman obsession, I gave up on even thinking about handstands (I still do regular push-ups occasionally to mix it up).

Last night at yoga however, I did my first handstand! Ben and Jed, the studio owner, were both leading the class. Excitement bounced through them with all the neat new tricks they learned during a workshop this past weekend. One of the new tricks was getting into a handstand with a bit of a spot. I had pretty much resigned myself to never going up – I am just not that flexible or balanced. I can do handstands at a 90 degree angle with my feet planted at the wall (which are hard), and I was okay with that. So when they were telling us what we were going to do, I obviously got nervous.

I did two handstands last night for about a minute a piece (may have seemed longer since I was just so excited). Once I was up there, I felt great; it is so much easier than doing it against the wall. You build the strength against the wall, though, so you can get up later. After the first one, I came up with a giant grin on my face and exclaimed to Jed like the neighbor kid in The Incredibles – “That was SO COOL!”

It was fun, and I couldn’t help letting that Batman fantasy escape a little after I had forgotten about it for so long. I don’t really want to be Batman anymore, but I’m pretty jazzed about the handstands.

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