Instructions

When performing this exercise, it is important to KEEP YOUR ARMS LOCKED AND STRAIGHT! It is common for beginner ninjas to bend their arms during the kick up, this will load your arm muscles and your arms may buckle and you end up on your head!

1. Position yourself about a shin’s length away from the wall. You can estimate this distance by standing right up to the wall, and use your lower leg to estimate where your hands should be on the floor
2. Pick which leg you want to kick up with, let’s call this your “kicking leg”. This is totally an individual preference
   1. Your opposite leg will be called the “thrusting leg”. This leg will be used to build momentum to help you get to the inverted position
3. Place your hands on the ground and lock out your arms
4. Position your kicking foot underneath your waist, and your thrusting foot straight out behind you
5. To kick up onto the wall, you start by lifting your thrusting leg upwards as hard as you can, while you are lifting you will explode upwards with your kicking leg
   1. Focus on bringing your thrusting foot up and around towards the wall
6. During the kick up, open your shoulder angle to bring your torso up and inline with your arms
7. The momentum created with your two legs will help you invert, stop the rotation by hitting the wall with your feet
8. Once you are supported in an inverted position, Keep your legs bent and feet resting on the wall behind you
9. Hold this position for the desired amount of time
10. Lower yourself by bringing one leg down back to the ground, landing on the balls of your feet. Your other leg will naturally follow

Key points

• Keep your arms locked and straight! Your arms should not bend at all the entire time
• You may not hit the wall the very first time you kick up, this is fine, it may take several attempts, or even several days to learn the coordination and force required to kick up to the wall. Keep practicing
• If you are not comfortable being inverted and feel like you will fall over ask a friend to help spot you, guiding your hips as you kick up
• Once you hit the wall for the first time, things will click and you will start trusting the wall will be there to stop your rotation