What to wear: Comfortable clothes. Trainers, if you're outdoors; no shoes if you're indoors.

Muscles worked: All - especially inner thighs, shoulders, waist, deep core and tummy muscles.

Before attempting this exercise, make sure you’ve got the strength and flexibility to perform it correctly. If you’re not strong enough to support your body weight in a handstand, the cartwheel will be virtually impossible. So if this is you, start with the strength drills below before moving on to the cartwheel.

If you can already hold yourself up in a handstand, you should be able to attempt the cartwheel safely. Move onto the cartwheel drills below to improve your strategy.

Improving your Strength

• Handstands against a wall: Stand with your back facing a wall. Place your hands on the floor in front of you and walk your feet up the wall until you’re in a handstand with your body against the wall. Try to hold as long as you can, then come down and repeat.
• Handstands against a wall with a straddle split: This is an important cartwheel position and will help with the flexibility of your hips.
• Push ups: Forward push ups, reverse push ups, triangle, wide–armedÉ all will help with arm strength.
• Planks: These will help with the core strength you need to perform gymnastics skills. Lay on your stomach on the ground with your elbows and forearms on the floor in front of you. Push up on your toes, holding your stomach up parallel to the floor. Hold for at least 30 seconds, then come down and repeat.

Cartwheel drills and tips

• Cartwheels over a mat: Place your hands on a mat in front of you and kick your feet over your body from one side to the other, extending your legs out straight. Once this becomes easy, start standing in front of the mat and place your hands on it and cartwheel over. The goal is to get your legs to travel straight over your head. Once you can do this, a cartwheel on the floor will be easy!
• Cartwheels into a pit: If you have access to a foam pit, start on the edge facing the foam pit and cartwheel into it, again focusing on getting your legs to travel directly over your head
• Cartwheel down a wedge mat: The slant will help accelerate your legs over your head. It’s a good place to start if you've never tried a cartwheel before.
• Levers: Stand with one foot pointed forward as if you're getting ready to cartwheel. Keeping your arms close by your ears, reach down and place your hands on the floor while lifting your back leg. Now push off the ground, keeping your arms by your ears, and bring your body up to a standing lunge.

Remember, rhythm is important. It should be like this: hand, hand, foot, foot.

And finally, don’t forget to reach out as far as you can! The spacing for your cartwheel should look like this: Foot------foot-----------hand----hand----------foot------foot.