For most of his life, Michael Comberiate has preferred to look at the world, as he says, upside down.With his hands on the ground and feet in the air, the retired NASA engineer has kept meticulous records of how many handstands he’s done in his 77 years: more than 105,000.Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. He’s done handstands on mountaintops, pyramids and sheets of ice; in about 250 countries, all 50 U.S. states, plus dozens of times in Antarctica and the North and South poles. Comberiate – whom friends and colleagues dubbed “NASA Mike” – says by his estimates, he has done “more documented handstands in more places than anyone ever.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementOver decades, Comberiate has suffered severe back pain, separated shoulders and undergone several surgeries for torn rotator cuffs – injuries he says are unrelated to handstands, but rather mostly due to years breaking boards and cinder blocks as a taekwondo master black belt.Now he’s battling his fourth bout with cancer – a rare and aggressive form called mantle cell lymphoma – so he’s put most of his travels and handstands on hold.Comberiate said he hopes that once his five months of treatment at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda end in late February, he can overcome the side effects that cause dizziness and weakness in his arms. He wants to get back to his regimen of at least five handstands a day and try to do more handstands in more places.“It’s been a fun thing to do,” Comberiate said one afternoon in the spacious home that he built himself in Highland, Maryland. Even though he’d just completed inpatient cancer treatment, he could barely sit still as he talked with excitement about his passion for inversions.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“It’s unique and it introduces …
