My friends the Tapp Brothers have just released a free video that shows you what it takes to overcome your fear.
This is the biggest thing to hold you back in doing Parkour, gymnastics and even hand balancing sometimes.
It’s something that I personally addressed in a recent workshop, because it’s that important.
You’ll also find out exactly what you need to learn the Kong Vault.
This is the best quality and most step by step parkour material I’ve seen, and they’re just getting started.
The handstand on forearms is commonly called the forearm stand.
There are also a number of other names like the lion or tiger stand. In yoga it has been called Pincha Mayurasana or the Feathered Peacock pose.
It is a great exercise for opening up the upper back and shoulders. It can also be used for lower back flexibility. In the following video you’ll see a woman doing just that. Pay attention to the different positions she takes with her legs, and also how she starts off with support in this position. If you’ve never done the forearm stand before I would highly recommend doing it against a wall the first time.
I typically teach the handstand on forearms as one of the lead-up stunts towards the true handstand, as once you’re use to it, it’s quite easy to balance in. For more details check out the Secrets of the Handstand Quick Start.
This post is about moving from a handstand to crow position. The crow is the common name used in yoga, for what I generally refer to as the frogstand. It is also called a bakasana.
You’ll notice here the strap around her arms. This is a prop used to help keep the arms in the proper alignment. I’ve never tried it out myself, but it looks like it could be helpful in preventing the arms from flaring out.
Moving from the handstand to crow is easier then going the opposite way, the crow to handstand as is shown in the following video. Of course this can then be done with lowering back down in the same manner.
The handstand to crow and vice versa can be done with straighter arms or arms with more bend.
This video shows a one arm press from straddle to one arm handstand on hand balancing canes done 11 times.
You can skip to about 1:20 when the action starts.
Judging by the reactions and build up it must have been a record at least among this group.
One Arm Press is a super advanced skill. Doing it on two arms is outside what most people can do, let alone on one.
Thanks to Dunte for sending me this video.
The other day my friend was telling me about this device called a gymnastic rings dream machine. Surprisingly I had never heard of it. Well, he built one in his gym, and just yesterday I got to try it out for the first time ever.
Sorry the video isn’t great, but it was shot with an iphone on a whim.
The gymnastic rings dream machine allows you unload a significant portion of your bodyweight and thus you can work on harder skills. You see me here doing an iron cross and front lever, two moves that are currently outside of my ability (but not for too much longer).
Does anyone else have experience with the dream machine?
If you can’t walk on your hands specifically, here are a couple exercises that are handstand walk substitutions.
They require much less balance then walking out in the open, but still train the same muscles and support ability needed.
#1 – Walk laterally in a handstand across a wall. Here is an example.
#2 – Walk vertically up into a handstand and down from a pushup position.
Both these are great exercises most people can do, even if they haven’t learned how to balance in a handstand yet.
If you don’t have the strength to support yourself in these positions yet, you can also do animal movements, which take some of the weight onto the hands which will build up your ability until you can support yourself.
The following, going to a handstand from sitting position, is an intermediate skill though it can be made easier or harder.
This video shows you a good example of how you can do this move.
This is probably the easiest form to do this skill in.
1 – Start in an L-sit position
2 – Tuck your legs
3 – Come to a tuck planche or bent arm tucked position.
4 – Press up to a handstand
You can reverse the positions and come back down from a handstand to sitting position as well. This skill is just slightly harder then the frogstand press.
To make this more advanced keep your arms straight then entire time. This may take a little less strength but more flexibility.
To make it much more advanced keep the legs straight the entire time. This requires much more flexibility to bring them through your arms, plus compressive ability.
To make this skill easier try it from parallel bars.
The handstand from sitting is a great hand balancing press skill no matter how you do it so start working on it.
Are you asking is a handstand easier than a headstand?
The short answer is NO! (Although there are some exceptions.)
Let me explain why.
The handstand has a smaller base of support, i.e. your two hands, rather then the two hands and your head that are commonly used in the headstand.
The leverage of your body is also longer in the handstand then in the headstand, making your center of gravity higher, and thus it harder to balance.
For these two reasons handstands are not easier then headstands.
Here are the exceptions:
1 – You have cervical problems that don’t allow you to put weight on your head. If it causes pain or injury then a handstand may be easier then a headstand.
2 – If you’re talking about the hands-free headstand then yes the handstand is easier then this very advanced skill. To learn how to train the hands-free headstand click here.
In a previous post we covered a bunch of handstand fails, one of which was the close to famous handstand on treadmill fail. Well when looking at that video I also came across the opposite, a treadmill handstand success.
There is one big main difference I can tell in what led to failure versus success. The SPEED that the treadmill was going.
It also looks like this guy knew what he was doing and was confident in his ability to walk on his hands, whereas the other was probably an un-proficient college kid who thought it would be cool if he could do it. Still not the best form but he did it.
You have to laugh at his friend saying “He is a beast” without much excitement in his voice throughout this video.
If you want to learn all your need to walk and jump on your hands go here.
I just finished up the Animal Flow Certification put on by Mike Fitch of Global Bodyweight Training. Mike is a good friend of mine and I’m happy to say I lent a helping hand in getting his website and business off the ground. So to see the great success he’s had so far is amazing.
After finishing up the weekend I asked Mike to do a short interview. It would have been longer but I had to hit the road and drive 6 hours home.
In this interview we talked about his background, how the animal flow movements came about, how the build the exact strength, flexibility and skill needed for hand balancing, and what it takes to become good.
Be sure to check out Mike’s Animal Flow Workout.
Also you can check out my Animal Flow Review here.
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