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Handstand Blood Rush

By Bac on June 9, 2012 in Handstands

How do you deal with a handstand blood rush? I’m referring to when blood rushes into your head while doing any handstand movements.

This happens because of gravity. In an inversion you’re reversing the flow. While some people suffer more from this effect then others, there are a number of things you can do.

#1
Make sure you aren’t holding your breath. This is a natural tendency when people first start doing handstands. This will contribute to the problem and you can even burst some blood vessels in your face if you do it. Learn to breathe naturally.

#2
Use headstands for longer periods of time to get use to it. The headstand is the same as far as inversion and gravity flow is with the handstand but is much easier to hold. You can use to position especially to get use to being upside down. Another option would be hanging from the yoga trapeze.

#3
Build up the amount of handstand practice you do over time to acclimate to it. As your body becomes use to being upside down you won’t feel the same pressure inside your head. Be patient with it. Some people certainly get it worse then others, but everyone can get over it in time.

Get use to the position and there is no handstand blood rush!

This isn’t a harmful thing (with the exception of possibly bursting some blood vessels, but that won’t even cause permanent damage). Just follow these steps and you won’t even remember the handstand blood rush in no time.

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One Arm Handstand Pushup?

By Bac on June 8, 2012 in One Hand, Presses & Pushup

We continue the stories from Jonathan today. This story is about a true one arm handstand pushup!

The other story is from an other friend of mine, who’s Chinese and who’s dream is to be a performer, either an acrobat, or a singer. Today, she was back from China, where she spent 10 months training in one of their national circus schools. She was showing me various photos and videos from the circus school and the place she was living in, and we were talking about acrobatics. I mentioned my intention to one day go to Kiev and train with Yvan Zubkevych and to China to train with their acrobats, specifying that one of my main goals was to one day be able to do a full range one arm handstand push-up (on a pole, so I can go down to touch my chest or my shoulder), as I’ve never seen anyone doing it, and there’s no videos of any of the people who claims to have been able to do something like that.

She said: “Oh, but the kids there, they do that like it’s nothing!” Shocked, I was like: “Uh, are you sure you’re not mistaking? Like, they actually hold a one arm handstand, keep their body straight, bend their arm and shoulder, and they press up again, while staying in a vertical position?” And she said: “Yeah, they were going until the top of their heads touched the ground, then they were pressing back up.” Needless to say, I was pissed that she filmed lots of cool performances, but omitted to film such an incredible strength feat. It’s not her fault, she’s not really interested in strength, and I can understand that acts are flashier than conditioning, but damn… A one arm handstand push-up? It almost made me cry like a baby!

I told her that the next time she’d go there, she’d be damn obligated to film it for me. And, actually, I might go there myself, as they are open to skills exchange and seem to need better strength training (Obviously not for those few kids doing one arm handstand push-ups, but their conditioning is strictly limited to what they’re practicing, which make them really specialized and not well groomed on an overall perspective. Plus, they got weights and the kids are using them, but nobody shows them proper form either, and most of them would simply need more strength.), but it might take a couple of years, because I’ll perform for a good two years and save my money to wander around the world and train crazy hard without having to worry about food or stuff.

But when I’ll go, I’ll see for my own eyes if they can really do it. And I think they very probably can, since my friend isn’t interested in strength she wouldn’t have made that up. Plus, I believe it is possible to achieve, and I’ll be training hard to get it.

So there you have it. There has been lots of debate on if the one arm handstand pushup could ever actually be done in strict form as outlined in Convict Conditioning. Some people say yes, others say no. Unfortunately although there are stories like this, it has never been caught on video to my knowledge. I believe some day it will be done.

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Handstand Blocks for Sale

By Bac on June 6, 2012 in Handstands

As far as I know this is the only site that has handstand blocks for sale.

Let me tell you about how these came about. A couple years after starting this site, an older hand balancer was enjoying it and sent me a pair of stands as a gift. I was very pleased and I also figured other people would be interested in them. When I asked they said YES! So my friend and I reverse engineered them and came up with the model I’ve been selling ever since.

If you want you can easily make them yourselves, assuming you have the tools, resources and the know-how. I don’t make much money off of these, and it’s a bit of a hassle getting them made, but I like being able to offer it to hand balancers around the world.

If you’d like to get a pair you can order the handstand blocks here.

Also if you’re looking for something custom let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

There are a number of other similar handstand blocks I’ve seen around.

These ones are on a solid base. Great if it’s custom made for you. Not if your shoulder span happens to be bigger or smaller then fits. You’ll also notice the sloped hand blocks as these may aid in making balancing easier.

Once again a set base. Also the hand blocks themselves are a bit too square for my tastes.

If you want to pay a ton of money for a professional setup you can over at Unicycle.fr. They have all manner of setups, but be forewarned it is going to cost you.

So if you’re looking for handstand blocks for sale you’ve come to the right place. You can buy them here, make your own, or try to find them anywhere else (not recommended).

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How to do a Cartwheel Step by Step

By Bac on June 5, 2012 in Tumbling

The video below and the accompanying steps will show you how to do a cartwheel step by step. The cartwheel is one of the most basic and foundational tumbling or gymnastic moves. It’s a move everyone should be able to do with just a little amount of practice.

How to do a Cartwheel Step by Step

Step 1
Figure out which leg to lead off of for the cartwheel. This is important in the beginning, and with a little more practice you’ll be able to do cartwheels on both sides. Although one side is usually tougher then another, this is one move where you can easily work off both legs.

Step 2
Determine if you can support your weight on your hands. This is done in the video with a move called the bunny hop. You could also use a handstand against the wall.

Step 3
Do a bunny hop to the side. This ends up looking something like a move that people that don’t know how to cartwheel end up doing when the try it.

Step 4
Do a bunny hop to the side, except this time you land on one foot before bringing down the other.

Step 5
This uses a cartwheel mat, although it’s not necessary. This explains where your hands and feet go while doing the cartwheel. You can see an example of this in this other article on how to do the cartwheel.

Step 6
Do a cartwheel.

For some people you might need to teach in this many steps how to do a cartwheel, but for others they’ll be able to pick it up with a minor amount of cues.

If you’d like more advice on a wide variety of tumbling skills check out Tumbling Illustrated.

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How to do a Handstand Against the Wall

By Bac on June 4, 2012 in Handstands

In this article I’ll be showing you the most beginner stage of hand balancing, that is how to do a handstand against the wall. While most of this site is devoted to getting out in the open for freestanding handstands, there are many people that can’t yet do this simple stunt. And that’s okay. You have to start where you are and that’s what you’ll learn here.

There are a number of things you must focus on when doing this. The first and foremost is getting into position. Doing a kick-up is by far this easiest way to do that.

This older video of mine shows focuses on the kick-up and how to do it to get into a handstand against the wall.

How to do a Handstand Against the Wall

The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing

The next important part is holding the handstand position. There are a number of important points here.

Keep the arms locked out. This places the stress on your bone structure rather then relying on muscle, which would occur with any bend in the arms.
Shrug the shoulders up to the ears.
Keep the legs together and toes pointed. This isn’t just for aesthetics. When you move further into balancing, having your legs tight really helps, so get in the habit now.
The back can be arched or kept straight. Both versions are legitimate handstands, they just have some differences in them.
Your head can be looking down at the ground or through the arms and looking opposite the wall.

When practicing first get comfortable with kicking up. You’ll need to increase or decrease the amount of force you use. Once you are good at that you can begin to hold the handstand position for time. And to progress you’ll continue to add more and more time.

Eventually when this is easy, you can begin working on balancing in the handstand.

If you’ve enjoyed this article on how to do a handstand against the wall please leave your comments or questions below.

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Handstand Crossfit

By Bac on June 2, 2012 in Handstands, Presses & Pushup

I don’t agree with everything Crossfit does, but they still are doing a good amount right. One of which is that there are some handstands in Crossfit. With all their cross training they do hit a little on many different things, In this post I’ll offer a little advice on how to take it further. First, a quote from the founder:

Handstands crossfit, hand walking, and pressing to the handstand are critical exercises to developing your athletic potential and essential components to becoming “CrossFit.”

Historically, these exercises have been collectively referred to as “hand balancing” and have been an integral part of strength and health culture since antiquity, yet today hand balancing seems to have followed the passenger pigeon to extinction. From Crossfit.com

I agree with him that handstands have become a lost art, hence the name of this site. Now let’s look at how handstands are typically included in a Crossfit workout. There are two basic ways.

Handstand crossfit holds against the wall
Handstand pushups

Of course being Crossfit they love kipping. And they even kip with handstand pushups! (It’s not just a pullup thing)

An interesting exercise but I would certainly not use it as your mainstay for training. Build strength through other progressions like in this handstand pushups book and you will building stronger arms and shoulders.

Don’t be so concerned with getting 21-15-9 reps of handstand pushups in your workout, when you can’t do one strictly, but start where you are and build from there.

Handstand holds against the wall are great. They help train your position and can build stability and endurance in the position. Great to finish off your training with that.

Unfortunately in most Crossfits this is as far as their handstand training goes. What about the balancing aspect?

First off all this should not be included in a typical Crossfit workout. When you’re gassed and fatigued is not the time to work on fine motor skills. Instead you can perform a little bit of free hand balancing practice before hand. Use it as part of your warmup.

Most people will try to jump right into the handstand but this would be the perfect time to start out with easier lead-up stunts like the frogstand and headstand as outline in the Secrets of the Handstand book.

You build better balancing skills this way and soon be outperforming all your handstand Crossfit buddies at handstands.

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Ninja Warrior Bedroom

By Bac on June 1, 2012 in Rock Climbing

I was sent this video a little while back. It’s very impressive showcasing a man training for Ninja Warrior in his bedroom.

If you’re not familiar with Ninja Warrior, it’s a TV show with the most difficult obstacle courses on the planet. Very few people over the years have even completed them all. It’s well-worth checking out, for example on youtube, if you’re not familiar with it.

You can see the progression of starting with a few rock climbing holds and how it grew from there. In Ninja Warrior a majority of the events involve climbing or hanging by very tough hand positions.

Just this week I went and joined a rock climbing gym. I believe rock climbing and hand balancing go together really well as they work many opposing muscle groups.

The strength required in the fingertips, not to mention the pulling muscles, should also translate to my goal of doing the one arm chinnup. At least that’s what I’m going for and I’ll be sure to update you on my progress there.

Now I don’t recommend turning your room or home into a ninja warrior course like this man did (in fact, I don’t think many places could support that weight, unless it was done properly). But adding some of this kind of training into what you’re doing you may get some great benefits, so give it a try.

If you want to learn some different Ninja skills join me at my upcoming workshop.

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Why Handstands Take So Long To Learn

By Bac on May 29, 2012 in Handstands

I received this email the other day from Dunte and I thought it was worth sharing with you.

Especially in this day and age everyone wants instant success in anything they do. And if you can’t deliver that to them, they don’t want your help, as they aren’t willing to do the work to get it. This is as true with handstands as anything else. Read the message below then I’ll follow it up with a few more ideas…

I am a personal trainer full-time, but am also a trained educator and have studied human development pretty extensively.

Short version: for those getting frustrated with their “apparent” lack of progress in the handstand (or any other balancing or fine motor skill), this general timeline from infant motor development might be illuminating.

7 months – can stand or pull up to standing, supported by objects
9 months – can walk/move while standing, with support
10 months – can stand freely (briefly)
11 months – can stand freely with confidence
12 months – can walk freely
14-17 months – can walk/climb freely
18 months – can manipulate objects while moving

So, total elapsed time for the “average” infant is 11 months from getting upright to playing in the standing position! My daughter took roughly that long as well. Thinking this way has made me much more comfortable with the small, incremental improvements that regular handbalancing practice brings, instead of being frustrated about “not getting it” for so long. Considering this, as well as the timeline for training my clients toward graceful single-leg movements, I feel pretty good about the long path ahead to the single-arm free handstand push-up as well.

Maybe that insight would help some of your readers!

Best,
Dunte
The Fit Life

Thank you Dunte and I completely agree with you.

Just imagine if your average person stuck to standing and walking like they do to other things in their life. We’d have a lot of people that were immobile. Yet the baby keeps on trying. And if you want to learn the handstand, and any more complicated movements you’ll have to do the same.

As much as I wish I could sell you a Magic Pill that gave you instant hand balancing mastery, that’s just not going to happen. As hard as learning to stand on your feet was, the hands and arms are smaller and you’re bigger, making it even harder to do.

With the Secrets of the Handstand Quick Start I try to give you the best proven path to attaining a handstand. Even then with time spent doing the lead-up stunts, it will still take some work. With this system you may be able to shave months off your learning curve, but it will still take practice and dedication.

Stay dedicated and you can accomplish anything you desire.

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Yoga Hand Balancing Flow Video

By Bac on May 24, 2012 in Handstands, Yoga

Here is a yoga video that includes hand balancing.

Yes, it is an attractive woman in her underwear but don’t let that distract you 🙂

By watching this you can observe a couple things.

One, that yoga and hand balancing go hand in hand (pun intended). Yoga has many hand balances in it. You’ll see pressups to a handstand, a version of the frogstand, the headstand, handstands with different leg positions including the lotus position, and more.

You can also see how you might want to put a little hand balancing flow together, going from one move to the next.

Thanks to John for sending this video to me.

Want some more yoga positions. Check out the Yoga Trapeze as a fun tool for making inversions easy.

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One Arm Handstand Training

By Bac on May 16, 2012 in One Hand

When it comes to the one handed handstand you don’t often see much middle ground. Most people can’t do it at all. The true masters make it look easy. But there is an area between where one arm handstand training takes place. Where a person can just hold it and you can see how difficult it is.

This video from Jim Bathurst shows that area of being able to hold a one armer but by no means having a simple time with it. There is a rare glimpse into that training.

One Arm Handstand Training

A few things to point out here if you’re working towards this skill.

A straight bodied handstand is preferable for one arm handstands. This doesn’t mean it can’t be done with a curve, but it does seem to be easier. So make sure you have a solid straight handstand first. You’ll notice how the shoulders are locked into place.

The straddle position with the legs makes balancing easier. This is the best place to start towards the one handed handstand.

Lastly coming up onto the fingertips then slowly raising them off the ground, keeps you in balance. Most people that try this move way too fast.

For more info on one arm handstand training check out How to do the One-Hand Handstand by Professor Orlick. You’ll also find some other great articles on Jim’s site.

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