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Hand Balancing for Different People Part 2

By admin on May 19, 2010 in Parkour

Thanks for all the comments on the previous post on the different ways people come to hand balancing.

Different ideas and issues were raised so I’d like to delve further into the subject for today.

Gymnastics – First off George corrected me about hand balancing in gymnastics. I’ll reprint what he said below.

Their are six sports/disciplines within Gymnastic in America. Three of them use hand balancing. One; Acrobatic Gymnastics, uses it VERY VERY heavily. The other two are Men’s and Woman’s Artistic Gymnastics. You still get one arms from Girls on Beam at the Elite and Jr. Elite level and hand balancing as you see it is extremely good practice for developing handstands on Rings for Men’s artistic. Particularly if the men move from static support apparatus to one with some movement to simulate Rings.

In other parts of the world hand balancing is becoming part of another gymnastic sport-discipline once called Sport Aerobics, now often termed as Aerobic Gymnastics. Though their hand balance skills are simple Crocks… I predict that this will grow much much larger. This sport is huge in many european countries.

I stand corrected. It seems my gymnastic experience only goes as far as what I see in the major events in the Olympics. But in the future I’ll be diving deeper into these other disciplines.

Capoeira in Action

Capoeira – A couple people brought up Capoeira. If you’re not familiar with this, it is an Afro-Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, music, and dance. In it handstands are used but usually coming into and out of positions as it is all fluid movement. Similar to breakdancing but quite different as well. It is unique to watch and quite fun.

Several people come to my site in efforts to improve their handstands for more strength and endurance in order to increase their Capoeira skills.

The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing

Parkour – Freerunners or Traceurs (the term for those that practice Parkour) obviously cover a wide variety of acrobatic and movement skills. I’ve heard in described as Parkour being moving as efficiently as possible through a path or course. While Freerunning adds the elements of skill and tricks to the mix. In this case handstands would make more sense for freerunning as walking across a field on your hands is quite inefficient compared to running across.

Of course, it’s all about mastering the human body and movement. Hand balancing is the same. So it’s no wonder that those who are proficient and experts in Parkour are usually proficient or experts in hand balancing. The two go together hand in hand and that’s why I offer the Parkour Tutorial DVD on this site.

Crossfit – This would certainly fit into the bodyweight trainees category. While I don’t agree with everything they do, Crossfit should be applauded for bringing all the best movements, with weights and without, to people. This includes handstand and handstand pushups.

Just a few more ways people may get started and interested in handstands and hand balancing. Any way you come at it is good. And all ways are equally valid. Not to mention if you find yourself in one group you can learn by going outside the boundaries and learn from the others.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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How to Learn Parkour

By admin on December 23, 2009 in Parkour, Tumbling

Merry Christmas!

Regardless of whether you celebrate this holiday or any other this time of year, I’m in the spirit of giving.

I mentioned this before and now its ready. Grab my new interview with Mark Toorock of American Parkour

In just over an hour we covered tons of information from the beginnings of parkour on to how to learn parkour. Here’s a few of the things you’ll discover when you listen:

The difference between doing Parkour and training Parkour.
What your fitness level should be before you get started in Parkour. The answer may surprise you…
Tips on keeping the knees, ankles and other joints healthy so you can train a long time while avoiding crippling injuries.
What a typical Parkour training session should look like.
How to find other Parkour practitioners (aka Traceurs) that you can train with.
Tips on finding places to train (including the legal aspects of doing so).
The fundamentals you MUST focus on and why neglecting to do so will mean slower progress.
And much more…

We do talk about the Parkour Tutorial DVD, available here, but besides that its all great content on how to get started learning and training in parkour.

Good Luck and Good Free Running,
Logan Christopher

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Parkour Questions

By admin on November 13, 2009 in Parkour

Was just trading emails with Mark Toorock from over at www.americanparkour.com

They’re the ones responsible for the Parkour Tutorial DVD we have available.

I’m not an experienced traceur, though I recognize the similarities in the different arts of hand balancing, tumbling and parkour. And many people learning one want to do them all!

In my opinion, this is the best teaching you’ll get on Parkour fundamentals. Sure there are tons of youtube videos you can find but nothing will cover the details this DVD does.

Anyway, I asked him if he’d be interested in doing a interview and he said yes.

I’m slaving away at some big projects currently which is taking the majority of my time (though it’s a lot of fun too). So before we plan anything more, I wanted to get a feel for how interested you are in the topic.

Is this something you’re into? And if so, what questions do you want to ask?

Leave your comments below. Thanks for taking your time to do so.

Good Luck and Good Free Running,
Logan Christopher

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Damien Walters

By admin on June 12, 2009 in Parkour, Tumbling

Meet Damien Walters, one of the very best acrobats in the world. Combining tricking, parkour, trampolining, free running, and all manner of acrobatics along with a big dose of creativity.

This guy knows how to practice and get good.

If you want to get started tumbling like Damien Walters can you got lots of practice ahead of you. But let me recommend something to set you in the right direction – Tumbling Illustrated and the Parkour Tutorial DVD.

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The Trampoline Handbook Available Now

By admin on April 21, 2009 in Parkour, Tumbling

The new Trampoline Handbook is available now. You can skip right ahead and get it now.

Or read below to get the back story…

—–

I’m human. And because of that I make mistakes. But I like to think I quickly learn and fix them. However sometimes that’s not the case and it takes years to realize your fault.

As you may know a while back I attended an adult gymnastics class. Having no prior tumbling skills it was certainly a challenge.

But even from the time I was young I wanted to be able to do a backflip among many other tumbling skills. So I went and I slowly got better.

They had a giant trampoline as well as the tumble-track, basically a lane of trampoline leading into large pads.

Unfortunately I hardly ever used these tools.

You see, I had this idea in my mind that I wanted to only be able to do skills without the assistance of anything. I wanted to jump rather than be launched into the air by a trampoline.

And this was my big mistake!

I didn’t realize that using a trampoline I could better learn to control my body in the air. And that definitely translates to doing moves on the ground or anywhere else.

When you’re in the air you can work on flipping, twisting and many other skills. It really doesn’t matter how you got up there. Just what you do when you’re there.

But the trampoline allows you do to it easily without wasting energy. And that means more practice (not too mention safer too).

Now I’ve learned from my mistake.

I discovered this book that takes you step-by-step through the most basic moves all the way to much more advanced tricks.

The Trampoline Handbook

So that you don’t make the same mistake I did, I’ve made it available once again.

I know not everyone has access to a trampoline, but if you do I urge you to get this book. And if you haven’t used a trampoline in a while you don’t know what you’re missing.

You’ll be able to use it to build up your skills to improve your tumbling whether you do gymnastics, Parkour, tricking or anything else.

Plus it’ll be even more fun then just a little random bouncing. So go check it out.

The Trampoline Handbook

Sincerely,
Logan Christopher

P.S. You can read more about it at The Trampoline Handbook including a list of the 50 stunts you’ll learn and when you act now you’ll get $5 off.

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Injury-Proofing Your Ankles

By admin on January 30, 2009 in Flexibility & Contortion, Parkour, Tumbling

A subscriber wrote in after the release of the Parkour Tutorial DVD with a warning. Thanks again Adam for bringing it to my attention.

Tricking, Parkour, even gymnastics can be rough on the ankles. Sprains, strains, and broken ankles are unfortunately not that uncommon.

In order to avoid this you want to do two things. First off, you want to make sure you can do moves within your capabilities. Don’t start off jumping off of two story buildings.

Secondly, prepare for the worst. Make your body more resilient. The stretches on this video will help prepare your feet and ankles for landings and all the impact.

Injury-Proofing Your Ankles

And if you take part in running, these same moves will injury-proof you so that no pot-hole is likely to roll your ankle.

Just add a few of these moves to your regular routine and you’ll be better off no matter what you do.

Good Luck and Good Training,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Of course you need to know how to do the moves properly. If you want to get started in Parkour this is the video for you.

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Parkour Terrain and How Much to Practice Handstands

By admin on January 20, 2009 in Handstands, Parkour

Thought I answer a couple more questions today. Lots of them have been coming in recently. While I can’t get to every one individually I’ll try to answer them in these posts.

“I always wanted to start parkour and didn’t know how to start. When I saw the dvd that your selling I thought this is an excellent starting point, but the problem is that there is no vaults, rails etc… in the place that I live in. Any suggestions?”
Ahmed

Unfortunately, Parkour does require a certain kind of terrain in order to really practice the moves. My advice is to just be on the lookout for anything you can use.

While most people practice in cities even small benches and fences can give you a few obstacles to overcome. Most places should have some walls you can climb and areas to jump off of.

The most basic moves can even be practiced with nothing like jumping and rolling.

But in the end you may have to travel a bit to get the best results.

To learn all the Parkour basics get the Parkour Tutorial DVD.

“I have training towards the goal of achieving a full range of motion handstand pushup, I am currently still doing the regular hand stands, which I have not mastered yet. How often would you advise to train handstands.”
Ashley

To keep it short, the more practice you do the better you’ll get.

Handstands are a very tough skill. Getting to the point where you can do them easily and consistently is going to take many hours of practice.

So to get best results you should practice them every single day. How much you do it is up to you. You can do one long practice or spread it out over the day.

And if you’re just beginning you may have to work up to this volume of training.

Before working on the handstand pushup you should be consistent with your handstands. And because this move can also be taxing on your muscles you may have to practice it a bit less.

I hope that helps. Later this week I’ll have another video or two to show you.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. On another topic, I’m doing a free teleseminar on hitting your training goals this Wednesday. Its more focused on strength training but will cover practicing skills as well. If you want to sign up for the Goal Teleseminar click here.

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First Attempts at Parkour

By admin on January 8, 2009 in Parkour

I was filming another project and I figured I had to give a few of these Parkour moves a shot. As you’ll see in the video, I didn’t have all that much crazy terrain to go off of. But I did manage a few different vaults.

Even that little bit was fun to do. And, after all, you have to start somewhere. You can be sure in the future I’ll be on the lookout for some spots to practice more.

After watching the Parkour Tutorial DVD all you have to do is get out there and start doing it.

Good Luck and Good Free Running,
Logan Christopher

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