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Capoeira: Music, Skills, and Martial Arts

By Jon Magno on September 21, 2017 in Acrobatics, Gymnastics, Hand Balancing, Hand-to-Hand, Handstands, Head Balancing, One Hand, Other Skills, Parkour, Presses & Pushup, Tumbling, Uncategorized

I’m going to say that I’ve been excited about Capoeira for a while. It involves alot of my favorite things; music, rhythm, martial arts, acrobatics, and of course hand balancing. Today I’m going to be giving you a primer on the Subject. In all honesty I’ll probably be doing a few posts on Capoeira. The reason being that I’m excited at the fact of introducing it in my own little training studio. I’ve found an instructor with similar goals, so these are exciting times!

Back to the subject. What is Capoeira?

Truthfully there isn’t much written record of Capoeira. But we do know that it was created in Brazil by African Slaves. It’s a Martial Art that was taught in secret by the slaves for self protection and was delivered through traditional music, singing, dancing.

Combining Rhythm, movement, and music; Capoeira is a very engrossing system that will help to build up body skills. Take a look at this video to get a better idea about what it is!

Stay Inverted!

-Jonathan Magno

PS If you want a full system on hand balancing, check out the Secrets of the Handstand Bundle!

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A Legendary Expansion

By Jon Magno on September 14, 2017 in Acrobatics, Gymnastics, Hand Balancing, Hand-to-Hand, Handstands, Head Balancing, One Hand, Other Skills, Parkour, Presses & Pushup, Tumbling, Uncategorized

If you’ve been a part of this community for a while, you’ll know that it was started by the gentleman above, Logan Christopher. A true renaissance man; he was able to reinvigorate and expand the hand balancing community with a nothing but a keyboard.

Over the years, he moved into different facets of fitness and life in general. One of the biggest steps he made was transitioning over Legendary Strength. Hence now I’m becoming the main voice for LAOHB. As we grow and push forward in life, new opportunities arise.

Once such opportunity happened to Logan recently as he was able to purchase his first house. With that good fortune comes many other benefits. One being that there is a Legendary Strength Training Home and second that more videos will be coming your way!

The last benefit is that Logan is offering 50% his Legendary Strength Courses, which you can pick up here!

Take Advantage of this while you can because the sale is only on for 24 more hours and as always… Stay Inverted!

-Jonathan Magno

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Stressing Over a Skill and 3 Ways To Overcoming Obstacles

By Jon Magno on August 31, 2017 in Acrobatics, Gymnastics, Hand Balancing, Hand-to-Hand, Handstands, Head Balancing, One Hand, Other Skills, Parkour, Presses & Pushup, Tumbling, Uncategorized

Training is a huge part of my life. Its fun, tests my limits, and is a HUGE stress reliever. But what happens when something key to that chill factor adds to the stress. Living in Silicon Valley, stress is a very common thing. Fear, anxiousness, and doubt are always just around the corner. With the pressures of being around some of the most intelligent people, helping to move the world around, this anxiety and doubt can creep into the oddest places.

Once such occasion happened to me just yesterday. I was training in Tricking. If you don’t know what that is, its all those cool martial arts guys spinning and flipping in the air while throwing kicks. While working on a normal Butterfly kick but with a new entry, my anxiousness started setting in. Its an odd fact, but even I get this way.

I’m human.

With the stress of building a business, personal stuff, and helping clients through their own processes in getting better; the fear, anxiousness, and more started to set in. Luckily with supportive people around me, I was able to push and move forward.

But what do you do if you don’t have that support?

Try these 3 ways to overcome that negativity and keep moving!

Way #1 Move Into The Fear.

It’s all about meeting your fears and facing them head-on. Aim to recognize your fears, acknowledge them and then move through them. Ask yourself what is it that makes you uncomfortable? Have you let yourself get out of shape and are afraid you’ll never get back? Do you have an injury that’s caused you to be afraid of your body? If you can visualize creatively, then you can put your fears in check. Remember: your body has knack at baselining itself. Your only job is to trust it and listen.

Way #2 Trust Your Intuition.

It is important when overcoming obstacles and learning to break through barriers that you begin to listen to the still small voice of your body. In most cases, we all want the comfort of having someone telling us what we can and cannot do. However, our highest truth is usually deep down. This is not to say that good opinion of others are not important, but ultimately the decision making comes from within.

When facing a challenge or an obstacle look to how you feel. What are your instincts telling you? Often it is simply your instinct that will move you into a new mindset and raise your consciousness. It’s simply about changing your perspective. Although in order to do this you have to find where your restrictions and boundaries are so that you can move past. Once you know what they are, remember “WAY #1” and meet them head-on.

Way #3 Live Beyond the Boundaries

So what’s the final takeaway from all of this? Staying afraid often keeps us from truly living. Moving forward starts with your attitude. Are you going to keep letting things beat you down and miss whats happening today. Or will you make today the right time to face them.

Life Beyond The Boundaries.

Push past your fears and boundaries and when you’ve settled with that, look for another skill, trick, or plateau to jump.

Stay Inverted!

-Jonathan Magno

PS On a different note, if you want all the tricks of the trade for hand balancing, check out the Secrets of the Handstand Bundle!

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A Gymnastic Skill: The Front Walkover

By Jon Magno on February 28, 2017 in Hand Balancing, Handstands, Head Balancing, One Hand, Presses & Pushup, Walking & Jumping

When you learn how to move, many variations start to become available to you. The transition between your limbs becomes an art form.

Lets take hand balancing at two of its base variations. The handstand itself and cartwheel. These are the two inversions that we all tend to start with. I’d wager that a good amount of us began with the cartwheel before the handstand because it gave us a clear pathway to return to.

A good way to test your movement capability is to run through different planes of motion. A more difficult possibility move from the cartwheel would be the Front Walkover. If you look below you’ll see a composite picture of Diane Robinson performing the move with ease.

The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing

A vintage magazine called Acro-Chat lays down some quick instructions for you. The correct way to do a two arm walkover. Notice the arms are straight all the way through, the legs are extended and split as much as possible, the back is arched tightly with the head and arms trailing as she stands upright.

Now a word of caution, this move does take a large amount of flexibility in both the back and legs. Although its not dangerous, you might end up falling a couple of times in the beginning.

You can also perform a back walkover which is done moving backwards. Just follow the pictures from right to left and you’ll get the idea.

Quick note: These moves are not to be confused with the handspring or back handspring. Though the motion is much the same, except for going off of two legs instead of one, there is another big difference. Your hands will touch the ground before both your feet leave it in a walkover. Handsprings involve leaving the feet to get up in the air before your hands touch down.

If you tested the front walker and see that it might be out of your range, try experimenting with different movement patterns to increase your acumen. If you still need help, try picking up the Gold Medal Bodies Vitamin Program!

Stay Inverted!
-Jonathan Magno

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Awesome Abs Exercises 2 – The Hollow Body Hold

By Jon Magno on February 23, 2017 in Hand Balancing, Handstands, Head Balancing, One Hand, Presses & Pushup, Walking & Jumping

Two key Abdominal Exercises to train your core in order to handle to the handstand. In the last section I discussed an exercise that you probably don’t always attribute with the handstand, the Superman Plank.

Today we are going to be going over the inverse of that. This exercise is a staple among gymnastic or athletic movement. Needless to say, the handstand is a definite inclusion into that category.

Lets introduce the Hollow Body Hold.

For the Hollow Body Hold, lie on your back and tighten your abdominals while driving your lower back to the floor.

Extend your arms above your head while keeping your core engaged.

Once you’ve held this position, extend your leg away from your body and lift them away from the floor. Make sure that you point your toes and squeeze your legs together.

For an added touch of alignment, roll your shoulders off of the floor while keeping the body engaged.

There you go guys if you have any questions, don’t be afraid to contact us and one final thing. Don’t forget to pick up The Ultimate Guide to Bodyweight Abs Exercises now!

Stay Inverted!
-Jonathan Magno

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Awesome Abs Exercises 1 – Superman Plank

By Jon Magno on February 23, 2017 in Hand Balancing, Handstands, Head Balancing, One Hand, Presses & Pushup, Walking & Jumping

Previously I stated that you can’t become an excellent hand balancer without a strong core.

How do you achieve that? Do normal sit-ups and leg raises cut it? To work on a strong core with a clean and extended line I have two Exercises for you…

The Superman Plank and the Hollow Body Hold. These two exercises get you to engage the core muscles in an extended fashion. One has more focus on the anterior side and the other on the posterior side. So you become sandwiched in a strong locked position.

Lets start with the Superman Plank

To get into a superman plank, start in a basic plank position with your hips tucked, your glutes engaged and your back straight.

Be sure to start in the extended arm position. Walk your hands forward until they are at the farthest position above your head with out breaking form.

Hold this from anywhere between 20 seconds to a minute. If you would like to test yourself, try for even longer!

Give this drill a try and let us know how you do. In the next installment, I’ll be talking about the hollow body hold.

Stay Inverted!
-Jonathan Magno

P.S. To learn more awesome abdominal exercises, get The Ultimate Guide to Bodyweight Abs Exercises now!

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The Abdominal Acrobat

By Jon Magno on February 21, 2017 in Hand Balancing, Handstands, Head Balancing, One Hand, Presses & Pushup, Walking & Jumping

I’m going to start this off with a Powerful Statement.

You will NEVER become an excellent hand balancer or acrobat without having incredibly strong abs. The Core is King; or Queen for that matter.

The focus to achieve this on the core is not to get the holy grail six pack (although the side benefit is nice), but to train your body as one unit. Does this sound familiar? It should because that’s exactly what you need do pull off any hand balancing stunt.

The abdominals help to lock you in and keep the hold or stabalized for transitionary movements like the Straddle Press!

Over the next week, I’ll be going over ways to strengthen your core to achieve powerful acrobatic abdominals!

Stay Inverted!
-Jonathan Magno

P.S. If you can’t wait to build acrobatic adbominals, get The Ultimate Guide to Bodyweight Abs Exercises now!

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The Straddle Press Up

By Jon Magno on February 18, 2017 in Hand Balancing, Handstands, Head Balancing, One Hand, Presses & Pushup, Walking & Jumping

Lets see if you’ve noticed a theme here.

Over the past week I’ve been talking about a specific treasure of knowledge. The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing.

In the last entry I gave you a technique found in the book that you would be able to test out. Today, I’m giving you another go-to. This installment involves the Straddle Press Up.

If you need an idea of what it looks like, here is a variation from Logan.

THE STRADDLE PRESS UP.

Sit along a set of parallel bars, or on chair legs with the chair lying on its back, spread the legs apart as far as they will go. With the knees rigid, and toes pointed; catch hold of the legs of the chair just in front of your legs.

Close up, hold the chest high, and stiffen the arms with elbows straight. Then lift the shoulders as high as possible, and lean forward; taking all the weight on the arms and press up to the handstand. As your legs are rising, point the toes, and gradually bring the legs together.

Just as you are up all the way in the balance, hold this a couple of seconds, then lower down slowly with the body and legs straight. You should feel as though you were going to hold the planche, but instead go slowly all the way down through the planche until the feet are on the floor; or in a sitting position, as you started.

Stay Inverted!
-Jonathan Magno

P.S. Take a look at the past to develop your hand balancing journey with The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing.

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The Tiger Bend

By Jon Magno on February 16, 2017 in Hand Balancing, Handstands, Head Balancing, One Hand, Presses & Pushup, Walking & Jumping

The Tiger Bend!

On top of being a skill to work towards on its own, the tiger bend is also a good way to work up to a full on handstands. Since you are resting on your entire lower arm and hand you have a bigger base with which to balance.

When you get over the fact that it can be an odd position to try and get into, the benefits of the tiger bend start to shine. All the main points of holding a handstand are still there, like keeping tight, but you may have to arch your back a little more for this one.

Though it is a lateral move to the handstand, its also an advanced move that can increase the control and variety of skills you have in your library. It involves going from the Forearm Stand up into a Handstand. With a little overbalancing and strong triceps you can get there.

Since this is a move that can’t be pulled off quickly, here are two easier ways. Do the negative movement which is dropping from a Handstand into a Forearm Stand. When you go for this don’t just fall into the position but control it as much as possible.

You can also do Tiger Bend Pushups. Get in a normal pushup position except you are resting on your forearms instead of the hands. Without any rocking motion pushup on to your hands to the top position and lower back down.

These moves aren’t performed often but that doesn’t mean they aren’t great.

Stay Inverted!
-Jonathan Magno

P.S. For the more advanced inverted artist, you can try to duplicate Johnny Weber’s one arm Tiger Bend. Find out how to do it in The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing. The picture above is of Sig Klein from the same book.

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The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing

By Jon Magno on February 14, 2017 in Flexibility & Contortion, Hand Balancing, Handstands, Head Balancing, Mobility, One Hand, Planche, Presses & Pushup, Walking & Jumping

For many people, today is a special day. I’m not going to get too deep into it, but it does involve a heart, candy, and maybe some stuffed animals.

What I am going to get into is a book on hand balancing that can be used as a starting point to learning the handstand correctly as well as a look into the history of hand balancing. This book is called The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing.

The authors of the book, Professor Paulinetti and Robert L. Jones, have a combined experience of 70+ years practicing and teaching hand balancing and gymnastics. In the 1940’s they wrote THE book on this art.

Although we have many guides of information here, this book gives you an inside look at how this skill gained a following in the earlier years. This book is filled with information and insight on hand balancing

Happy Valentines Day and pick up The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing today!

Stay Inverted!
-Jonathan Magno

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