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Handstand Endurance

By admin on April 29, 2010 in Handstands, One Hand

In my last post on juggling I talked about the differences between learning most skills and that of hand balancing. The biggest difference being that hand balancing takes a lot of strength and endurance.

People talk about having the proper position which places the stress along the structure of the body versus using your strength to hold yourself up. This is true.

Building endurance holding this position against the wall allows you to train more when trying to learn the balance.

But either way you will only be able to hold a handstand so long. What can you do to increase this time?

While holding a handstand out in the open is largely a matter of balance, you know once you get past a certain point fatigue starts to set in.

By working to increase the time you can hold a handstand against the wall you can increase your endurance overall. You should be able to balance and hold a freestanding handstand longer with more endurance.

But the main benefit is you’ll also have the endurance to train longer with greater effectiveness.

So even if you are working on balancing, still spending some time against the wall to improve your endurance will benefit you.

This applies to more than just the basic handstand. Why not try the same thing with the one hand handstand?

Of course, as going for long timed holds against the wall is fatiguing you’ll want to do these at the end of your practice, not at the start.

The same can be said of handstand pushups. Are you working on presses and freestanding handstand pushups? Make sure you have adequate strength to work on the skills of the movements. And to do that increase your reps and follow the progressions laid out in The Ultimate Guide to Handstand Pushups.

Work to increase your skills. Work to increase your endurance. Both lead towards the same goal.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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One Arm Handstand Shrug

By admin on April 9, 2010 in Handstands, One Hand

When talking to Jim Bathurst the other night we we’re discussing the one arm handstand. Several points came up but I want to focus on one of them right now. And this actually applies to any hand balancing you do.

That point is shrugging up your shoulders.

When you go into a handstand you want to reach your shoulders towards your ears. Do not let gravity depress your shoulders. Why? This makes it so that your body is fully locked out. This improves your position as well as your endurance.

Shrugged vs. Not Shrugged

This is even more essential in the one arm handstand. But here’s the thing. Some people may not even have the strength in the shoulder girdle and scapula to do it properly.

As is many times the case in hand balancing it’s a good idea to go back to the wall for this one. Doing the one arm handstand against the wall, where you don’t need to worry so much about balance, you can focus on getting the shoulder shrugged.

In The Ultimate Guide to Handstand Pushups there’s an exercise called the Handstand Shrug. This is just to repeat this shrugging motion over an over for reps. While I didn’t think about it at the time, you could do this exact same exercise on just one arm. (I just tried it against and found it to be quite fun.)

This will strengthen the area, giving you the strength to really begin to progress toward the one arm handstand.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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High One Arm to Arm Handstand

By admin on March 8, 2010 in Hand-to-Hand, One Hand

Rafael's High One Arm to Arm

Here is another great picture from Rafael Guerrero. It’s an interesting hand to hand balance. Similar to a one arm handstand but at still quite different.

Regardless, its a balance you don’t see very often. For those of you who are experienced hand balancers give this one a try if you have the partner to do it.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Don’t forget the Free Success in Hand Balancing Teleseminar I’m doing this Wednesday night with Beast Skills’ Jim Bathurst. Sign up and ask your questions here.

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One Arm Handstand Lead-Up Stunt

By admin on February 12, 2010 in One Hand

The One Arm Handstand

Today I’ll be giving you a tip towards working on a one arm handstand. I’ve been doing this hand balancing skill a lot lately.

Professor Orlick lists it as one of the lead-up stunts to the one arm handstand. And this one utilizes both arms. What is it? It’s the handstand done on the fists.

Now how does this help with the one arm handstand? As explained in How to do the One Hand Handstand:

Handstand on Fists

“Now, lean forward and very carefully kick your feet up into the handstand position. Do this easily and gently because your base will be even smaller than before and you won’t have the use of your fingertips to help hold you up. If you kick too hard you are liable to topple right over. At first, the weight of your body resting on your knuckles will probably hurt but just grin and bear it for soon you will get used to it. Once again be sure to stretch up as high as you can and lock-out at the elbows and shoulders and point your toes up toward the ceiling. The position is shown quite clearly to the right in No. 22. Like the others, this too is a fine lead-up stunt so keep it up until you master it.”

The reason this can help move you toward the one arm handstand is that you’ll get use to balancing on a smaller base of support. You just can’t apply the hand pressure you can in a normal handstand when you’re on your fists. A small amount of wrist pressure can be used but you must learn to keep your body stable and balance from the shoulders.

Mixed with other lead-up stunts and the proper progression this will help you eventually reach the one arm handstand. For much more check out the Hand Balancing Mastery Course.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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More Questions Answered

By admin on January 25, 2010 in Handstands, One Hand

I figured I’d dive into the email file and answer a few questions today.

“I’ve been working on the one armed handstand pushup and have gotten one armed handstand planks. Do you have any tips for faster progression with the one armed handstand pushup. I’m at partial ROM at the moment.”
Jesse

First off congratulations Jesse, you are much further along then most everyone, including myself.

I can’t give you my personal experience as I haven’t got to that point yet. But I can offer what others have said will work.

The basics of progressing from two hands to one would be to use your off hand less and less. You can do this by raising it on an object or just using less pressure (like going on to the fingertips. This way your ‘working’ arm must do more work.

For more on the one hand handstand pushup I recommend you check out the book Convict Conditioning by a man who was able to work up to this awesome move. You can read my full Convict Conditioning review here.

“I only started hand balancing because I thought it will make me taller??? I’m 16 and 5’9 will I be 6 ft if I do hand balancing???”
Naqib

This is the first time I got this question. And its interesting. Does hand balancing make you taller? Probably not. Hand balancing and inversion can offer many benefits and keep the spine straight and aligned. This probably won’t make you taller but it certainly won’t make you shorter. Considering that you’re young its likely that you’ll still keep growing.

“I have been practicing handstands for 3 years. I probably practiced it the wrong way because I can barely hold it for 5 seconds. What can I do to extend the life of my handstands?”
Brian

Don’t mean to be harsh but yes you must be doing something wrong. It took me about a year to work up to thirty seconds and I think that was too long!

You must be neglecting something basic like keeping the body tight. Without seeing you do a handstand I can’t advise you better than that. No matter what it is though, I encourage you to revisit the lead-up stunts as described in the Secrets of the Handstand Quick Start Guide.

Sir I am practicing yoga since 1 & 1/2 years. I can do difficult postures excluding this handstand. In yoga all boys generally perform curved Handstand instead of straight Handstand. Sir I have one question, What is the role of our back while performing handstand? Is it responsible for balancing Or Handstand is only depends on power in our hands? Also I am 20 year old. I listened that age is one of the barrier in practicing the handstand. Is it true? If possible Please tell me sir, at what age you have started the Handstand?
Aniruddha

Whether you have a straight or curved handstand the back is not involved in the balance. IT is used to keep you stable, but you do not arch more or less in order to stay balanced. Balancing comes from the hands and also the shoulders. (For beginners I recommend keeping the shoulders immobile and focusing on the hands.)

As for age there’s a few things going on. Kids are better off at gaining skills. They have more myelin which allows them to gain skills quickly. And by starting early you have more time to build your skill. (Full details on this can be found on the Skill and How to Build It CD found in the Hand Balancing Mastery Course.)

They also weigh less and are closer to the ground. So yes, younger people are much better off at hand balancing. But age is no barrier. You can become good, even great, if you’re dedicated.

That’s enough questions for today. Pay attention to the next post for something special. Until then…

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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Advanced Progression

By admin on November 7, 2009 in One Hand, Planche

A One Hand Balance in the Old Style

Here’s a question from Matthew on the difficulties and progression of advanced hand balancing skills.

“What would say is the difficulty of a planche vs a handstand, one handed handstand, 2 man planche, how should I be progressing if I am fairly competent in all of these skills?”

Each skill is very different from the next. The skill and strength it takes to do a planche is very different from that it takes to do a one handed handstand. Some people will find certain skills harder then others and to give them arbitrary difficulties wouldn’t really help.

But as a basic idea so you can know what you’re getting yourself into I would say the one hand handstand (and the planche too) are about 100 times as difficult as the two hand handstand.

How should you be progressing? The same as everyone else. Whether you are working on a basic handstand or and advanced skill like the one arm handstand you can progress by adding a second at a time.

If you are competent at the skills you listed, first off, congratulations. You are doing great. If you want to know where to go from that point there is a wide variety of options.

You can work on a one handed planche. You can learn to hop on one hand. How about a tiger bend? And if that’s easy try it on one arm!

(By the way, all these skills are found in The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing.)

The sky is the limit. Just keep progressing. It’s the name of the game.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher.

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Block Building Handstand

By admin on October 30, 2009 in Handstands, One Hand

Rafael Guerrero's Block Building Handstand

One very impressive handstand stunt is to raise yourself off the ground by block building.

Start in a handstand with a stack of bricks or similar objects nearby. Shift over to one hand and grab a block with the other. Set that block down, shift your weight onto that arm then repeat on the other side. You build yourself up one block at a time.

This is an advanced skill as you’ll have to be in a one arm handstand much of the time even in just momentarily.

But its sure to impress anyone watching. And once you reach the top you can go down the same way or maybe jump off your blocks.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. The Halloween Sale is going strong. Check out how you can save on all hand balancing and acrobatic programs here.

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One Finger Handstand

By admin on August 17, 2009 in One Hand

Is a one finger handstand even possible?

Most would say that no human could possibly do this feat. But then most would agree Shaolin monks are anything but normal people!

This video shows a 91 year old monk Hal-tank from the Sil Lum Temple in China perform that feat.

As I’m sure you’ll agree this move goes beyond just finger strength, requiring intense focus of chi.

There are many other monks who have mastered a two finger handstand like this picture shows. Thanks to Gay Ng for sending it to me.

Two Finger Handstand by Shaolin Monk

How to do the One Hand Handstand by Professor Orlick

(You can also witness this feat from another Shaolin monk in the awesome DVD Shaolin: Wheel of Life available for cheap on Amazon.)

But getting down to a single finger handstand takes many more years of dedicated practice.

Its sure to be an entirely different approach but there’s a full chapter by Bob Jones, famous for his thumbstand, on doing fingertip pushups and handstands in The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing.

You can get started with the basics. Whether you’ll work up to two or one finger handstand like the monks do is up to you.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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One Arm Muscle Up to One Arm Handstand

By admin on July 8, 2009 in One Hand, Presses & Pushup

This is from circus acrobat Yury Tikhonovich.

Yes, it involves a lot of momentum but this is one of the most impressive feats I have ever seen. A one arm muscle up into a one arm half-planche into the one arm handstand.

Isn’t it amazing what people can do these days? After this holding a regular handstand or a normal muscle up just seems easy.

Good Luck and Good Handbalancing,
Logan Christopher

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How to do a One Hand Handstand Against Wall

By admin on June 8, 2009 in One Hand

“How to do a one hand hand-stand? I can do a two handed hand-stand on the wall(to keep balance) but when I lift one hand away I fall, any tips?”
Sisi

The first time I did a one handed handstand against the wall I used a corner where to walls meet. This makes it easier to balance as you can press into the sides.

The one hand handstand even with a wall takes a strong core plus coordination. Make it easier by spreading the legs out wide. Make it harder by keeping them together.

And another tip is to not lift your hand instantly off of the ground. Instead as you shift more and more of your weight onto the one hand start using the other less.

So there you have three tips on doing the one hand handstand against the wall.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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