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How to do a Straight Handstand

By admin on June 2, 2009 in Handstands

Lots going on today. So I wanted to keep you on top of everything in this email.

First off there’s a new article just uploaded to the site. This one covers working on a straight style of handstand. How to get into the right position and practice it using the wall. Go check it out.

As of writing there are 3 days and 14 minutes left before the price of The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing goes up. Many people have already stepped up and ordered themselves a copy at the old price. Won’t you join them?

And an update about what’s coming down the road.

Unfortunately, I had problems with my video editing software. For some unknown reason its throwing the audio out of sync with the video. Looks plain terrible. Since I cannot solve the problem I went ahead and purchased a new program. Once that arrives I’ll have several new videos I want to share with you.

And there are some big projects in the works too. As always stay tuned.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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Bad Handstand Habits, Training Frequency + More

By admin on May 26, 2009 in Flexibility & Contortion, Handstands, Walking & Jumping

Thanks for all the suggestions after my last message. Going to answer a number of them today.

“I am just started handstands and I notice that my arms are bent it seems I have a bad habit, ideas?”

You know this is something I battled with for a long time. When doing a handstand you want to have your arms locked out the entire time.

Should you overbalance you can bend your arms to save yourself but this should only be used as a last resort. And when you’re starting out you are better off not doing it so that you learn to use your hands to balance.

So how do you break this habit? Returning to the wall and doing handstands there with locked out arms would certainly help.

Also, any time you kick-up into a handstand have your arms straight from the very start. Extend them fully and imagine they have a splint wrapped around them that forces you to keep them that way.

“Actually I am interested in high wire walking or rope walking. And in the future also slacklining. I live in Finland and I would like to know where I could buy a slackline? Sorry my bad english. Thank You for your inspiring messages.”
Taina

Its funny that you should mention this, Taina as a friend just brought to my attention trying out slack lines.

Its something I’m looking into and may feature on the site in the future. As an informal poll how many out there are potentially interested in learning this art? And who out there currently does it?

“I would like to know some good ways to build up to walking up stairs on my hands.”

Before starting to walk up stairs you need to have a good base. You should be proficient in walking on flat ground, walking down stairs, and be strong.

Because you’re walking up the stairs on your hands you are having to push your bodyweight up with mostly a single arm at a time. I’d say being able to do three freestanding handstand pushups in a row is the bare minimum.

If you’re there its just a matter of starting small and working your way up. Literally. Find small stairs and master those before moving up to large steps. The more incremental you can make it the better.

“I started trying some headstands and handstands today after perusing this site + I really enjoyed it. I lift weights regularly and was wondering how frequently i should train hand balancing, do I do it as with weights(every other day) or can I practice every day?
Thanks very much.
Stuart

This is a fairly common question. Because hand balancing requires very fine skill it is best to practice it every single day. A little practice each day is much better than a two hour session once a week.

Of course starting out you’ll need to give some time for recovery, also depending on what moves you are practicing and how tough your other workouts are.

But once you have a foundation some practice every day is the best way to go. If for some reason you are unable to train everyday, not to worry cause you can still make progress with less practice.

Well that’s plenty to chew on for one day. So until next time…

How to do the One Hand Handstand by Professor Orlick

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Many of these topics are covered in much more detail in Professor Paulinetti and Bob Jones’ hand balancing book.

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Handstand Visualization

By admin on May 15, 2009 in Handstands

You may have heard me mention it before. I’m talking about visualization and how it can help you do better in hand balancing and acrobatics.

There’s a new article on the site telling my story of how I reached my first ever 30 second handstand.

How Visualizing Can Help Your Handstands

Make no mistake about it, this is powerful stuff and can be the difference between success and failure. You even got scientific proof backing it up.

Go check it out – Handstand Visualization

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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How to Kick-up into a Wall Handstand

By admin on May 8, 2009 in Handstands

It’s important to have a strong handstand against the wall before you ever try balancing yourself in the open.

And in order to train that you have to be able to get into the handstand. This video shows you the easiest way to kick-up against the wall.

How to Kick Up into a Handstand Against the Wall

The most important point is to keep your arms locked the entire time. That makes them strongest and you’ll be least likely to collapse to the ground.If you don’t quite get it on your first attempt keep at it. If you’re worried about injuring yourself put a pillow or something soft beneath your head to build your confidence.

Also, you can have a partner assist you. After you kick they can guide your feet to the wall.

As for how much kick to give, you need enough to get your hips above your body but not so much you plow into the wall. With practice you’ll be able to touch lightly on the wall every time.

The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. This is just the first step of many in the Secrets of the Handstand Quick Start DVD. If you want to work up to balancing on you own this is the DVD to get.

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What's Stopping Your Handstands?

By admin on April 29, 2009 in Handstands, Uncategorized

Today’s message is just for beginners. That is people still working on holding the regular freestanding handstand. If that’s you then keep reading.

I’d say two thirds of the people that come to my website are just getting started and trying to learn the handstand.

Even though it’s the basic foundational move of all hand balancing it still can prove to be frustrating, especially when you first get started. I know it was for me.

I’m going to be releasing a few videos in the upcoming days that will help you along. The thing I always tell people is that you don’t want to start with the handstand itself but more on that topic later.

For now I want to hear what’s holding you back? If you can’t hold a freestanding handstand for more than 5 seconds what’s stopping you for holding 10 or 20 seconds?

Or do you not know why you can’t get the balance?

Before you comment down below just know that I’ll try to answer your problems in these new videos.

Plus you’ll hear about my first handstand attempts, what others have done and more. I think you’ll get a kick out of them.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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Straight Arm Pressing Tips

By admin on March 31, 2009 in Flexibility & Contortion, Presses & Pushup

Having safely returned from my trip its time to get back into regular emails to help you go further in your hand balancing and acrobatics. I received a number of excellent questions while I was gone so I figured I’d start there.

“How should your hands look when there on the ground for a handstand?”
Genoman

While it can change up depending on which hand balancing move you’re doing, for the normal handstand you want your hands flat on the ground with the fingers spread as far apart as possible. The middle or index finger should be pointing directly forward.

“I’ve been doing hand balancing for a while now. I’ve developed quite a strong upper body. I do hand-stand push-ups with ease. I kick up successfully more times than not and can hold the balance for a considerable amount of time. That is why I’m so perplexed as to why I cannot even come close to doing any of the stiff armed lever up exercises. In doing exercise #2 in “The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing”, The best I can do is on push-up bars, hold myself with my knees still under me, but when I try and lever up, I barely budged, literally about an inch or so. If I were to do this with bent arms, I do it with ease, same with all lever ups like with split or even straight legs. What makes stiff arm so difficult? What are the muscles being stressed most in a stiff arm lever up and how can one train them to get to do it? I feel I’m not even close to getting anywhere with them. Again, I’m extremely strong in the upper body. Is it possible I’m doing something wrong, or possibly I have neglected to train a certain muscle or muscle group?”

Thanks,
Francis Ford

Straight arm presses are a different beast then bent arm presses. While you are having problems of this sort there are many people that can do straight arm moves but would fall flat in a bent arm press because they lack the strength.

Because of different body leverages the straight arm press may take you some time to get to, where others can do it almost immediately.

The straight arm press, in its various forms, requires strength in different areas as well as flexibility. You have to be able to get your center of mass over your hands. This requires your shoulders to go far out in front.

One method you may want to try is to do a bent arm press except try to bend your arms a little less, and gradually work up to a straight arm press. From the handstand you can do negatives lowering yourself down on straight arms.

Also having someone else to spot you can be a big help. They stand in front of you, your shoulders coming to meet their legs for support, and they assist you by raising your hips as much as you need to do the move.

And lastly I recommend you re-read Chapter 8 on pressing in the book for even more info. Most important is to just keep at it. If you find it difficult, it’ll be that much more satisfying when you finally make it.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. If you haven’t got your copy of The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing you can grab it here.

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Hand Placement in Handstands

By admin on February 16, 2009 in Handstands

Here’s an interesting question.

“I can only hold a handstand for about five seconds, with all fingers spread out, but when I bend in my right index finger I can hold for 15 seconds on up. What should I do?”
Matthew Romero

If you can hold it longer with your fingers bent then that’s probably what you should do. I’m not to sure why bending that single finger helps you so much but here’s a more general reason why you should bend the fingers.

Because balancing on the hands can be difficult to do you want to give yourself the widest base possible. This means you spread your fingers out. As in spacing your fingers and not keeping them together.

But you don’t want them fully extended. Keep your fingers slightly curled and this helps you to grip the ground harder. With more grip you can balance easier.

By using your hands in this way you’ll have more control and that means you stay up in a handstand longer.

On a different note, I’m going to be having a few important announcements in the next couple of weeks. Make sure you stay tuned.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. If you need help getting started with your handstand check out my Secrets of the Handstand Quickstart guide.

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Handstands When Your Wrists Hurt

By admin on February 12, 2009 in Handstands

A common problem many beginners have with handstands is that their wrists can’t take it.

I know the feeling. From a football injury back in high school my right wrist has never been the same. Its less flexible and even hurts when too much pressure is put on it in certain ways.

Actually working on handstands to regain that flexibility has helped a lot over the years. But recently, due to some other work its been flaring up again.

This means any handstands I do, I’m favoring and leaning to my left side which isn’t good. But there is a way to work around the problem.

And that is doing handstands on bars. Many objects will work; parallettes, pushup handles, kettlebells and more. As long as its stable you can do hand balancing on it.

At first you may have difficulty balancing since it changes the way your hands have to move, but with a little practice it’ll get easier, even more so than balancing on flat ground since you can grip it hard.

So if you have any wrist troubles hop on some bars to give your wrists much needed relief. Even if you don’t use these tools to change up the feel of your handstands.

And if you’re doing advanced moves where the wrist must bend even more, like in a planche or some presses, again the bars can be a big help.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. I write more about wrist issues in a special report you can find in the Hand Balancing Mastery Course.

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More Handstand Q&A

By admin on February 9, 2009 in Bridging, Handstands, Planche

Gonna dip into the mailbag today and answer a couple questions.

——

I had a question that relate to both my bridging, and hand balancing. When I do either, the blood rushes to my head very soon, not letting me hold either very long. Is this normal? Will it go away after more time? Are there any special ways to get around this? I would like to be able to work on both more than I am able to now because of that. Thank you for you great websites and emails!
Thank you,
Justin

That’s just a sign of gravity doing its job. The human body is not normally use to being upside down so when you start out it can cause you to feel like your head is about to explode.

I would guess that this happens to most people in one degree or another. And it will get better with time just as you become accustom to the position.

In addition, here’s two things to try out. Holding your breath compounds this problem. Make sure you are breathing easily while you bridge or do handstands. It can be tough in the beginning but you need to breathe for best results.

Second you can do an exercise specifically to get yourself familiar with being upside down. Just go up into a headstand (against a wall or not) and hold for a long time. With practice you’ll be able to do this for minutes at a time. And then you’ll be able to deal with blood rushing to your head.

—–

Handstands are really frustrating to me. For a while now I’ve been having consistent 3 sec handstands and it hasn’t been improving. I’m also a bboy and my planches are better than my handstands, I can hold a planche-ish thing with my body horizontal and my back bent with my legs slightly at an angle. Kinda like this \_. Any tips?
Nate

I think the fact that you are strong from break dancing may actually be holding you back on the handstand. The handstand is really a balanced position. You don’t want to have to rely on your strength to hold you there, unlike the planche.

Professor Orlick use to say that it was easier to teach a little kid the handstand than a strong weightlifter because the kid would have to find the balance, while the weightlifter would try to use his strength. If you want to hear more from Prof. Orlick check out the Hand Balancing Mastery Course.

Its hard to say without some more details but give either of these techniques a try. If you are underbalancing, going toward that planche, push back upwards into the handstand. If you find yourself overbalancing correct yourself and get back to neutral.

But the main thing is to just keep working on it. Set a goal to hit 5 seconds and work on that. Really get a feel for the position. In time it will come.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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Sig Klein Tribute

By admin on February 5, 2009 in Presses & Pushup

Video of Sig Klein

Sig Klein has to be one of my favorites of the old time strongman. He was just such a perfectly developed athlete. And he did it all from weightlifting, various feats of strength, to muscle control and more.

Not the least of which were his hand balancing abilities. In The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing Bob Jones compliments Sig on his planche, saying it’s the best he’s ever seen of a man of Klein’s size.

A few of Sigmund Klein’s favorite skills were the Tiger Bend and handstand press-ups, usually done between two chairs.

This video is a tribute to a few of the things he did.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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