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Tuck Planche Training

By admin on June 30, 2009 in Planche

“Hey, I’ve been working on my planche and I went from the frogstand to the tuck planche and I’m kinda stuck there, so anything you got to help would be appreciated.”
Mike

Without seeing a picture or video I can’t tell exactly how your tuck planche is looking. But most people when they first do the move, its challenge enough just to raise the body off of the ground with straight arms.

But once that becomes easy the next objective is start moving towards a real planche position. Of course, this needs to be done in small steps. The first one is to keep your back straight.

The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing

Then you need to raise your hips. You want to get them on level with your shoulders. And this involves leaning forward to where the shoulders pass over the hands.

This is a great progression to follow to work on the planche. Combined with a few other planche training moves you’ll eventually get there.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. For more on training the planche be sure to check out The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing.

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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.

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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.

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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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Shoulder Weaving for Strength and Balance

By admin on September 29, 2008 in Handstands, Planche

This little drill has kept popping up in different places. Alright, I get the message. And I hope you do to.

I didn’t really ‘read’ it the first three or four times I read The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing but the fifth was different.

This exercise is going to build your strength and your balancing skills.

If you’ve ever wondered what’s really inside the hand balancing book here’s a sneak peek. Go check it out.

Even if you own the book its worth looking over again. And then put it into practice.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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Handstand Partner Drill for Stronger Shoulders

By admin on September 11, 2008 in Flexibility & Contortion, Handstands, Planche

I asked one of my friends, Max, who competed as a former high-level gymnast to tell me about some of the exercises and drills he and his teammates used to build the strength they required.

You can see check one video of the partner drills he showed here.

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1gHtenxGRA]

This is one of many things that he showed me on that bright, sunny day. While it’s a good one it’s not the best of the bunch.

You can do the same exercise without a partner, which is still good, though you can get more range and work a bit harder with someone’s help.

My favorite drill that Max showed me is one I’m calling the Ultimate Handstand Strengthening Exercise. This one exercise takes you through a wide range of motions and will boost your arm and shoulder strength like you wouldn’t believe.

Unfortunately, it’s a bit to complicated to get into right here.

But the full video is in this month’s Acrobat Accelerator, which you can sign up for here.

If you’re already signed up your issue hit the mail yesterday. There’s plenty of other exercises from working on the straight handstand that gymnasts use, press handstands and many more.

This is not beginner stuff, but if you’ve been in the game a little you can start using these drills to build your strength and skill.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. You can also get one of several hand balancing products that offer a one month trial to Acrobat Accelerator.

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Planche Training

By admin on September 6, 2008 in Planche

The quality of the questions coming in has, for the most part improved.

Here’s a great one on planche training from Josh,

“hey ive just learnt about planche a few weeks back and have looked up many ways of progression towards a full planche, i know it is not an over night thing but what would you recommend to do for progression? i can just hold a tuck planche for about 10 seconds but im not very far off the ground”

There are a few different ways you can go about this.

I’ll give you one of the best ways to do it. I was just re-reading The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing and Bob Jones talks a good amount about it on the chapter about the Planche.

The planche is such a difficult feat to perform because of the enormous leverage against the shoulders. On top of this you have to keep your body completely straight with no support except by the arms.

How do you work up to this? By making it easier. And that means lessening the leverage.

Here’s two ways you can do that. Spread the legs as wide as you can. And bending the knees. Combine these to lower the leverage even more.

Even like this though, most people will not be able to hold a planche position. It still requires great shoulder and upper body strength.

So work it as far as you can go. Lower from a handstand as far into the planche as you can, with the bent and spread legs.

Work this over time and you’ll build the strength you need.

If you want more on the planche get the book here. Plus you’ll learn what a true planche looks like and why most people are doing it wrong.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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Handstand Positions, One Hand Balancing and more

By admin on April 5, 2008 in Handstands, One Hand, Planche

Dipping into the mailbag today to answer a few questions. If you’ve got something on your mind, send it my way. You can easily click here to ask away.Here’s a good one from Rose talking about the new 10 Handstand Mistakes report.

“I really love the guide, but some things, to me, are a little confusing. Like where exactly should you bend your back, and what will it feel like when you hit that perfect thing? Is that just something that should be experienced simply by experience? And also, on my hands, I have a hard time really keeping the balance depending on the position of my hands…if I’m leaning forward slightly, or if my fingers are even the slightest moved…Is there anything you can write in there about your experiences with hand positions? Other than that, I can’t really think of anything. Thanks! :D”

Where you bend your back will be dependent on you. Yes you have to experience it but you can learn a lot from looking at pictures and of course watching video.

Most of the bend is in the low back, and personally I feel like I get ‘locked in’ to the right position whenever I do a handstand. Keep at it and you’ll get the feel.

As for the hands, there is much you can do with them. Honestly any position you take with your hands is doable for the handstand, whether its on the fists, hands backwards, or just the thumbs.

But the standard position is hands flat on the ground with either the middle or index fingers pointing forward. Work on this position first and foremost until you have build up your balancing ability.

Once you have a decent handstand feel free to mix up your hand positions. Professor Orlick gives you 25 different hand positions and 10 different finger positions to work on it Hand Balancing Made Easy. Many of these I had never even though about trying.And here’s one from Aldy.

“I can do straddle planche well enough, but I cant do one handstand balance. what is d secret of one hand handstand and one hand planche. for notes, I am not learning gymnastic, because in my country gymnast is not popular. Thank You!!!”

The secret? Alright you asked so I am going to give it to you. The secret is…You have to work up to it progressively.

First off, congratulations on doing the planche. That is a move few can do. But there is a big difference in the planche and the one hand handstand. One requires more strength while the other requires much more balance. And you have to be progressive in your balance training.

Jim Bathurst and I talked at length about this in the interview for the Hand Balancing Mastery Course. Basically you are going to have to train a bit differently for each. Just like you would train the free standing handstand and handstand pushups against the wall differently you should do the same here.

And like the normal handstand, the way I teach it, you have to work on a series of lead up stunts that will give you the ability to balance on one hand. There are many helpful variations that lead up to the one hand handstand. Professor Orlick lays them all out in as easy to use manner in How to do the One Hand Handstand.

I am working on my own plan, exactly what is working for me, but details on that another time.

Since this is already running long I’ll have to save more for next time.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. If you want to get all of Professor Orlick’s works plus the interview with Jim and more than click here.

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Handstand Lead-up Stunts (The Two Arm Elbow Planche)

By admin on November 17, 2007 in Handstands, Planche

In Handbalancing Made Easy, Professor E.M. Orlick explains that there are a number of stunts which will teach you many of the aspects that are needed for a good handstand. Two of these stunts are covered in the downloadable guide. These are the headstand and frogstand. Today I want to talk about one more of the 21 covered in the course.

In his own words these are the benefits on mastering all of these stunts.

The following lead-up stunts constitute stepping stones to perfection. They serve a multiple purpose and are of inestimable value. Taken alone each is a stunt in itself and worth learning even if you had no interest in handbalancing. All of them have something in common to the handstand and thus, pave the way for good handbalancing.

Each accustoms you to the upside-down position of the handstand, each helps to develop the strength, balance and muscular coordination necessary to handbalancing. Many form the very basis of the advanced stunts which will be dealt with later.

Anyone who sincerely desires to become an expert at the art of handbalancing should master each and everyone of these lead-up stunts. Even if you can hold a fairly good handstand now you should practice these stunts, for no matter how good you may be there is always room for improvement.

The Two Arm Elbow Planche.

Two Arm Elbow Planche

In addition to being an excellent lead-up trick the two arm elbow planche plays an important part in advanced handbalancing. Many difficult stunts can be built around it.

To perform the trick kneel on the floor, bring both elbows together and place them in your stomach and turn the palms of the hands facing upwards. Now lean forwards slowly and place the hands flat on the floor with your fingers pointing backwards. Arch your back slowly until your toes leave the floor and you will be doing the two arm elbow planche.

You will find the balance a little difficult at first but just keep on practicing. The stunt can also be performed on the edge of a table or on the end of any ordinary bed.

I have also heard this move called many other things, from an elbow lever to a half-arm planche. The obvious next step, and much more advanced, is to switch to doing this move on a single arm.

Why is this stunt helpful? It trains the balancing aspect on your hands from a low center of gravity. You also have to keep a decent arch and your body tight or else you will touch the ground with more than your hands.

Looking back I realize just how helpful these lead-up stunts are. I was going after a handstand before I could easily hold a headstand. Logically, you should go after the easier stunts first before tackling the more difficult.

The great thing about this course is just about every stunt and move shown leads in to the next one. If you want to get the One Hand Handstand then you have eight different lead-up stunts before you even attempt it.

On that note don’t forget you can get early access to ordering the Hand Balancing Mastery Course by signing up for the VIP List at Hand Balancing VIP List

And you can win yourself a free copy by sending in your success story. Don’t forget to do it soon because the deadline for entries is midnight on Monday, November 19th.

Have fun with this one and until next time…

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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