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Handstand Press

By admin on January 29, 2008 in Flexibility & Contortion, Presses & Pushup

Another thing I’ve devoted more of my time to recently is the handstand press. While a normal handstand does not take very much strength many of the presses do.

Handstand presses can be broken down into two main groups. Those done with straight arms and those down with bent arms.

The various bent arm presses take a high degree of strength in the shoulders, triceps and also the chest in many cases.

Straight arm press-ups still take strength but in different areas. Also you will need flexible wrists, hamstrings, and the ability to compress your body in half. In fact the more flexibility you have the less strength you will need.

For all these reasons most people will be better at either straight arm or bent arm presses. There are many people who can do the straight arm variety but will fall on their face if they have to bend their arms.

On the other hand most stronger people can do many bent armed presses. These take tremendous arm and shoulder strength to pull off successfully as you have to hold your entire bodyweight in mid air for a length of time. But for these people the straight arm presses can be elusive.

In the end you want to be able to do both. In order to do this you must train for both.

That’s why there’s chapters on the pressing in all the main books like Hand Balancing Made Easy and The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing.

Presses are not easy, especially if you’re not of the average gymnast size. But it can be done.

If you’ve ever wondered why hand balancers are so strong this is one of the major keys. So start pressing.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. There are so many ways you can press up into a handstand. Have you mastered them all? Start where you can and work from there.

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Diane Robinson – Contortionist Extraordinaire

By admin on January 24, 2008 in Flexibility & Contortion

From the November 1950 issue of Acro-Chat.

Diane Robinson Hand Stand

Diane Robinson like many others has spent many happy hours working out with the gang at Santa Monica’s “Muscle Beach.” But her real training came from dancing school acrobatic teachers in Oakland and Hollywood, California.

Diane’s ease of manner, grace of work and charming personality has made her a favorite with western audiences. Many contortionists perform their bending on top of a small platform or pedestal, but Diane goes them one better by performing her difficult bends and balances on top of a large ball.

Here she is very much at ease in a free elbow stand balance.

Elbow Stand Balance

In you want to try the contortionism thing then its still a matter of progressing from where you start. Trying to get the little bit more of back bend each time.

I wouldn’t recommend starting off on top of a ball. Just standing on top of a swiss ball proves to much for most people.

As far of the points of the elbows stand, go ahead and give it a try. Simply start from a forearm balance and raise your hands up. With a little practice you can add this trick to your repertoire.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. There’s a few more pictures of Diane demonstrating the front walkover which I’ll put up next time. Until then be sure to check out the new review on the Hand Balancing Mastery Course if you haven’t already.

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Bridge Exercises

By admin on January 5, 2008 in Bridging, Flexibility & Contortion

This picture was taken over a year ago of this bridge exercise. I’m the guy on the bottom in the wrestler’s bridge, while my friend, Tyler, is doing a hand bridge on top. I call it the Double Bridge.

Double Bridge Stunt

You might wonder what possessed us to try this stunt. The answer is just for fun and to see if we could pull it off.

The motivation was in seeing a couple of pictures in The True Are and Science of Hand Balancing. Bridging and hand balancing have always gone together because they both take strength, flexibility, and skill.

I pulled a couple more pictures out from the Inspirational Photo Section displaying some bridging stunts. In the book there are over 130 pictures in this section alone giving you all kinds of trick you could shoot for. That’s not counting the photos which show you how to perform all manner of hand balancing stunts throughout the rest of the book.

Bridging Stunts

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, the pictures in this book alone are worth the price.

Since doing this stunt, I have wanted to give it another shot because I think we could make it look better. But it is one of those one time things, at least for now.

Bridging of all kinds is something you must work up to, especially pulling off feats like this. There will be more on this topic in the future as I believe I am one of a handful of people pushing the envelope on this skill set, just like some of the old time strongmen.

If you’ve never done anything like this, get started slowly.

Good Luck and Good Bridging,
Logan Christopher

P.S. To get much more on bridging exercises check out the Advanced Bridging Course

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Handstands and Wrist Strength Part 2 and More

By admin on November 1, 2007 in Flexibility & Contortion, Handstands

Last time we talked about how you can overcome pain and poor flexibility in your wrists so that you can pursue hand balancing. A subscriber pointed out a few points which are certainly worth mentioning.

There is a way to work around this problem. Handstands can also be done on parallel bars or pushup handles and still be very effective. Rings work too but are even more of a challenge.

Though the body mechanics remain the same, how you go about balancing becomes a different matter.

For most people it will be much harder to balance because your base is smaller. Not the best way to get started on your handstands. But with some work you can balance with ease on any parallettes. And certainly if you are using a wall it is not a problem.

While this is a viable method it will not help the problem itself. You need to build the strength and flexibility and not skirt the issue.

Use this method to get some practice in the handstands if you need it but be sure to work the wrists. After all you can’t go wrong with a strong pair of hands.

Now on to a couple announcements.

The survey is now closed. Thank to all of you for participating. It will take some effort to pour over all the results but I can tell you they will result in some new and exciting changes to the site.

Secondly, I will be holding a contest soon. The details will be in my next email but for now just know that you will have a chance to win a full copy of the Hand Balancing Mastery Course coming soon. In fact, there may be more than one up for grabs.

The particulars on this new product will be announced in the next weeks as well and you won’t want to miss out. So until then…

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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Handstands, Wrist Strength and Pain

By admin on October 25, 2007 in Flexibility & Contortion

Another question from a reader. And this isn’t the first time I have seen this problem pop up. Read on and find out what to do about it.

hello Logan,

well i have a question for you,

after a handstand practice i get wrist pain over the back of my wrist and sometimes on the sides the pain shows up while stress the wrist on pushups/ handstand position and sometimes on Ulnar Deviation and Radial Deviation

what can i do about it, maybe there are exercises that can strengthen my wrists and tendon ??

thanks 🙂
haggai D.B.

Let me first start of saying I am not a doctor. That may be obvious but I cannot diagnose what the problem is exactly, especially over the internet.

Hand Balancing takes a large degree of hand, wrist, and finger strength and flexibility. Not everyone has the flexibility to keep their hand back 90 degrees which is necessary to do a handstand.

I should say, not everyone starts of with this flexibility. But it can be gained through persistent effort.

Back in High School I suffered an injury to my right wrist. I would get shocked with pain any time I hit someone with my hands and had to get a special cast device made to help me out. Unfortunately it did affect my playing.

When I first started with handstands about a year after, I could not jump right into a handstand. In fact I still usually don’t. I take the time to stretch my wrists through flexion and extension. This primes them for any handstand work.

Even now my right wrist is less flexible than my right, but it has gotten better by leaps and bounds since then.

If holding a handstand causes to much pain then you will need to start at a manageable level and build from there. Pain is a sign you are pushing past your limits.

Do pushups or the pushup position cause you the same pain?

Wherever you need to start, go from there. It may take time but you will build the strength and flexibility to survive all hand balancing without the slightest discomfort.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. The results of the survey are still pouring in. If you haven’t taken the time yet to fill it out and get your f.ree report, do so now. I can tell you that the site will be changing for the better and soon because of your response.

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Bridge Gymnastics

By admin on October 3, 2007 in Bridging, Flexibility & Contortion

Check out this video of some wrestler’s bridge gymnastics.

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD56_U–TI0]

Here is another video I took while I was at my gymnastics class. Let me start by saying don’t try this at home. It took a lot of effort to work up to this level. I didn’t jump into this on a whim.

It is actually several different feats strung together. Falling into a bridge, kicking over, kicking back, then standing up. Not the most graceful one I have ever pulled off. Still need some work especially on the Standing Up part.

Of course this can be done by with a gymnastic or hand bridge. I can do the gymnastic bridge version a little easier. And this one does not take so long to work up to, as far as neck strength is concerned.