Lost Art of Hand Balancing - Page 32 of 65 - Hand Balancing and Acrobatics Training for the Everyday Man and Woman

How to do a Cartwheel Step by Step

By Bac on June 5, 2012 in Tumbling

The video below and the accompanying steps will show you how to do a cartwheel step by step. The cartwheel is one of the most basic and foundational tumbling or gymnastic moves. It’s a move everyone should be able to do with just a little amount of practice.

How to do a Cartwheel Step by Step

Step 1
Figure out which leg to lead off of for the cartwheel. This is important in the beginning, and with a little more practice you’ll be able to do cartwheels on both sides. Although one side is usually tougher then another, this is one move where you can easily work off both legs.

Step 2
Determine if you can support your weight on your hands. This is done in the video with a move called the bunny hop. You could also use a handstand against the wall.

Step 3
Do a bunny hop to the side. This ends up looking something like a move that people that don’t know how to cartwheel end up doing when the try it.

Step 4
Do a bunny hop to the side, except this time you land on one foot before bringing down the other.

Step 5
This uses a cartwheel mat, although it’s not necessary. This explains where your hands and feet go while doing the cartwheel. You can see an example of this in this other article on how to do the cartwheel.

Step 6
Do a cartwheel.

For some people you might need to teach in this many steps how to do a cartwheel, but for others they’ll be able to pick it up with a minor amount of cues.

If you’d like more advice on a wide variety of tumbling skills check out Tumbling Illustrated.

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How to do a Handstand Against the Wall

By Bac on June 4, 2012 in Handstands

In this article I’ll be showing you the most beginner stage of hand balancing, that is how to do a handstand against the wall. While most of this site is devoted to getting out in the open for freestanding handstands, there are many people that can’t yet do this simple stunt. And that’s okay. You have to start where you are and that’s what you’ll learn here.

There are a number of things you must focus on when doing this. The first and foremost is getting into position. Doing a kick-up is by far this easiest way to do that.

This older video of mine shows focuses on the kick-up and how to do it to get into a handstand against the wall.

How to do a Handstand Against the Wall

The next important part is holding the handstand position. There are a number of important points here.

Keep the arms locked out. This places the stress on your bone structure rather then relying on muscle, which would occur with any bend in the arms.
Shrug the shoulders up to the ears.
Keep the legs together and toes pointed. This isn’t just for aesthetics. When you move further into balancing, having your legs tight really helps, so get in the habit now.
The back can be arched or kept straight. Both versions are legitimate handstands, they just have some differences in them.
Your head can be looking down at the ground or through the arms and looking opposite the wall.

When practicing first get comfortable with kicking up. You’ll need to increase or decrease the amount of force you use. Once you are good at that you can begin to hold the handstand position for time. And to progress you’ll continue to add more and more time.

Eventually when this is easy, you can begin working on balancing in the handstand.

If you’ve enjoyed this article on how to do a handstand against the wall please leave your comments or questions below.

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Handstand Crossfit

By Bac on June 2, 2012 in Handstands, Presses & Pushup

I don’t agree with everything Crossfit does, but they still are doing a good amount right. One of which is that there are some handstands in Crossfit. With all their cross training they do hit a little on many different things, In this post I’ll offer a little advice on how to take it further. First, a quote from the founder:

Handstands crossfit, hand walking, and pressing to the handstand are critical exercises to developing your athletic potential and essential components to becoming “CrossFit.”

Historically, these exercises have been collectively referred to as “hand balancing” and have been an integral part of strength and health culture since antiquity, yet today hand balancing seems to have followed the passenger pigeon to extinction. From Crossfit.com

I agree with him that handstands have become a lost art, hence the name of this site. Now let’s look at how handstands are typically included in a Crossfit workout. There are two basic ways.

Handstand crossfit holds against the wall
Handstand pushups

Of course being Crossfit they love kipping. And they even kip with handstand pushups! (It’s not just a pullup thing)

An interesting exercise but I would certainly not use it as your mainstay for training. Build strength through other progressions like in this handstand pushups book and you will building stronger arms and shoulders.

Don’t be so concerned with getting 21-15-9 reps of handstand pushups in your workout, when you can’t do one strictly, but start where you are and build from there.

Handstand holds against the wall are great. They help train your position and can build stability and endurance in the position. Great to finish off your training with that.

Unfortunately in most Crossfits this is as far as their handstand training goes. What about the balancing aspect?

First off all this should not be included in a typical Crossfit workout. When you’re gassed and fatigued is not the time to work on fine motor skills. Instead you can perform a little bit of free hand balancing practice before hand. Use it as part of your warmup.

Most people will try to jump right into the handstand but this would be the perfect time to start out with easier lead-up stunts like the frogstand and headstand as outline in the Secrets of the Handstand book.

You build better balancing skills this way and soon be outperforming all your handstand Crossfit buddies at handstands.

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Ninja Warrior Bedroom

By Bac on June 1, 2012 in Rock Climbing

I was sent this video a little while back. It’s very impressive showcasing a man training for Ninja Warrior in his bedroom.

If you’re not familiar with Ninja Warrior, it’s a TV show with the most difficult obstacle courses on the planet. Very few people over the years have even completed them all. It’s well-worth checking out, for example on youtube, if you’re not familiar with it.

You can see the progression of starting with a few rock climbing holds and how it grew from there. In Ninja Warrior a majority of the events involve climbing or hanging by very tough hand positions.

Just this week I went and joined a rock climbing gym. I believe rock climbing and hand balancing go together really well as they work many opposing muscle groups.

The strength required in the fingertips, not to mention the pulling muscles, should also translate to my goal of doing the one arm chinnup. At least that’s what I’m going for and I’ll be sure to update you on my progress there.

Now I don’t recommend turning your room or home into a ninja warrior course like this man did (in fact, I don’t think many places could support that weight, unless it was done properly). But adding some of this kind of training into what you’re doing you may get some great benefits, so give it a try.

If you want to learn some different Ninja skills join me at my upcoming workshop.

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Why Handstands Take So Long To Learn

By Bac on May 29, 2012 in Handstands

I received this email the other day from Dunte and I thought it was worth sharing with you.

Especially in this day and age everyone wants instant success in anything they do. And if you can’t deliver that to them, they don’t want your help, as they aren’t willing to do the work to get it. This is as true with handstands as anything else. Read the message below then I’ll follow it up with a few more ideas…

I am a personal trainer full-time, but am also a trained educator and have studied human development pretty extensively.

Short version: for those getting frustrated with their “apparent” lack of progress in the handstand (or any other balancing or fine motor skill), this general timeline from infant motor development might be illuminating.

7 months – can stand or pull up to standing, supported by objects
9 months – can walk/move while standing, with support
10 months – can stand freely (briefly)
11 months – can stand freely with confidence
12 months – can walk freely
14-17 months – can walk/climb freely
18 months – can manipulate objects while moving

So, total elapsed time for the “average” infant is 11 months from getting upright to playing in the standing position! My daughter took roughly that long as well. Thinking this way has made me much more comfortable with the small, incremental improvements that regular handbalancing practice brings, instead of being frustrated about “not getting it” for so long. Considering this, as well as the timeline for training my clients toward graceful single-leg movements, I feel pretty good about the long path ahead to the single-arm free handstand push-up as well.

Maybe that insight would help some of your readers!

Best,
Dunte
The Fit Life

Thank you Dunte and I completely agree with you.

How to do the One Hand Handstand by Professor Orlick

Just imagine if your average person stuck to standing and walking like they do to other things in their life. We’d have a lot of people that were immobile. Yet the baby keeps on trying. And if you want to learn the handstand, and any more complicated movements you’ll have to do the same.

As much as I wish I could sell you a Magic Pill that gave you instant hand balancing mastery, that’s just not going to happen. As hard as learning to stand on your feet was, the hands and arms are smaller and you’re bigger, making it even harder to do.

With the Secrets of the Handstand Quick Start I try to give you the best proven path to attaining a handstand. Even then with time spent doing the lead-up stunts, it will still take some work. With this system you may be able to shave months off your learning curve, but it will still take practice and dedication.

Stay dedicated and you can accomplish anything you desire.

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Yoga Hand Balancing Flow Video

By Bac on May 24, 2012 in Handstands, Yoga

Here is a yoga video that includes hand balancing.

Yes, it is an attractive woman in her underwear but don’t let that distract you 🙂

By watching this you can observe a couple things.

One, that yoga and hand balancing go hand in hand (pun intended). Yoga has many hand balances in it. You’ll see pressups to a handstand, a version of the frogstand, the headstand, handstands with different leg positions including the lotus position, and more.

You can also see how you might want to put a little hand balancing flow together, going from one move to the next.

Thanks to John for sending this video to me.

Want some more yoga positions. Check out the Yoga Trapeze as a fun tool for making inversions easy.

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One Arm Handstand Training

By Bac on May 16, 2012 in One Hand

When it comes to the one handed handstand you don’t often see much middle ground. Most people can’t do it at all. The true masters make it look easy. But there is an area between where one arm handstand training takes place. Where a person can just hold it and you can see how difficult it is.

This video from Jim Bathurst shows that area of being able to hold a one armer but by no means having a simple time with it. There is a rare glimpse into that training.

One Arm Handstand Training

A few things to point out here if you’re working towards this skill.

A straight bodied handstand is preferable for one arm handstands. This doesn’t mean it can’t be done with a curve, but it does seem to be easier. So make sure you have a solid straight handstand first. You’ll notice how the shoulders are locked into place.

The straddle position with the legs makes balancing easier. This is the best place to start towards the one handed handstand.

Lastly coming up onto the fingertips then slowly raising them off the ground, keeps you in balance. Most people that try this move way too fast.

For more info on one arm handstand training check out How to do the One-Hand Handstand by Professor Orlick. You’ll also find some other great articles on Jim’s site.

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Sensual Hand Balancing Duo

By Bac on May 9, 2012 in Flexibility & Contortion, Hand-to-Hand

Watch this video on an amazing hand balancing duo.

It’s French. It’s seductive. It’s also got some partner balancing I’ve never seen before.

Quite the complement of strength, skill and flexibility.

Thanks to Adam Glass for sending this to me.

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Great Progress Report

By Bac on May 8, 2012 in Uncategorized

I received this unsolicited email the other day.

I am quite tempted to write you a long letter, describing in detail the many specific things that I have gained from both your website and the HBMC, but I will spare you the specifics in favor of brevity.

I began training parkour about 2 years ago, and I followed that by joining the gymnastics club at my university. Now, though, while I still go out for parkour several times a week, my real passion is hand balancing. I LOVE standing on my hands. How can such a seemingly monotonous task be so incredibly rewarding? It is just fabulous!

I could walk on my hands fairly well (from a naive perspective), but couldn’t stand still for more than 3 seconds. Furthermore, my technique was just horrendous. Having gotten the HBMC a couple of weeks ago, I can already consistently surpass the 30 second mark with a static hold, and I am approaching the 1 minute mark. My forearms have been absolutely destroyed since the book arrived! It honestly hurts my forearms to snap my fingers 🙂 The manual not only provides me insightful details concerning technique, but it also serves as a hand balancing pep talk! I am very thankful that I made this purchase, and I sincerely regret not having done it sooner.

-Kenny Wunder

Thank you Kenny for taking action and putting in the effort.

If you want to get the Hand Balancing Mastery Course you can grab it here.

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Back Lever Flutter Kicks

By Bac on April 30, 2012 in Uncategorized

Since my recent progress in the back lever I’ve been looking to make it harder. Just a couple months ago I held my first ever, legs together back lever, and now that’s pretty easy. So I’m adding some movements into the mix and I came up with this one, which I call back lever flutter kicks.

It’s much harder then the regular lying on your back version of flutter kicks that the Navy Seals made famous. Though it is tougher then a hold it’s not that too much harder to do. The reason I didn’t do it longer in the video was because I shot this after a new PR for me, of a 10 second back lever hold.

Of course this same movement could be done in the front lever position. Haven’t got to the full position there yet though.

I’m thinking about doing a DVD just on Lever progressions. Would you be interested in that?

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