Lost Art of Hand Balancing - Page 59 of 65 - Hand Balancing and Acrobatics Training for the Everyday Man and Woman

How to Kick-up into a Handstand

By admin on March 22, 2008 in Handstands

The kick-up is one of the most important skills you have to learn if you want to do a handstand, next to balancing with your hands and keeping your body tight.The question is, how consistent is your kick-up?I didn’t figure this out right away when I started, but if you can kick up the exact same each time then getting into and holding a handstand is easy.

If your kick-up is all over the place, then there’s no wonder why you have a hard time getting into a hand balance.

Of course, there are several different ways to kick-up. I cover all the basic ways for the beginner and even more advanced variation in the April issue of the newsletter.

My favorite regular kick-up I learned from Bob Jones in The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing. That one is shown here.

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usTC0oXqXtI]

There are a bunch of fine details that make a kick-up work. I am not gonna lie and say that I never miss a single one, but after concentrating on this for some time I no longer hit only one handstand out of ten like I use to.

If you’re having trouble with yours, start practicing. Better yet get the newsletter and learn all about how to get it done, the best method of practicing, and how far you can take it.

I wish it was ready to go right now, but I’m just putting the finishing touches and final edits on it before it the newsletter and DVD’s go to press.

In the mean time, I hope you enjoy these video clips.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

How to do the One Hand Handstand by Professor Orlick

P.S. You can learn more about Bob Jones’ 4-step method of kicking-up into a handstand here.

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Break-thru your Plateau

By admin on March 20, 2008 in Tumbling

What do you do when you hit a plateau?

Sometimes you just can’t seem to make anymore progress. You know, things were going great and you were progressing quickly then all of a sudden you’re stuck.

The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing

There are a couple of ways around this.

First you can just keep going. Many times if you continue to work hard, in time you will bust through it and continue to progress.

But most of the time you need to shake things up.

The beauty of this is that there are so many ways to approach your training.

You can change when you train, how long you train, and of course how you train.

The how you train can be broken into further groups ready for change. The skills you are working on. The sets, rep, or time on the exercises. Focusing on similar but different exercises and more.

If you training is feeling stale (not to be confused with boredom, but that’s another problem all together) you should implement one or more of these changes.

Even if your training is going good, a change for the better can supercharge your gains.

Which one exactly and what to do is going to depend on you and your goals. And in every case what you should do will be different.

You may be the kind of person you loves to figure out your own program. Or you may want someone to hand you a template for you to work from. Either way what’s coming soon will help.

How would you like new things to focus on every single month? A few tricks to work on to build your abilities?

This monthly program will be ready sometime next week. Before then I still have another video or two to share with you. If you missed the last couple you can check them out below.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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Cirque du Soleil: Kooza

By admin on March 17, 2008 in Uncategorized

Went to Cirque du Soleil this past weekend. The shows title was Kooza.

As expected I was amazed. But I have to say it even exceeded my expectations.

The show is touring through the eastern States now. If it’s coming nearby to you, Go and See It. But the same can be said for any Cirque du Soleil performance.

Unfortunately, no pictures are allowed otherwise I would love to share with you a few of the amazing feats performed.

From the synchronized contortionists to people on stilts being launched in a double back flip. From jumping over people on high wires to the best juggler I’ve ever seen. My favorite was the Wheel of Death. Every single thing was astounding.

Not to mention the funniest clowns ever. I’m not usually a big fan of the clowns but these guys were good.

One great thing was the answer to a question I had posed just a few weeks ago was shown in full force.

I’m talking about the Chinese acrobats hand balancing on chairs.

The hand balancer stacked one chair on top of the other. When he got high up, assistants would hand him chairs by using long poles.

Mind you these are not your average chairs but very sturdy things. They’ve got to be because he went up over 10 chairs high.

By standing on each chair he would place the next on top and press up to get into position. Every couple of chairs he would do a new feat.

A head balance on one. A handstand on another.

To top it off the last chair was not laid flat but tilted to be at a diagonal angle. On top of this the acrobat performed a one arm half-planche or elbow lever.

You could see the chairs wobble and shake.

After he was done they took the chairs done one by one and the act was over.

One thing I realized at this show is that you tend to have great respect for the people practicing the things you know. I could see the contortionists using their hands to balance. I understand how they do what they do (not so much their ungodly flexibility).

Same with some of the acrobatics.

But unicycling or balancing on the tight wire I have no experience with. Not to say I didn’t respect these people, because I did.

But when you know how hard it is to do something it makes you appreciate it more.

Not a lot of people understand the patience and effort over the long haul it takes to accomplish this kind of thing. But you do.

Are you looking for a quick fix or are your prepared to go the distance? The time is going to pass either way so why not become a master at a few things.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. For less than the cost of a ticket, you can get your hands on The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing, to see a bunch of similar feats and learn how to do them.

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Frog Stand

By admin on March 13, 2008 in Uncategorized

The frog stand makes it easier to learn the handstand by training your hand balancing skills in an easier manner.

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp86vFUlV84]

They call it hand balancing for a reason after all. The frogstand lowers your center of gravity and makes this learning the skills of manipulating your balance with your hands easier.

If you can’t hold the frog stand for at least a minute you have no reason to go after a free standing handstand. That’s my stance and I’m sticking to it.

But it’s not the only move. In fact there’s four. Master these and the handstand becomes much easier to learn.

You want to know what the four are?

Okay, it’s the frogstand, headstand, forearm stand, and handstand against the wall. But make sure you do them right.

The Secrets of the Handstand Quick Start DVD covers all four lead-up stunts and much more.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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Yoga Headstands

By admin on March 11, 2008 in Uncategorized

Yoga headstands, known as Sirshasana, are different than the standard gymnastic headstand. Instead of resting your palms flat on the ground you interlock your fingers and place them behind your head.

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rh-lIyJgqk]

The headstand is a great stunt. Very much underrated. Here is a more difficult variation of the headstand. In fact this would be an excellent exercise to move you forward to holding headstand with no hands at all.

I would recommend you start off this move against a wall as your base of support is quite a bit smaller than the regular headstand.

Kicking up can be tricky too. Instead of kicking up you may want to raise your legs from the floor at the same time. Good ab move too.

This is just one clip from the Handstand Quick-start Guide. I’ll be putting more video up as development continues.

As this is the first informative video, please let me know what you think.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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Doug Hepburn Handstand

By admin on March 8, 2008 in Uncategorized

This is one of my favorite pictures of all time with Doug Hepburn balancing a 205 lb. barbell plus a 145 lb. man doing a handstand on top.. Just recently I came across the same picture from another view. A perfect blend of strength and balancing.

Doug Hepburn Handstand Balance

Not any strong person could hold this. Besides the 350 lbs. of weight it is really the responsibility of the under-stander to keep the person in the handstand balanced.

If you haven’t heard of Doug Hepburn you may want to check him out. Suffice to say he was an all-around strongman, setting many weightlifting records in his time, and this was starting crippled at a young age.

What most people don’t know is that he was also a fine hand balancer.

Early in his career he was capable of twelve reps in the handstand press and five reps in the tiger-bend.

That’s some strength there.

Seeing and hearing about people like Doug Hepburn and Bert Assirati all doing hand balancing you can’t possibly think that hand balancing is only for the small framed.

Large size is no excuse.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Can’t say that being small doesn’t help though. Professor Paulinetti weighed around 110 lbs which made the One Arm Planche possible. To duplicate some of his feats check out The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing.

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Hand Balancing Program on DVD?

By admin on March 6, 2008 in Uncategorized

Got a timely question from Jeffrey who just joined us.

‘Hi, Are you ever going to make a DVD to go along with the handstand program? It is just so much easier to learn from. Thanks!’

The answer…absolutely!

In fact it is currently in the works. And it will be ready before this month is through.Originally my ideas for The Lost Art of Hand Balancing website involved making a program on video for hand balancing. It has just taken some time to put all the pieces together.

You sure can learn a lot from books and interviews but nothing is going to beat a video in teaching any physical art.

The best news for anyone who has bought the Hand Balancing Mastery Course is that you already have a copy of the first DVD reserved and waiting for you (once they’re done of course).

If you haven’t invested in the course yet, not to worry as there will be a less costly way to get started. More details coming soon.

But before its released, I’ll be adding new video clips to the web for your viewing, and learning, pleasure.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. If you haven’t seen the latest video click here to witness what you could do with consistent practice over many years time.

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Photo Montage with Paulinetti, Jones and more

By admin on March 4, 2008 in Uncategorized

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wosNb3MuO7w]

I threw this video together this morning. A little bit of a test run for my editing software, which I am still in the process of learning.

It shows some of my favorite shots from The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing as a photo montage. Kind of a commercial.

If you don’t own the book you’ll definitely want to see these pictures. I said it once and I’ll say it again, “The pictures in this book alone are worth the price.”

Not to worry as there will be more informative clips coming soon.

Feel free to post your comments directly on youtube, give it a rating, or whatever. Here’s the page for that – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wosNb3MuO7w

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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Handstand on Blocks

By admin on March 1, 2008 in Uncategorized

My first thought when I saw this picture was ‘Uh-Oh.’

Handstand on Blocks

The reason I was thinking this, is because if I (or most people for that matter) was in his position I’d be in for quite a fall. But I think this acrobat has it under control.

This is from The Art of Chinese Acrobatics. Here’s the comments in the book about it.

‘Handstands on Movable Wooden Blocks puts the basic acrobatic skill of the handstand in a new perspective. An acrobat, balancing upside down, piles two parallel rows of wooden blocks on a bench while establishing various poses along the way. The performance in which the acrobat pushes away the piled blocks and drops himself onto the bench is particulary impressive.’

If you look at the first sentence you’ll notice it calls the handstand a basic acrobatic skill. That it is, though it might be painful to hear if you’re struglling with this ‘basic’ move. But the truth is the handstand is only the beginning, the foundation from which so much else is built.

It takes quite the skill to catch yourself in a handstand from a drop. You have to agree that this is an impressive feat especially at that height, where lack of balance means possible pain and injury.

Dropping into a handstand is a move you can practice in many other ways though, even if its just you jumping into one on the floor.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. To build that handstand foundation be sure to check out Hand Balancing Made Easy.

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Leading up to any Handstand Stunt

By admin on February 28, 2008 in One Hand

Seemed to have raised some interest with my last email. So I’ve decided to go into a little more depth on the subject.

To sum up what I said last time: The best way to learn the handstand, one hand handstand, or any stunt is not to do the move itself, in the beginning, but work on lead-up stunts.

Obviously at a certain point you will need to work on the skill itself in order to master it but you shouldn’t start there.

If you look at a weightlifting move like the deadlift, let’s say you have a goal to lift 500 lbs. You wouldn’t start out trying to lift this weight because most likely you could not even budge it. No, you start with what you can do and move up in weight from there.

If your goal is to do a move like the one hand handstand you can’t just start with a lighter weight. Most bodyweight exercises don’t work this way. Just going for the move is like trying to deadlift 500 lbs. when your max is 300. Not gonna happen.

An easier version of the move is essentially the same thing as a lighter weight. When you are good with one move you move on to a harder variation, just like adding weight.

Failing to do this is why so many people never reach their goal. They just try the move over and over seeing little or no progress.

One move for the one hand handstand is to place your other arm on a raised box or chair and use it to help balance.

For the normal handstand you have moves like the headstand and frogstand. But there are many more for these moves and others.

That’s the genius in how Professor Orlick taught his students. Each move leads in to the next. For the best methods of mastering any hand balancing move check out the Hand Balancing Mastery Course.

If you learn this lesson well, you can apply to many other forms of exercise.By training in this manner you can and will progress much faster. I guarantee it.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Right now you can do no better than to get what has been affectionately referred to as the “Hand Balancing Bible“.

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