The more strength and skill you have the better you’ll be in hand balancing and acrobatics.
You may be saying ‘DUH’ but this works on multiple levels.
Obviously you’ll require more strength in order to do high strength movements like the planche, iron cross and more.
Among various moves some are more strength oriented like those above and others are more skill oriented like the handstand and more so the one arm handstand.
Still all require some degree of both strength and skill.
Yes you need strength in order to do a handstand. Its not much if you get into a proper body position but it is still present. And if you hold a handstand for a minute or two you’ll start to feel those muscles burning.
Even though it doesn’t require much strength, practicing the skills can take strength and endurance.
Lets say you’re working on the one arm handstand. Maybe you get ten minutes of practice in before your shoulders are fatigued and you can’t get any more quality work in.
Let’s say you’re trying to do a bent arm press. It takes strength plus skill. If your strength is lacking how good are you going to get at the skill of that movement?
Freestanding handstand pushups? Going to be very hard to work the balance of the movement if two handstand pushups against the wall is all you can manage.
So more strength makes doing the moves easier but also allows you to get more quality practice in. If you’re fatigued then its hard to do fine motor movements.
That’s why building a foundation of strength is important. And when you’re just focusing on this foundational strength you want to minimize the skill necessary.
I have a video that talks more about this and the four bodyweight exercises that work best for the whole body.
All you have to do is go here and signup to watch it immediately.
And soon I’ll have even more to help you get stronger and thus more skilled.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
P.S. If you’ve already signed up the next video on the Do’s and Don’ts of Technique is set to come out tomorrow. But if you haven’t go here now.
Hi Logan
With the one arm chin up progression, would you say it was better to practice slow one arm negatives or to try one arm chins holding my upper arm? By the way, I noticed you hold onto your bicep, but I grab around my tricep – is there any difference. I hold onto my tricep because I first started out holding onto my lower forearm so it seemed natural to move further up the arm on the same side instead of switching to the opposite side e.g bicep. I’ll really appreciate some advice with this, thanks.
@J: Its good to attack a skill from multiple fronts not just one. Both of what you listed are valid.
I use the bicep assist but I suppose the tricep would work just as well. Only you’d have to grab it hard like you do on the forearm rather then just press down when you’re on the bicep. Hope that makes sense. But I plan on trying the tricep assist a try next time.
Ok thanks Logan, I’ll keep doing both, I just wondered when I saw you grabbing your bicep if I’d been doing it wrong all along or something. I look forward to watching more interesting videos I can learn tips from!