Tag Archives | Discipline

A Rededication

This morning I woke up and did some Yoga. After about fifteen minutes I started my hand balancing practice as I’ve done every morning this week.

But I have to be honest with you, besides this week I haven’t done all that much hand balancing recently.

Life craziness plus an ongoing wrist injury have got in the way. This isn’t to say I’ve neglected all my training. Far from it. But hand balancing has taken a back seat.

Where I wanted to be at the end of 2009 is now actually further off then where I was at when this year just began.

However, that’s going to change. I’m now recommitted to regularly practicing hand balancing and taking my skills further.

In order to do this I have to go back. Back to the basics. In fact, at this point I’m not even working on a regular handstand. I’ve gone back to the various lead-up stunts found in the Secrets of the Handstand Quick Start DVD.

Right now even the frogstand is difficult. Any pressure on my right wrist is tough but its slowly getting better. Getting to that recommended minute mark is proving a trial but sometimes you have to go back in order to move forward.

But you know what, I’m excited about it. Assuming my wrist cooperates I know I’ll gain my skills back and quickly surpass them.

Have you been neglecting to practice like I was? Sometimes the fire that got us started down one road begins to flicker and die away. This can be because other more important things come around.

Or there are a wide variety of other reasons. Out of laziness you can let it go. Just drop your training like so many people do after that initial burst of practice (and this applies to so much outside of doing handstands). Years down the road you’re likely to regret that wasted time.

As the great Jim Rohn, who recently passed away, said “We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.”

The thing is at any moment you do have the opportunity to rededicate yourself. Sometimes you just need a little outside motivation to do so. I got mine from an unlikely source. My hope is that reading this will spur you on.

In order to keep that motivation high you need to continually surround yourself with what it is you wish to accomplish. If you wish to excel at hand balancing visit this site over and over again.

Get with people who share the same passion. Read books and watch videos on the topic (and if you don’t have any what are you waiting for?)

For the reasons listed above and others I’ve haven’t added as much content to the site recently as I should have. But that’s going to change. There are some great things in store there especially when the new year rolls around.

But for now there is one thing I’d like to ask. There are a number of great hand balancers and acrobats out there reading this. If you’re one of them how would you like to share your tips, training and techniques?

If so, send in your articles and/or videos and we’ll grow the site to help more people together.

The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing
The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing on Amazon

You can reply to this email or just send them to [email protected]. If you have any questions as far as what to talk about send those in too.

As always, thanks for your time.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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Yoga Arm Balances

Yesterday morning, I decided to do something a little different from my normal morning routine, which involves spending some time upside down.

I had come across this yoga video of some fairly advanced stuff including a few yoga arm balances. So I popped it in the player and did my best to follow along.

I’d like to think I did fairly well considering I don’t actually do yoga and this was an advanced program. But there was a number of skills I could not do, mostly involving flexibility.

The lotus position, forget it. And doing it in a handstand was way beyond my level.

But I picked up some interesting moves I hadn’t done before. Not to mention the video helped me to identify a few weak points.

Try this one out. Its similar to a frogstand except both your legs are going to be to one side. So bend your elbows, put both legs to the outside of one knee and lift up onto your hands with the legs stacked on top of each other resting on the knee.

From here, drop your head to the ground and press from this side position up into a headstand.

Its just one move that stood out to me. Give it a try and see if you can do it.

Hand Balancing Made EasyHandBalancingMadeEasy_on_Amazon

The point is that you should look outside your discipline at many things similar but also far different. For hand balancing you’ve got gymnastics, capoeira, yoga, break dancing, parkour and more.

It can help you change it up and look your practice through some different eyes.

Anyone coming from a gymnastics background can learn a lot from the origins of hand balancing. That’s why getting The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing can show you tons of moves you‘ve never even thought of doing.

And maybe in the future I’ll find some more resources to further help you branch out.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Do you have your costume ready for Halloween? Just finished mine and I’m pleased with the results. I’ll try to snap a few pictures tomorrow and post them on the blog. Whether I can manage a handstand in it or not, is debatable

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Comment on the Hand Balancing Blog

I wanted to share with you an interesting debate I had with one of my subscriber’s and than I want to encourage you to add your own comments.

So here is part of Nathan’s comments:
“I take issue with some of the things you say on this site, also I do not believe you should be creating videos and tutorials that teach people handstands when you yourself use the technique deemed improper by Gymnasts and Circus Artists alike.

“Handstands should not be taught over the internet as it is an incredibly precise discipline that requires constant feedback and personalized training, something which with this medium you cannot deliver.”

And my response:
Deemed improper? Perhaps the straight body style is better but its not easier to learn. Having an arch is natural which is why it ‘use’ to be the only way up until about the 70’s. All the gymnasts (don’t actually know any circus artists myself) I’ve talked to say its just a matter of style anyway. In the end you should be able to take any position and balance right. After all look at many contortionists. Are they doing straight handstands?

I agree with you partially here. Yes personalized instruction would be best but its not really feasible. But isn’t some instruction better than nothing? Not all the people that come to my site are looking at this as a career, just something they’d like to be able to do.

And his comments back:
“Just to add to the perfect handstand discussion that’s going on. I believe the straight bodied handstand came around when people were trying to emulate the standing up normally position on their hands to create a more stable position. Hands below shoulders below hips below feet, in essence standing up but reversed.

“The arched position handstand is the beginners preference as the body naturally falls into that position and requires less core strength. The scorpion handstand common among contortionists is an entirely different type as this is a handstand trick rather than a base handstand. As you said earlier both work and are fine, but the more solid and versatile handstand in my opinion is the straight body one.

“Just my two cents, was an interesting little debate to read.”

And now here is your chance to weigh in on the situation. You know blogs are made to be two-way communication tools. But I haven’t ever encouraged this in the past. Well now I am.

All you have to do to post your comment is register here:
https://lostartofhandbalancing.com/blog/wp-login.php

And then go to the post itself to leave your comments:
https://lostartofhandbalancing.com/blog/comment-on-the-hand-balancing-blog

Think you can do that? I’d be happy if you took the time to give it a shot, so you can let me know what you think.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. It really sounds harder than it is. I’ve resisted this blog stuff in the past but once I got into it, its actually a lot of fun.

Trampoline Handbook
Trampoline Handbook on Amazon

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