Tag Archives | Good Luck

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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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“.

How to do the One Hand Handstand by Professor Orlick

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One Handed Handstand

By admin on February 26, 2008 in One Hand

Got another question regarding the one handed handstand.

Hi . i have kinda a problem using one arm handbalancing because i have been practicing on it since long time and i believe i have a good strength in my shoulders yet i cant hold it more than 5 sec but i can hold it for one 1 min if lay against the wall ( same thing goes 2 the left hand ) so my question is what do i have to do to hold it as much as i can ??( is there any particular training should i attempt ? ) (if ya want, i can take a photo of my self while doing it )
Best Regards.

Actually what I am about to tell you applies to the regular handstand as well.

Being able to hold a one arm handstand against a wall is great, especially for a minute long, but this isn’t going to transfer to a free hand balance.

The strength is there, but it doesn’t take much strength to do this move. What it takes is balance and skill.

Using the wall will build your strength and it will help you learn the position if you do it right. What it won’t do is teach you how to balance.

This takes doing the move in the open. The problem is most people try to go straight from a two hand handstand into one by raising the arm. This is not the way and what stops many from mastering this skill.

Balancing in the one hand handstand is very difficult. You will not be able to figure it out by doing the one hand handstand itself, not in the beginning.

Just like I teach with the normal handstand there are a series of different lead-up stunts you should perfect before you move up to the one handstand.

No one covers this better than Prof. Orlick in How to do the One Hand Handstand. He outlines a step-by-step approach to reaching the one hand handstand.If you seriously want to hold a one-hand handstand you have to work up to this balance.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. If you want to see a bonehead move and some good old fashioned physical comedy check out this video I came across – https://www.break.com/index/treadmill-handstand-attempt.html. I hope this guy ain’t a student of mine.

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Yoga's Scorpion Pose

By admin on February 23, 2008 in Flexibility & Contortion

When I was practicing a bit of my hand balancing last week someone who practiced yoga commented on it and we started a conversation.

One balance that she told me about is the Scorpion Pose also known as Vrschikasana. (No, I don’t know how you pronounce that.)

For any hand balancer is should not be much of a problem to get started. But if you need it you can always use a wall.

Simply kickup into a forearm stand. From here all you do is bend your knees and bring your feet to your head.

In this pose you want to keep your feet and knees together, though your body will naturally want to separate them.

How far your feet can go depends on the flexibility of your back. For the contortionist is will be easy to touch the feet on the head or even bring them under the chin.

If you can’t get there, not to worry, just do what you can and build from there.

I just did a couple while writing this. Let me tell you this is one move that will instantly lift your spirits and make you feel alive.

Go ahead and give it a try.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. With all my travels I fell out of my normal writing schedule but will get back on it now. In the mean time if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask – https://lostartofhandbalancing.com/question.html

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Fellow Hand Balancers

By admin on February 18, 2008 in Uncategorized

I spent this past weekend as an Assistant Instructor at the Russian Kettlebell Certification.

Kettlebells are a great tool and they could help your hand balancing, as described in part by Rif in the interview found in the Hand Balancing Mastery Course, but that is not the main point of this message.It just that at the event I was practicing a little bit of my hand balancing during some of the off time. Lo and behold some of the people in my group happened to be fellow hand balancers. And not just novices either.

One of them is actually working on a partner hand balancing act. She showed me a video of her and her partner’s hand-on-hand balancing.

How about holding a pretty decent straddle planche? Definitely past the beginner stage.

I also picked up an interesting variation of the forearm stand from yoga that I’ll share with you next time.

When they found out about my site they went ahead a purchased The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing on the spot.My point is that when you get around like minded people you are likely to learn some new things. I encourage you to get out and find other hand balancers to help you on your path. Its not always an easy thing to do but worth the effort.

If you can join a gymnastics class.

Just practice outside and you might get lucky and stumble upon someone. Who knows?

When you get together you can help one another out. You learn best by teaching after all. You may pick up a crucial tip that benefits you. Plus there is the challenge to out do each other.

If you are fortunate enough to have a like-minded friend then you know what I’m talking about. (On a side note you should tell them about my site so you can talk about and practice many of the tips together.)

If you don’t you gotta find one.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. You can find out much more about kettlebells and many other great training resources right here.

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Chinese Acrobats do Handstands on Chairs

By admin on February 14, 2008 in Uncategorized

Chinese Acrobats Handstand on Chairs

Whoa!

This is just a sneak peak of what they best acrobats from China can do and one of many hand balancing tricks involving chairs shown in The Art of Chinese Acrobatics.

That’s 16 people doing handstands on top of more than a dozen chairs and some other apparatus.

My biggest question is how do you get into that? I’ve seen some crazy pyramid formations but this takes the cake. In this case it might actually be harder to get into position than hold it!

Now you may not be able to pull of this stunt, but there’s no reason you can’t use a chair to increase your handstand skills.

Try to press up into a handstand from a normal sitting position. Not a novice move but by no means a very difficult one either. It’s sure to amaze any onlookers though.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. You can see a picture of Bob Jones doing a hand balance on a chair on page 121 of The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing. Except in this case it’s a rocking chair adding even more difficulty to the balancing. As you can see the sky is the limit in what you can accomplish.

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How to do a Front Walkover

By admin on February 12, 2008 in Flexibility & Contortion, Tumbling

Many gymnastics moves go through the handstand position. And in this post we will discuss how to do a front walkover as shown below. This is a composite picture of Diane Robinson performing the move with ease.

Diane Gymnastic Walkover

These are the instructions that come from Acro-Chat. The correct way to do a two arm walkover. Notice the arms are straight all the way through, the legs are extended and split as much as possible, the back is arched tightly with the head and arms trailing as she stands upright.

I will caution that this move takes a large amount of flexibility in both the back and legs. Though its not dangerous, you may end up falling on your butt if you can’t do it as well as Diane.

You can also perform a back walkover which is done moving backwards. Just follow the pictures from right to left and you’ll get the idea.

These moves are not to be confused with the handspring or back handspring. Though the motion is much the same, except for going off of two legs instead of one, there is another big difference.

Your hands will touch the ground before both your feet leave it in a walkover. Handsprings involve leaving the feet to get up in the air before your hands touch down.

While not strictly a hand balance, the walkover and handspring do move through the handstand position. At any rate they are excellent skills that you may want to master.

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

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Tiger Bend

By admin on February 7, 2008 in Presses & Pushup

I was shooting some video a couple days ago doing a variety of hand balancing stunts. One of them was the Forearm Stand. Prof. Orlick also called it a Tiger Stand. From the stand you can do what is called a Tiger Bend, but we’ll start with the stand first.

This is a great trick in and of itself but its also a good way to work up to a full on handstand. Since you are resting on your entire lower arm and hand you have a bigger base with which to balance.

One you overcome the oddness factor of trying this exercise for the first time you can see the benefits. All the main points of holding a handstand are still there, like keeping tight, but you may have to arch your back a little more for this one.

Of course the ultimate goal with this exercise is to do what’s known as a Tiger Bend. An advanced exercise for sure. It involves going from the Forearm Stand up into a Handstand. With a little overbalancing and strong triceps you can get there.

Sig Klein doing a Tiger Bend

Since few of us will be able to pull that one off at the present time here are two easier ways. Do the negative movement which is dropping from a Handstand into a Forearm Stand. When you go for this don’t just fall into the position but control it as much as possible.

You can also do Tiger Bend Pushups. Get in a normal pushup position except you are resting on your forearms instead of the hands. Without any rocking motion pushup on to your hands to the top position and lower back down.

You don’t see these moves too often but that doesn’t mean they aren’t great.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. For the super advanced hand balancer you can try to duplicate Johnny Weber’s one arm Tiger Bend. Find out how to do it in The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing. The picture above is of Sig Klein from the same book.

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