Just a couple updates from my hand balancing training.
This chair press is something I’ve played with a few times over the years. This was the first time I pressed up with the lower arm to lockout.
In working on my straddle I have pretty poor flexibility, especially dynamic, so I’ve been working on that. This video shoes to drills a straddle sit and straddle leg lifts.
I just finished up the Animal Flow Certification put on by Mike Fitch of Global Bodyweight Training. Mike is a good friend of mine and I’m happy to say I lent a helping hand in getting his website and business off the ground. So to see the great success he’s had so far is amazing.
After finishing up the weekend I asked Mike to do a short interview. It would have been longer but I had to hit the road and drive 6 hours home.
In this interview we talked about his background, how the animal flow movements came about, how the build the exact strength, flexibility and skill needed for hand balancing, and what it takes to become good.
Be sure to check out Mike’s Animal Flow Workout.
Also you can check out my Animal Flow Review here.
Here is a great video I saw recently of an excellent hand balancer from France. It shows a wide variety of amazing hand balancing skills.
Hand balancing stands are used in about the first half of the video. Then a few other tools are used throughout as well. One of my favorites is jumping off of the table in a handstand. And it ends with some tumbling movements as well.
Just by studying this you can find something you can add into your routine, even if you’re not as advanced the basics of moving the body around while in a handstand is great for just about everybody.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
P.S. Hand Balancing Stands are back in stock here. Get your pair while they’re still available.
I was at a competition this past weekend and met Adrian who had previous years of experience in Capoeira. I asked him to demonstrate just a few basic moves and he obliged. Enjoy!
There are many different arts that incorporate hand balancing and acrobatics into them and each one is unique. If you’d like to see more about Capoeira here on this site leave a comment below.
The 30 day challenge is over.
Just to recap, or for those of you that aren’t aware, this involved two parts.
The first was to practice my hand balancing in one form or another every single day.
To be honest, in this regard I failed. I missed a couple days at the end. This was a result of getting busy, putting off the practice and forgetting to do it later.
But I don’t think of this as a failure. What I did accomplish was to practice my hand balancing almost everyday. I’m back into it with renewed vigor.
Progress at gymnastics is coming fast. Back to tumbling with a fury. Gained back my old skills fast and moving onto the new. In addition I’ve begun working on the other apparatus like the parallel bars, pommel horse and more.
And I did see improvement in my one hand handstand and one arm half planche (my two big hand balancing goals right now) over the month. They’re still a long way off but no one said you could master these moves overnight.
In fact, most people say it’ll take years if you even ever accomplish the one armer.
The second part of the 30 day challenge was to post on the site every single day. While it was difficult at times I did accomplish this one! Lots of pictures, a wide range of videos and short helpful tips are all there to see.
Not to mention holding a sale and releasing a new training tool during this time. I would say it was a great success.
So what happens now?
I’m going to go back to writing to you once or maybe twice every week. And the good part is this will be a more in depth piece then what I’ve been putting up lately.
I will continue to practice my hand balancing regularly and report on my progress here.
If you did the 30 day challenge with me, I’d love to hear about how it went for you down below.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
Today marks day 15 of the 30 day challenge.
On the site I’ve shared a bit about my own progress, several tips, a few videos and old pictures.
While progress was quickly made in gymnastics, getting back into the flow of things, there were some setbacks in training, due to being too sore. Still I have practiced at least a little everyday so far.
Now that I’ve return to a bit more normal training schedule and the soreness has gone away I’m spending more time each day in a handstand.
I’ve been working my handstand position. Just playing around with different ways to hold it. Changing body position, mostly working towards a straight handstand, and seeing how that affects the balance.
On top of that my main goals are the one arm handstand and the one arm half planche. Happy to report both arm coming along, although the latter is making quicker progress.
How are you doing so far?
It’s been awhile since I wrote you. I’ve been busy on two other projects (https://www.radianthealthtoday.com and https://www.superhumantraining.com) which accounts for much of the limited communication.
The other reason is that I haven’t been practicing my skills. Makes it hard to write about when you’re not actively doing them. 🙁
But now’s its time for that to change. I’m setting myself a 30 day challenge in two ways.
1. Practice some amount of hand balancing every single day.
It doesn’t have to be a large chunk of time but I will be hand standing in one sort or another each and every day.
My question to you is have you been practicing? And how consistent are you? If you’d like feel free to join me.
That leads to the second part of my challenge…
2. Post something on the site every single day.
Often times this may just be a short update on what I practiced and anything I learned from the practice that day.
Other days it may be an inspirational video if I have no words to write.
Sometimes it’ll be more.
In fact, to give myself a jump start and get me more fired up to pursue these goals I’ve starting attending a gymnastics class once again.
And this led to the first piece up here now, Back to Gymnastics.
You are welcome to join me in this 30 day challenge, not just in practicing but in posting in here the comments each day (or when ever you choose).
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
I was sent a couple of articles by Rick over at GymnasticsCoaching.com
These can be found in the Science of Gymnastics Journal found here.
They actually did a study on this? Cool...
One particular article caught my eye, concerning a comparison of hand walking to regular walking.
You’re welcome to read the seven page report yourself but I’ll give you the results they found.
I’ve seen many people compare hand balancing to standing on the feet. While this can be useful in certain situations this study showed that because of the structure of the body things have to be different (no big surprise there).
Gymnasts of various, but all above average skill levels, were used in this study.
What they found was the cadence of walking on the hands was similar to the feet albeit much shorter even if you take into consideration the difference in lengths of the arms and bones.
Also hand walking requires a wider base of support then on the feet.
What they found is that the more skilled gymnasts spent more time with both hands on the ground at one time and with more consistent stride length.
These are just a few things to take into consideration the next time you go for a stroll on your hands.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
P.S. Want full details on how to walk, run, jump, skip and even tap dance on your hands? Check out How to Walk on Your Hands in the Hand Balancing Mastery Course.
Thanks for all the comments on the previous post on the different ways people come to hand balancing.
Different ideas and issues were raised so I’d like to delve further into the subject for today.
Gymnastics – First off George corrected me about hand balancing in gymnastics. I’ll reprint what he said below.
In other parts of the world hand balancing is becoming part of another gymnastic sport-discipline once called Sport Aerobics, now often termed as Aerobic Gymnastics. Though their hand balance skills are simple Crocks… I predict that this will grow much much larger. This sport is huge in many european countries.
I stand corrected. It seems my gymnastic experience only goes as far as what I see in the major events in the Olympics. But in the future I’ll be diving deeper into these other disciplines.
Capoeira in Action
Several people come to my site in efforts to improve their handstands for more strength and endurance in order to increase their Capoeira skills.
Parkour – Freerunners or Traceurs (the term for those that practice Parkour) obviously cover a wide variety of acrobatic and movement skills. I’ve heard in described as Parkour being moving as efficiently as possible through a path or course. While Freerunning adds the elements of skill and tricks to the mix. In this case handstands would make more sense for freerunning as walking across a field on your hands is quite inefficient compared to running across.
Of course, it’s all about mastering the human body and movement. Hand balancing is the same. So it’s no wonder that those who are proficient and experts in Parkour are usually proficient or experts in hand balancing. The two go together hand in hand and that’s why I offer the Parkour Tutorial DVD on this site.
Crossfit – This would certainly fit into the bodyweight trainees category. While I don’t agree with everything they do, Crossfit should be applauded for bringing all the best movements, with weights and without, to people. This includes handstand and handstand pushups.
Just a few more ways people may get started and interested in handstands and hand balancing. Any way you come at it is good. And all ways are equally valid. Not to mention if you find yourself in one group you can learn by going outside the boundaries and learn from the others.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
Different groups of people practice hand balancing for different reasons.
Handstand in Yoga
When doing hand balancing in yoga, as in all yoga the goal, is to hold the pose, usually for longer periods of time. (I know this is a simplification.) To balance and go inside, as yoga is more than a physical practice.
Break Dancing – Breakdancing incorporates a number of hand balancing movements. Again these come in all different names. In break dancing moves are rarely held for a long time instead movements are strung together and made to flow.
Often in these balances break dancers will contort their body in order to hold the balance. This gives their balances a different look then the other disciplines. Make no doubt about it, great break dancers have great skill and strength.
Circus Performers – The circus has a wide range of skills and many of the incorporate hand balancing at one time or another. Contortionists, acrobats, even jugglers go into various hand balances. Then of course, there are the equilibrists, the best of the best. The hand balancing they do is the best in the world and awe inspiring to watch.
In order to get to this level you will need professional coaching, and many hours over years of practice.
Bodyweight Trainees – This is how I came to hand balancing. Working out in various ways I came to use my own bodyweight as my primary means of resistance. This led to doing handstands and eventually handstand pushups against the wall. One day I thought it would be fun to do it all without the wall and that led to my first attempts at doing a freestanding handstand. Hand balancing goes well with any variety of strength training.
Gymnasts – Probably the most well known and even biggest group of hand balancers. Their balances are done with a perfectly straight body to score good with the judges (and many think if you do it any other way you are doing it wrong and/or going to hurt yourself).
In a lot of gymnastics the skills move into and out of the handstand but specific hand balancing skills aren’t practiced all that often. In order to do a one arm handstand a gymnast will have to work outside of the normal gymnastic skills. But you can’t deny the best gymnasts are some of the strongest and most skilled people out there.
Everyday People – Then there is just your average person who wants to do a handstand. Maybe these other categories inspired them to want to do so. Maybe the idea came from somewhere else. You don’t have to fit into one of these groups to get good although just working on the basic movements is often enough for many people. Being able to hold a handstand with ease is the end goal. But some choose to keep pursuing what they can do in hand balancing.
No one group of people is better than any other. They can all learn from one another. They can all pursue what they want in their own way. Here at Lost Art Of Hand Balancing I hope to offer something to everyone regardless of their goals.
For your average person looking to get started the Secrets of the Handstand DVD would be the best place to start.
Someone looking to expand their repertoire would want to check out The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing or the Hand Balancing Mastery Course to discover tons of new and advanced skills.
An expert or professional may have skills beyond these materials but maybe they could use a pair of hand balancing stands.
And this doesn’t even begin to cover the acrobatic arts outside of handbalancing that are closely related.
If you’ve read this far why don’t you comment below and tell me what brought you to hand balancing in the first place?
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
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