Tag Archives | Handstands

The First Stunt of 2017: Part 1

By Jon Magno on January 19, 2017 in Flexibility & Contortion, Hand Balancing, Handstands, Head Balancing, Mobility, One Hand, Planche, Presses & Pushup, Walking & Jumping

There are a number of different possibilities that will lead up to your first handstand. In fact we recommend 5 different lead-up stunts or body skills that can help you achieve this feat.. Whether its the Frogstand, Headstand, their variations or even today’s topic; you’ll gain a valuable piece of information that will help you progress to your goal or even build up to other goals.

Honestly, these lead-up stunts aren’t necessary to get your first handstand, but they build a pathway that can make it easier. All of these body skills share common traits to the handstand and therefore pave the way towards good handbalancing.

The different skills each put you into an inverted position, develop strength, balance and the motor control necessary to perform a handstand.

So without talking the skills up too much and not delivering, lets give you more insight on the move at hand:

The Elbow Lever

Don’t let this move scare you. It is an advanced Hand balancing skill and I’m only starting off with it to give you a long term skill to shoot for. Also, if what I’ve been saying is true, you’ll be able to gain some valuable experience towards you hand balancing Journey.

To perform this lead- stunt kneel on the floor, bring both elbows together and place them in your stomach and turn the palms of the hands facing upwards. Now lean forwards slowly and place the hands flat on the floor with your fingers pointing backwards. Arch your back slowly until your toes leave the floor and you will be doing the elbow lever.

You will find the balance a little difficult at first but just keep on practicing. The stunt can also be performed on the edge of a table or on the end of any ordinary bed.

Now that you know how to do an elbow lever, we challenge you to go ahead and give it a try. Also if you want some pointers, try posting a video on our facebook page and we’ll be there to direct and support you development in your hand balancing journey.

Stay Inverted
-Jonathan Magno

BTW if you want to skip some of the process and guesswork toward building you hand balance skills, check out our handstand mastery course.

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Legendary Strength Lockups

By Jon Magno on March 19, 2016 in Acrobatics, Bars, Gymnastics, Hand Balancing, Handstands, Head Balancing, Mobility, Planche, Presses & Pushup, Uncategorized

Hey everybody! In today’s post, I went back into the archives and caught a great tutorial by Logan on how to start developing single arm chin-ups. He calls these drills lockups.

You start off with a single ring or pull up bar. Begin in an alternating grip position. Whichever hand you are going to preform the lock-up with, you’ll use the opposite hand only a baseline support. Gauge yourself and try not put too much weight on the support hand.

Once you’ve locked up at the top end, complete the rep by releasing the hand and controlling the drop like a normal chin up.

Now the final addition is to turn each rep into a negative so you can begin to build your maximal strength!

Check out Logan performing his Lockups below!

March is the month to get yourself in tune with your body, so be sure to pick up the Advanced Bodyweight Training Bundle!

Stay Inverted!
-Coach Jon

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Are Handstands Possible at an Older Age?

By Jon Magno on March 15, 2016 in Acrobatics, Bars, Gymnastics, Hand Balancing, Handstands, Head Balancing, Mobility, Planche, Presses & Pushup, Uncategorized

Hey everybody. Every now and then we get some feedback on not just how do start balancing with your hands, but also is it attainable at an older age. Luckily while browsing through the archives I was able to find Logan’s opinion on the subject. Mindful movement is the key. So, if this is an endeavor you want to jump into, listen to your body and watch the video below for tips.

Now that you’ve watched the video, we found an excellent example of performing acrobatics as an older adult. This gentleman’s name is Lee Mowatt and if I remember right, he did this video at 64 years old(don’t fully quote me on that!)

Take a look at his stabilization and control below.

If you want to get better at your mindful movement pick up our Advanced Bodyweight Training Bundle!

Stay Inverted!
-Coach Jon

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Acrobatic Attributes: A GMB Elements Review

By Jon Magno on February 12, 2016 in Acrobatics, Gymnastics, Hand Balancing, Handstands, Mobility, Other Skills, Parkour, Tumbling, Uncategorized

So, we’ve been talking a lot about foundation recently. Especially on how to get your body accustomed to all types of 3d movement. It can be scary, I won’t lie. Its a constant cycle, but after the initial work gets easier like the progress from walking, to running, to sprinting. Take myself for example, when I started on this journey of movement I was just like how most of you probably were in the beginning. NO IDEA what to do or which direction to take. Even with all the quick info out there, its hard to pull everything together in an easy to follow manner. Luckily you’ve got people like Logan who’ve done the hard work and can help you reach that level that you want to achieve.

The work is consistent but its a gratifying journey. The reason I’m talking about this is because i want to open you up to a way of making this body skill passion easier. As you know, our friends over at Gold Medal Bodies have been at the body skill game for multiple years. In their big pot of experience and talents, they’ve narrowed down the necessary attributes needed to develop any acrobatic skill. This information is compiled together in their Elements Program. Which we use of inspiration for our evolving outlook on handstand and hand balancing development.

The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing

I’ve always been a person about simplicity and the Elements Program accomplishes this by having you focus on 3 movement patterns in a progressive fashion over the course of 7 weeks. Even after a few days, I began to understand the value of the information. Although not just myself; my own clients have benefited with their own hip mobility and stabilization, which for some of them has been 2 years of work. Every piece of information is meticulously detailed and compliments each other.

As I said, the program is broken down into 7 weeks with 6 days of training. The main goal is to build necessary strength and conditioning, but more importantly to understand your body. As the weeks go by, Ryan and the GMB team start adding more tweaks as well as give you the guidance to work on your own free flow floor work.

If you’ve never been inverted or have never tried any acrobatic feat, be sure to pick up the GMB Elements Program. I can’t recommend it enough!

Stay Inverted!
-Coach Jon

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1 Min Tip: Acrobatic Attributes – Shoulder Opener

By Jon Magno on February 8, 2016 in Acrobatics, Flexibility & Contortion, Hand Balancing, Mobility, Uncategorized

Hey Guys! Here’s the next update to our Acrobatic Attributes series of videos to help give you a better foundation! One of the keys to that foundation is to have loose muscles that can react and move in 3d. The Shoulder Opener Stretch is a great way to open up your shoulders and increase mobility to your posterior side while up in an inverted position!

The Shoulder Opener is a great way to open up your rhomboids, traps, scapula, and lats.

One of the key factors to doing the move correctly is to make sure the shoulders stay in a neutral position. You can easily accomplish this by placing your shoulder blades on a wall and using that as a focus point.

Pull one arm across the mid-line of your chest and use the opposing arm to pull it in place. Rather than pressing the arm towards your body, think about pulling your arm to the opposite side.(For my martial arts folks, think sticky hands!)

You can watch the 1 min tip here!

Don’t forget a lot of these great tips were inspired by our friends from Gold Medal Bodies. So if you are looking to really develop your foundational range of motion and flexibility for acrobatics, check out the GMB Focused Flexibility program here: https://lostartofhandbalancing.com/go/focusedflexibility/

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So I checked my email… and found a surprise!

By Jon Magno on January 6, 2016 in Handstands

Hey Everyone!

Today’s post is going to be a little bit different. Yesterday I was setting things up for the coming year with LAOHB and received something in my email from Logan that made my day. Its great when I get to see how this information has helped others as much as its helped me and I wanted to share what this person said:

Hi Logan,

I was a bit slow in actually implementing the lead up practices into my regular practice, but once I did I started to notice changes quite quickly. Then suddenly last week something ‘clicked’ and freestanding handstands just started happening quite naturally. I think my holds are somewhere around the 20 second mark at the moment. However, I can still feel that my shoulder positioning and body alignment needs work.

I am grateful for the info in the quick start guide – I found it to be very grounded and pragmatic. It’s nice to leave behind some of the ‘sets and reps’ thinking and just play a bit.

Will definitely be checking out some of the other products on your site.

Many thanks,

Scott

So, how has being a part of this community helped you with your goals?

-Stay Inverted

Coach Jon

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Great Tricks To Try

By admin on December 21, 2015 in Flexibility & Contortion, Hand-to-Hand, Handstands, Head Balancing, Tumbling, Walking & Jumping

Skills like hand balancing, hand spins, tumbling, flexibility tricks are serious tricks that can only be achieved through continuous training and practice. Hand spins and flexibility tricks are good way to keep your body in shape even when doing a solo act. While advanced hand balancing and flexibility skills are nicer when done in pair or with a group.

Dan had been practicing some of these skills for the past 2 years, at least. Do you think you can do better in a shorter training time?

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Incredible Training Compilation by Daniel Tsinis

By admin on February 10, 2015 in Acrobatics, Bboy, Hand Balancing, Handstands, Planche, Presses & Pushup, Tumbling

Here’s an awesome video compilation of various hand balancing moves from an ex-gymnast who just recently changed the focus of his training to hand balancing. Lots of presses, one arm hand balancing, handstands…

Weather you’re a fan of hand balancing, tumbling, breakdancing or gymnastics in general, I promise you’ll enjoy this video by Daniel Tsinis.

Click here to start your hand balancing training today.

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Movement Pyramid in Relation to Handstands

By admin on October 7, 2014 in Hand Balancing, Handstands

Most would agree that the straight handstand is a bit more advanced than the curved handstand, gymnasts in particular. There are certainly pros to going straight for the straight handstand in the beginning of your handstand career, but the curved handstand is a very viable option as well.

Having said that, here’s a great video for those looking to learn how to perform the straight handstand. Emmet Louis uses movement pyramid to explain what you need to work on before starting the straight handstand training. It’s all about getting basic stuff like mobility and stability in order before gradually moving to the specific movement itself, in this case a handstand.

Hand Balancing Made Easy is currently 50% Off! Grab it while the promotion lasts.

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How To Do a Handstand and Stay Up

By Sharon on September 6, 2012 in Handstands, Yoga

Most of us dreaded gym class in school. One of the hardest tasks was learning how to do a handstand and stay up. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be on the US Olympic Gymnastics team to perform a steady handstand. It takes patience, practice and good technique.

This video shows getting up into a handstand from a yoga perspective. I’d approach it differently but there are some good tips here.

If you have never attempted a handstand before, have a friend hold your legs as you kick up into a handstand. You can also practice against a wall. Whichever route you choose, make sure to follow the same guidelines below on how to do a handstand and stay up:

Place your hands on the floor in front of you. Make sure they are about shoulder width apart. If you get too wide, you will fall and not have a good balance.
Another tip is to spread your fingers out to make a wider base. It is essential that you lock your elbows once you begin the handstand. This is crucial for a good platform.
Begin by placing your hands on the floor in front of you with your elbows locked.
Place your dominant leg forward and kick up into a handstand with your weaker leg.

You may need to practice doing a few kicks to get the right balance. If you are worried about falling over, try to use a softer surface to practice your handstand on. Grass is good to start. Once you are able to get yourself up into a vertical position, look at your hands to keep yourself balanced. Avoid moving your head around and keep your legs locked together. It is a good practice to point your toes to the sky. This helps your balance and presents a nicer image. Allowing your legs to dangle over your head is not a good technique because it could throw you off balance and it doesn’t look good. Use your palms for balance. If you start to fall forward, push with your fingers. If you find yourself falling backwards, push on your palm heels for balance. Staying up in the correct shape requires a lot of strength, which can be achieved through practice.

Finally, watch the video and take notes on things that you should not do if you want to stay up when doing a handstand. Like most things, it will take time and practice to know how to do a handstand and stay up.

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