Tag Archives | Logan

Is Age a Factor in Hand Balancing?

By admin on July 1, 2008 in One Hand, Uncategorized

There’s some cool things in store for this month. And we are going kick off the holiday weekend with an important announcement on Thursday.

We will keep up that momentum through the whole month with a new release (or re-release) almost every single week.

On top of that there are new articles and videos coming. To hold you over here’s a new question from Ross.

“Hi, I’ve looked through the site and find it very interesting. One point I was surprised not to see mentioned was the factor of age in learning balance. I was always told that you must start very young to ever have exceptional balance. Is this true or just a myth? I am 29 and always assumed I could probably learn handstands but not one-handed or anything advanced. As a break-dancer, I have always concentrated on movements and neglected static balances for this reason. “

I don’t know where you heard this but it’s something that I’ve never have. And it’s definitely a myth. Be careful any time you assume something. You know what that does, right?

If you look at it logically you’ll find the only thing that could stop you from learning is in your mind. There is no physical aspect that occurs at what, say 9 years old or maybe its 13, where its too late for you to become a good balancer.

How to do the One Hand Handstand by Professor Orlick

Sure there is benefits to being young in regards to balancing. They have many more years to practice. Plus their mind is much less likely to get in the way.

I tell you what’s true though. If you believe you’ll never be able to hold a one-hand handstand than you definitely won’t.

The same holds true for anything in life. Don’t believe you can learn a new language or to play a musical instrument. Then you won’t make the effort and you won’t reap the rewards.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. If you do want to learn the One Handed Handstand, you need a plan of action and that plan can be found here.

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Handstand Questions Answered

By admin on June 28, 2008 in Handstands

Gonna drop into the mailbag and answer a few questions today.

“Is it possible for a weak old man to develop the strength necessary to do a handstand? (presently outa condition and overweight). when will the dvd be available again?” -Dennis

The Secrets of the Handstand Quickstart Guide has been sold out for a couple weeks. But it will be coming back, better than ever, and soon. Stay tuned for that.

Anyone, no matter their age can get started hand balancing. To be truthful, the normal handstand doesn’t require a whole lot of strength. It’s a matter of using the body in the correct way to support itself.

That being said, if you are really out of shape, handstands may not be the best starting point. Use other easier exercises like regular pushups to build up your strength levels before you begin.

“Heyy! I can do a hand stand but my only problem is I can only stay balanced for a few seconds maybe about five. How could I improve that??” -Shae

Well, Shae just keep practicing. While there are helpful tips to keep you up in the air, nothing takes the place of practice. Get into a good position and work the balance.

“Hello. I’d like to know how the arms move when doing HSPU’s. I mean do the shoulders stick out to the sides, or do the shoulders stick out in front of the person? Thanks” -Daniel

Where your shoulders and arms point can make a big difference in doing handstand pushups. You can do it either way but one will be harder than the other. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out which one is what.

As far as freestanding handstand pushups you’re going to have to take the elbows in position unless you do a handstand with a large base, that is the arms spread out wide.

That’s it for today.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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New Kettlebell Juggling Site

By admin on June 17, 2008 in Uncategorized

I have a new website up that I think you might want to check out.

Often times when I train outside at the park or beach I am doing one of three things. Hand balancing, tumbling moves and kettlebell juggling.

Kettlebell juggling is another fun way to get stronger and in better shape. It’s another skilled exercise you can practice and show off to others. Plus many of the moves will work the body in ways that hand balancing misses.

Instead of going on and on about it here, just go check out the site. If nothing else watch the video to see if you might be interested.

Kettlebell Juggling

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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Walking on Your Hands

By admin on June 14, 2008 in Handstands, Walking & Jumping

Here’s a good question from Tony.

“Dear Logan Christopher, I am a 44 year old male that just decided to do handstands since it was a great workout. I can do a handstand and pushups against the wall. I just read your 10 handstand tips and will work on these great ideas. My problem is when I try to walk on my hands my legs tend to fall toward the “wall direction” when I try to stand without the wall. I feel that it is fear of falling flat on my back. Sometimes my hand strides are a little too big as I am trying to go too fast and then my legs fall toward “the wall direction.” I can hold a handstand probably at least 30 sec. I am usually sustaining myself up after doing 13-15 handstand pushups through a short ROM. I initially thought it was my ab/core strength and I just started with Eddie Baran’s gymnastic abs dvd which is fun and challenging. I am improving but got a little concerned when you said that walking is easier than standing. Your hints have clued me into improving my body awareness with standing and increase my length of time. Any other ideas?”

I should have clarified the position on standing vs. walking. For most people the walking is going to be much easier. This is because you can shift your weight around and take a step with your hands toward any direction you are falling.

If you take the time to learn how to stand still, and remain in a good handstand position than you are much better off than someone who can merely walk on his hands.

When you are walking on your hands the legs tend to ‘fall forward’ in overbalancing. This is a good thing because that’s the forward momentum you want to walk with.

The key is to maintain control. You don’t want to be overbalancing so much that your hands can’t keep up or that you just fall out of the handstand.

To work on the control even more so, you should practice different size steps as Prof. Orlick teaches in Walking and Jumping on Your Hands. Go for small steps. Next try to clear a yard with each step.

You can also vary the speed with which you walk. Even try running on your hands!

But first and most important is to learn to stand on your hands. So that you can maintain a good handstand and not just stay on your hands by catching yourself from falling.

Just keep training and you’ll be able to walk, stand, run and hop on your hands without a problem.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Click here for more on walking, running and jumping on your hands.

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Three Man Hand Balancing Stunt

By admin on June 12, 2008 in Uncategorized

Got another picture from Stu Goldberg of a three man hand balancing stunt.

That’s him on the top. He’s been teaching me a few things especially on the one hand handstand, some things I’ll share with you later on. But for now let’s cover some handstand basics.

His comments on this handstand. Before you read them you’ll want to take a good look at it. In your opinion is this a good handstand? And what makes it so? You can learn a lot just from studying the position.

Stu Goldberg Hand Balancing Stunt

He’s is in what he refers to as a “High School Arch”. That is a slight arch but nothing excessive.

You can see that the legs are tightly held together. Certainly when you’re 8-10 feet off the ground you don’t want to overbalance because of loose legs.

Most importantly you’ll want to pay attention to the shoulder position. Notice how they are stretched out. Not only that but the arms are straight up and down, no leaning forward and back.

This is the position you want. Strive for this and holding a handstand will be a snap.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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How to Hold a Handstand

By admin on June 10, 2008 in Handstands

A few things to cover today. First a questions from Brian.

“my handstand stays in air for less than 3 seconds. at times i do better and most times i do worse. i tried the wall to gain back strength but i never seem to get better. Its been 3 months that way. im not quiting so any suggestions will be appreciated.”

There’s a new article up on the site complete with a video that covers the most basic techniques on how to do a handstand.

Hopefully something on that page will help you. But without seeing your handstand or having a more descriptive question I can’t do much more.

If you want and have the means you can post a video on youtube or somewhere else on the internet. If you provide me a link I’ll take a look and give you feedback. Just send me a link to the video and any specific questions you have.

Lastly, you’ve got less that one day to get any of the new Prof. Orlick ebooks or the Hand Balancing Mastery Course for the current price. Tomorrow morning the price will go up. Get them now.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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New Portals to Help Navigate the Site

By admin on June 5, 2008 in Uncategorized

Here’s a few of the new pages I was talking about. These will be especially helpful for new people entering the site but if you’re looking for something in a certain category you’ll be able to find it here.

These pages act as a portal to other parts of the site that can be helpful. Right now there are three, but that’s likely to increase in the future.

The Handstand Basics page for people just starting out on the hand balancing path.

The Advanced Handbalancing page really is for anything above and beyond a handstand. All intermediate and advanced hand balancing products, articles, blog posts, etc. can be found here.

Then there’s the Acrobatics page. This covers all manner of acrobatic, tumbling and gymnastic moves outside of hand balancing itself.

The last two especially will be expanded in the coming months. More articles, video and the like. If you have suggestions for specific articles or videos you’d like to see you can use the questions form.

Right now you can find links to these portals on the bottom of every page on the first line of the footer.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Remember the Prof. Orlick books are now available in electronic form. Get them for $5 off.

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Handstand Pushups and Handstand Hand Positions

By admin on May 31, 2008 in Handstands

Got two more handstand questions I’ll dig into today. I have to admit the quality of the questions has stepped up recently at least for the most part. Submit yours at https://lostartofhandbalancing.com/question.html.Here we go. The first one is from Ari.

“OK, Logan, I can balance on my hands, and I have the strength to do handstand pushups, but maintaining balance in an HSPU seems almost impossible. As I lower from the handstand my weight always starts to move to the ventral (stomach) side and unless I bend my legs at the knees so my calves counterbalance the weight, I lose my handstand. How do you maintain a straight bodywhile doing a handstand pushup?”

The first step is to make sure you have the strength to perform the move. When most people do handstand pushups against the wall it’s in an alignment that makes the pushup easier than the form you have to take for a free standing handstand pushup. This is a big topic in and of itself that I’ll have to dig into another time.

The important thing is to have an excess of strength. It’s not good to be burned out after two attempts, since you need to ‘practice’ the move. Onto the balancing.

It is going to be slightly different depending on how straight or arched you are. The thing is that your body will be at an angle and not perfectly vertical from the ground. When your head touches the ground it should be in a triangle formation with the hands. Like the headstand except you don’t rest on the head.

Because of this the upper body and lower body are on different sides of your center of gravity. As if you were lowering down toward the planche.

The most important thing you have to do in order to keep the balance and not fall toward the feet is keeping yourself toward overbalancing. The pressure must be toward your fingers at all times. If you go toward your palms you’ll lose it.

Of course the body has to be kept real tight at the same time. But keep the weight toward your fingers and you’ll be able to stay balanced while doing the pushups.

And here’s one from Ron.

“I’ve been doing handstand training for the past 4 months. For the purpose of experimentation, what are the effects of different hand positioning? In other words, if you spread your hands wider apart, does that provide any benefits, as opposed to keeping the hands at shoulder width?”

Here’s the words of Professor Orlick, from the beginning of chapter 11 in Hand Balancing Made Easy.

There is a two-fold purpose for learning these (that is handstands with different hand and arm positions). The first is for the stunts themselves, they look good, impress your audiences and give you personal satisfaction.

The second is for excellent balance they develop. When you vary the position of the hands you are forced to balance less and less with the fingers and hands themselves and more and more with the body as a unified whole. This may not be clear to you right here but after you learn a few of the stunts which are described you will understand exactly what is meant.

He then goes on to list 14 handstand exercises with different hand and arm position and even more in the next chapter. For details on the exact ones check out Handbalancing Made Easy.

But that explains it well enough. Changing your arm position will work your balance to a higher degree. These variations are good to throw into the mix from time to time.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Just to let you know there’s going to be changes to a few of the products next week.

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Can Hand Balancing Help Doing Backflips?

By admin on May 29, 2008 in Tumbling

It looks like the last email unleashed a fury of new questions. Because of the volume of them I might not get back to you personally, but I’ll try to answer the good one’s here.

Hi Logan,

I’ve been making tremendous progress with my handstands. I can also do a lot of those presses that I’ve seen on your site and on youtube. I did have a question though. Will hand balancing improve things like backflips and other aerial tumbling moves? Will it help me build more nerve when it comes to flips and things like that? I’m very athletic and I can do a backflip, but I was just wondering if hand balance training would make it even better.

Thanks for your tips,

Nelson

Thanks for the question, Nelson. It’s an interesting one that I have given some thought to before. Here’s my take on it.

Any move you work on will only improve your skill in that exact move. There is some carryover between related skills, like doing a frogstand will help somewhat with doing a handstand because of the similar balancing aspect.

But when you have skills that are far apart like hand balancing and a backflip, there is very little relation and therefore carryover. The skills of one will not help the other.

Just because someone is a master of hand balancing doesn’t mean necessarily they can do high flying aerial moves. Or vice versa.

That being said, here’s the flip side (no pun intended). This sort of training helps you to learn control over your own body. To really know it and be able to make it do what you want.

I believe someone with your skills should be able to pick up various other physical skills easier than someone with no experience hand balancing.

No amount of hand balancing will give you the ability to do backflips, you have to work specifically on the skills you want. But learning to control your body one way or another will speed your learning curve.

Plus the strength you build from hand balancing is likely to make many other moves easier as well.

Since this email is already getting long and most of the questions are in depth I’ll have to save them til next time.

But before I go I want to let you know about my other site. Just recently re-launched it and have some awesome things in store.

I like to keep this site well targeted on hand balancing and acrobatics, but that is only one aspect of the much larger world of physical culture.

If you want to learn more of my thoughts on strength training, bodyweight exercise, kettlebells, hand strength, old-time feats of strength, and much more you’ve got to check it out here.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Go to Legendary Strength and be sure to sign up for the email tips there too to regularly get all the up to date information.

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Increase your Hand Balancing Abilities

By admin on May 27, 2008 in Flexibility & Contortion

Got a question from Patrick. “I am a beginner at hand balancing. How can I find exercises and stretching drills thats will increase my abilities”

C’mon people. This is a call to all who submit questions. Be more specific. I can provide better answer when I know what you want. In fact the more detailed the better.But I will take a blind shot at this question.

To increase your abilities you need to work on the specific abilities themselves. I’m going to assume that you’re talking about your hand balancing abilities.

Depending on what you are specifically having trouble with this could mean any number of things.

If your having problems with balancing than I would recommend even easier skills than the handstand itself. Skills like the frogstand, headstand and forearm stand. Here’s the easiest way to learn how to do the handstand.

If you need strength I would recommend holding handstands against the wall and doing handstand pushups.

For flexibility, lets say in the shoulder region, you can do many drills. In a handstand against the wall you can bring your chest outward thus working the shoulder flexibility. That’s just one example of many. The gymnastic bridge also works wonders and for more than just the shoulders.

The concepts are universally applied to almost any exercise question. If you can analyze where you are at and where you want to be than break that down into things to work on you can attain any goal.

It’s a useful skill to have. Breaking down the seemingly complex into simple steps to follow.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Now if you want the whole hand balancing plan laid out for you than I recommend you check this one out – Hand Balancing Mastery Course.

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