This is from circus acrobat Yury Tikhonovich.
Yes, it involves a lot of momentum but this is one of the most impressive feats I have ever seen. A one arm muscle up into a one arm half-planche into the one arm handstand.
Isn’t it amazing what people can do these days? After this holding a regular handstand or a normal muscle up just seems easy.
Good Luck and Good Handbalancing,
Logan Christopher
Going to answer a few more questions today.
“I can do a handstand for about 15 seconds now and I can also walk on my hands a bit thanks to this website but when I try to press into a handstand my arms die on me. is they any good exercises that will help me build up to a handstand press. btw this site rules lol”
Mellon
First off your welcome for the help. It really doesn’t take much strength to balance on the hands, but pressing up into a handstand is another matter. And of course, the amount of strength you need depends on the type of press you’re doing.
There are several ways to build up your strength. Really any manner of pressing. Any exercise that strengthens your arms and shoulders can be beneficial.
It’s a good idea to make sure you are strong enough before really working on the skills of doing handstand presses. If your max is somewhere around your weight you aren’t going to get much practice as you’ll be too fatigued.
“Well, I’ve been following your videos for a little while, particularly the handstand videos. The video to learn to do a handstand was what got me started and I’ve been doing them since. “Unfortunately, I don’t understand why, but I get a lot of disrespect when I do them in public places (I.E. School (High School Senior)), but I’m still sticking to them proudly. Handstands for life, thanks for ultimately opening me up to the art of them!”
Greggory
Yeah, kids can be cruel. But don’t worry about what others think. After all is said and done, they’ll likely be jealous of the skills you’ve gained from your practice.
“How can you do a handstand if your scared.”
Quade
Get over the fear. How do you get over the fear? it’s a matter of working at it step-by-step doing easier skills until you feel comfortable with the handstand.
That’s why I created the Secrets of the Handstand Quickstart Guide. To give you the lead-up stunts that will build your abilities so that you can handle the handstand.
I didn’t think of it before but these same skills are going to get you comfortable being upside down and ease your way up to the handstand.
Often times its just a matter of doing it. I was at the beach the other day and decided to do some backflips which I hadn’t done in over a month. That period of time had made me a little rusty and brought back a bit of fear in me.
What did I do? I warmed up with a few back handsprings and other drills then moved on to the back flips. No problem after that.
And if you want to find out more about these and other tumbling drills get your copy of Tumbling Illustrated.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
Have you been watching as much of the Olympics as I have?
Honestly it’s a bit tiring staying up until the early morning hours since they take place halfway around the world from where I am. But what can I say, they only come around every four years.
And its always a pleasure of mine to watch the best in the world do what they do.
There’s been exciting matches, close calls and comebacks all around. Plus new world records are broken everyday. (Did you see Jamaica’s Usain Bolt on the 100m dash?)
Great events in gymnastics and they aren’t done yet. One problem I have with professional gymnastics is the judging because it’s not perfect. Since it’s done by humans it doesn’t always seem fair. But that’s how it is.
It shouldn’t take away from the pleasure of watching the athletes.
One exercise I’ve been seeing a lot of in the Men’s Floor Routines is a straight arm straddle press from a crucifix position. Also known as a Maltese Press to a Wide Arm Handstand or a Swallow Press to a Japanese Handstand.
Considering this is a D skill it may be out of your range but that doesn’t mean you can’t try the wide handstand itself.
Place your hands wide on the ground, with the hands out and the thumbs pointing forward. Kick-up into position and attempt to hold.
Alternatively you can jump from a normal handstand into the wide handstand. With a little push on the hands slide them outward in position.
Just another variation you can have fun with. And thanks to the Olympics for reminding me of it.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
P.S. You need to master the regular handstand before you attempt any variations. Get step-by-step handstand instructions here.
Today is the last day you’ll be able to get your hands on the Tumbling Course for the launch price of $49. After midnight tonight (PST), it goes up to $79.
I know I’ve been mentioning a lot. But I don’t want someone to come after me in an angry manner because they failed to see it coming. This is your last chance!
Now on to a great comment from a reader. About why you NEED to have the most basic tumbling skills.
Also a great tip for training yourself to relax through tumbling moves and not tense up. Something I’ll be practicing myself. I wish I had thought of it.
Hey Logan
This looks like a great course I will be ordering it soon.
I learned many tumbling moves from my Ju Jitsu and Judo training, I think people need to learn this valuable tool.
I remember my instructor telling me a woman who use to take her son to his Ju Jitsu class use to watch them tumble and do break falls.
Well one day she fell down a flight of stairs and was able to walk away from that fall with a few bumps and scrapes, due to her learning how to tumble in her sons class and without ever practicing them.
She told him that if it wasn’t for her being able to tumble she would have broken her neck or back.
So tumbling is not just for exercising only but it can be good for your health and well being, also for self defense purposes as I teach my students to tumble as opposed to break falling, this way they can pop up off the ground and fight standing up instead of staying on the ground and fighting from there if they are knocked down.
That’s not a good place to be in a street fight.
Here is a tip I learned that helped me in tumbling; when rolling in any direction always hum as you do it, as you roll if you catch yourself not humming you tightened up your muscles in that area.
Which means you have to either loosen the muscles in the area or relax more, then when you can hum all the way through the movement you have mastered the roll.
Well take care Logan
Daniel
www.SuperHeroSystems.com
Thanks Daniel. Its true that you need to know how to roll should you ever need it.
For some reason I always picture having to roll out of a car going high speeds on the freeway, but falling down stairs is a better example, and much more common.
If you don’t know how to roll safely and effectively, take the time to learn it. If you never move beyond those rolls that’s alright. Just learn those necessary skills.
But if you want to move beyond the basics than you know where to start. (Although this course does teach the most basic moves, as well as everything progressing up to the most advanced.)
Once again, last chance to get it at this price. Don’t put it off any longer.
Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher
The first comments have come in as Secrets of the Handstand Quickstart packages have arrived. Here’s a great one:
I really liked your quick start guide. I have been hand balancing for a while now and can perform a half dozen variations of the head stand as well as hold a gymnastics style hand stand. I am currently working the start and stop method to learn how to walk on my hands.
But one thing that seemed to always elude me was the tiger stand. I practiced this move a lot against the wall but after weeks of practice I could never consistently find that “sweet spot.” After seeing you do a tiger stand in the video, that same day, when I went to the gym it took me 2 tries and now I can easily and consistently find the “sweet spot” hold the tiger stand. I must of unconsciously picked up something when I watched you kick up and hold the tiger stand.
Another thing I learned from the video is that the kick up is way more important than I originally thought. I was basically muscling the handstand back from my kick up (which was way to hard). I could do it but it took a lot of energy. For the past few days I just worked my kick up over and over again. After only 2 days of working my kick up I am hitting my “sweet spot” 8 times out of 10 when before I was only hitting it 1 or 2 times out of 10 and the other hand stand attempts I was muscling back from an over anxious kick up.
So, your videos were helpful to even someone like myself who has been practicing handstands successfully for several weeks. Just seeing someone else do the move and step me through the process, which is something I have read about and knew all ready, helped me greatly.
Thanks a lot,
Ricky
aka “Nifty”
I’m glad to see you got a lot out of it ‘Nifty’ and you aren’t the only one.
If you haven’t checked it out, you might’ve been under the impression that it was only for beginner’s.
And you’d be right…partially.
That guide is to get beginner’s up into a free standing handstand as soon as possible. I’ve spent much time and effort helping the beginner’s because, well there are more of them, and its harder than anything to get started.
But its just the start. The launching pad for a program that will help out all but the very best in this art.
And of course that is the Acrobat Accelerator program. In the monthly DVD and newsletter I will delve into various hand balancing topics in more depth.
This month the first issue covered everything you could possibly want to know about kicking-up into a handstand. I share my story of holding a handstand for 30 seconds for the first time ever but then relate the fact that I was able to hold only about one out of every ten handstands.
The kick-up is of utmost importance to really dial in if you want consistency in your handstand ability. Even if you don’t get this DVD you need to understand this concept.
But once again that’s just the beginning.
From there I cover advanced variations that will make you even better. When you learn to control your body from any angle that it comes up in your hand balancing ability shoots through the roof.
The variations I cover in detail are opposite leg kick-ups, two leg kick-ups, raised kick-ups, and the cartwheel stall. Are you able to do all of them?
There’s about 30 issues left. If you want in on a trial membership just get your free order (except shipping) to try it out.
If you miss out, it’ll be your last chance to get the April issue.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
P.S. Next week I’ll post some new videos up on the blog on some moves closely related but outside of hand balancing which I am putting together right now. Stay tuned.
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