Weight shifts

Starting to work weight shifting trying to work up towards one arms i've a long way to go but here's a vid of where i'm at. Tips appreciated. I'm wanting to have some sort of balance by the end of the year not sure if its realistic but i'll see.

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Not bad, but from the looks of it, it seems you have some work to do with shoulder flexibility. You have some problems getting "on top" of the arm, which is much easier with a straighter shoulder line. However you should keep working on these exercises, but for example, do Idos shoulder routine as a warm up, and do a good static stretching session afterwards, even before you start your balancing work. Remember to not let your shoulders "roll out"(like in the beginning of a dislocation), but let them go straight backwards. Also keep your chest in a hollow position so that the stretching pressure do not go out through your spine, but that the shoulder itself is stretched.

As for the technique itself you need to get very concious of your hip positioning. You do it better sometimes, but you have a tendency to move your hips completely sideways over your balancing arm which makes things very much harder. What you should do(look at clips of most handbalancers and you will see this) is let the leading leg(right leg when on right arm and vice versa) go a little bit down when you move over. The other leg will then stay a little farther up so your legs are at a "diagonal" when compared to the upper body) This will align the hips in a way which in the beginning can be very counterintuitive, but makes balancing a LOT easier.

In the begining, to get the hip alignment and feeling of it, do it but completely on 2 arms. You just move your hips over without lifting to the fingers. Then as you get more comfortable, go fingers, and gradually you can start to remove.

Also it looks like you should really actively push through your trapezius to get a better alignment through the shoulder. Remember, the further back your shoulders are able to move, the easier it is to engage the traps. However a very efficient thing to do when you want to move over to 1 arm, is to really push high, BEFORE you move over. This causes you to arrive with the weight on an already extended shoulder, and as you know, muscles are stronger statically than concentrically, so you dont need to do the push when you have your weight on on 1 arm.

These are some general ponters at least. Hope it helps! If you have any questions, just ask. Keep training!

Another great analysis HB!

A point of confusion, can you elaborate on the idea of pushing through the traps. It feels to me if i over push through the traps (upper traps to be exact) that it causes the shoulders to close. I've always been taught to pull the upper trap up to get the shoulder blades behind and the arms straight. This is a yoga thing, and all handblancers seem to say push through the traps. I'm just wondering if i'm misunderstanding what you mean by the phrase. I do try to lift my chest from the floor as i drive with my hands but the feeling of the upper traps is more moving towards the feet.

And of course great effort Demus!

When you press correctly from your trapezius(at least if you have open enough shoulders) it feels like you are shrugging your shoulders heavily. You can replicate it by shrugging your shoulders and lifting your arm above your head as high as possible. If you have limited shoulder flex, you will feel that you need to open the chest a little to make a straight line to the floor. This is exactly what you DONT want to do. You want to keep your chest in, so your back stays flat.

When I do proper form handstands,I feel my trapezius as a hard ball at the side of my neck. Even more so at the 1 arms.

It is kind of a combination between pushing as high as you can, and pulling your arm back. However,when you have good flexibility you dont need to pull back so much anymore, since they move back easily by themselves. I can imagine that if you have limited mobility in the shoulders, the pushing of the traps might push you back towards your feet. I cant say if this is so though, but I suspect it, since if you stay arched or piked and THEN extend hard it can push you out of balance if you do not fix your hip/back position.

For better handstands in general, I would say, like my coach says 10 times a training to all of his students who do not have good alignment: Stretch your shoulders! No matter what, it is always good.

I hope it explained something.

Handbalancer,

Thanks a lot for the tips i'm gonna keep that stuff in mind and keep working it, this is a tough skill but i'm determined to get it.

Cheers