HS Update

Hello, fellows!

Quick update on some of my Handbalancing work, including results from first FSP max test done today and yesterday. To top it all off, my very first press handstand from the floor!! Being beaten up from a hard week and the FSP testing, I surprised the hell out of myself with that one! Ugly as all hell, but at least now I know I have the strength to pull it off! Now I just need the flexibility to make it look awesome. 8)

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UMG has blocked this video in my country =/

Brendan Coad said:

UMG has blocked this video in my country =/

Fixed. Reposted with original audio, puffing and panting included

Ha, I love that cheer at the end. Great work, man!

The awesome cheer of finally getting a skill!

Indeed It was a fantastic moment! Now to clean it up a bit and chase those reps!

Keep training hard, folks!

wow, you have done some good work since I last saw you! Great stuff! I especially enjoyed how far to the side you can control your legs, keep working that and you should be touching toes and pushing back up before soon! This will also help teaching you good habits for 1 arm handstands. The supported 1 arm holds look much better. You clearly understand better how to place your hips which makes all the difference in the world. There is however something important you can improve with the supporting arm. Now you straighten the arm and move it out to the side as you go to the fingers, but what you want to do is bend at the elbow instead. That will keep the shoulder in the exact same position as on 2 arms(even in this position keep the trapezius flexed as on 2 arms) You bend the elbow, and go to the fingers on the same spot as the palm was. Take a look at the first handstand in my video and you will see what I mean. Also notice the slight push i do when going to the fingers. I go out from fingers very fast, but learn to keep that position well before letting go.

Press wasnt bad either, the form will come as you get comfortable with it. At least the shoulder strength and compression is there, so it is just about repetition. Work pike negatives as well to improve the compression even more. Keep stretching your shoulders of course, hehe. Also focus on your split and pike flex for further general form improvement. Planche looking much better as well, and the back lever is coming fast.

I will be coming to roros sometime this summer, I will tell you when I know when so we can meet and train!

Handbalancer said:

Take a look at the first handstand in my video and you will see what I mean. Also notice the slight push i do when going to the fingers. I go out from fingers very fast, but learn to keep that position well before letting go.

Can you link your video please Handbalancer, helpful for those of use wishing to compare and who are learning from piggy backing this thread.

Breaks said:

Can you link your video please Handbalancer, helpful for those of use wishing to compare and who are learning from piggy backing this thread.

Handbalancer, this is one of my favourite videos I hope you don't mind me linkning it

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Archbishop o balance, really nice work! I hope to be where you are in a year or two

Thanks for posting!

@Handbalancer.. Been training religiously since January and progress is still steady! Just started doing the flags a few weeks ago, and they have really improved quickly. I have pressed back from the floor on a couple of occasions, but it's not consistent yet. With regards to the OA supports I struggled bending the elbow without losing scapular elevation on the supporting arm when I started out, that's why I simply straightened it to the side. Started bending the elbow the way you describe it today, and after a single session it's already way more comfortable than what I've been doing. Letting the support go was also much easier this way, and today I held a pretty solid 4 seconds on my right arm. At this point it's just a lucky hold, but great fun nonetheless. =) Need to work those supports a lot more before one-armers are a repeatable feat. The tip about keeping the hips from moving the opposite way was gold. Made all the difference in the world, like you say! I'm still struggling a bit with that on my left arm, but getting a lot better.

Flexibility is definitely my biggest hindrance right now, progress is reaaally slow. Probably because I hardly work it anymore :roll: Don't really know why either, because there's nothing that makes me feel as awesome as a good stretcing session. Except a good handbalancing session Looking forward to the day Liquid Steel™ is waiting for me in my mail box.

Thanks a bunch for sharing your knowledge. Looking forward to training with you again. How is your training coming along?

I probably won't be in Røros until August, but let me know when you're headed there, and I'll try to get my ass home

Archbishop o balance, really nice work! I hope to be where you are in a year or two

Thanks for posting!

Thanks a lot, man. I will try to post a video every other month or so as long as there is progress to report. I've learned so much from others posting videos of their own, so it's my pleasure to do the same. Train hard and follow the words of the wise, and you'll be where I am in no time at all

Nice work Archbishop o balance!!! I have a quick question about the one arm HS. When you shift your weight and lean to one arm when your legs are straddled, do you compromise your body line (have legs angled towards the ground a little bit)?? If someone could film one from the side that would be awesome!!

Thank you, Eddie! I'm not sure if it's the correct thing to do, but yes. At this point I'm working supported One-Armers in a straddle, and generally when I reach the end range of my current ROM in that position my back arches. To avoid this I attempt to angle the legs towards the floor, as you describe it. Again, I'm not sure if it's "correct" technique wise to allow this to happen, or if I should restrict ROM to prevent it, but I like the control I have in the wide straddle, and I believe it's a good active flexibility component.

Hope this answers your question.

EDIT: I'll try to remember filming from the side during a workout soon =)

You should definitely angle your legs when going to 1 arm. If the hips are paralell to the floor on 1 arm, it is much harder to balance, even when you do have a solid 1 arm. By letting the legs be diagonal you will avoid falling back to 2 arms all the time and you limit the hips tendency to twist.

What people dont think about with 1 arm is that the complexity of the balancing is ridiculously much higher than on 2 arms. Not only do you have only a fraction of the base of support(on 2 arms the entire space between your hands also works as your BoS) but you also have to deal with 360 degrees balance. On 2 arms you generally fall either front or back since there is only movement on that plane, but on 1 arm you can fall in all directions. So basically the amount of information you have to deal with is multiplied several times, AND you need to carry your entire bodyweight on 1 arm. Also the transfer from 2 to 1 is complicated because you need to remove the supporting arm so that it creates minimal amount of movement in the torso, which in turn could either have your legs move too far out towards a flag OR back towards 2 arms.

However all of these things can be overcome by consistent training, and even more so with coaching or careful study of detail!

Archbishop o balance, I don' mean to hijack your thread, but as well as posing the question openly I would like to ask yourself and Handbalancer for your experiences on the matter so I thought here may be a good place.

How do you stretch your shoulders for an open angle in handstand? I'm having difficultly with this and any advice or different stretches would be great.

I have recently started Coach's wall extensions as they seem a good way to go. I have also also tried placing my hands on something just above hip height a few feet away then pressing down with my shoulders, the problem with this is i feel discomfort in the top of my left shoulder so I'm reluctant to continue.

There is also one big issue about which I'm completely lost!!! When I try hard to open my shoulders in a stretch I feel my scapulas pointing out to the sides (I'm not sure if "winging" is the correct term). Is this okay? Should I be stopping the stretch before then or trying to pull them in somehow? Or does this indicate an issue with their own stability?

I hope I've made the question clear, if not do ask

Thanks a lot!

Without seeing you in person its possible i'm misunderstanding your post but it sounds like you may have an image in your mind of what open shoulders are that is mistaken.

Look at the overhead position in the image above. You will see that the scapula rotates out and up as the arm lifts over about 60 degrees. This means the bottom tip of the scap will be at your side as the arm is overhead. Now you still have to stabilize it, so to work that think of squeezing that tip to your side and even lifting your armpit to it (assuming you are in a handstand).

Once you get the idea of this you can meter the amount of squeeze you need to get the most drive out of your arms, but if it feels like your scaps are really sticking out this will help.

Yeah, Handbalancer, shifting the hips diagonally is definitely key I may have mistaken, but since he requested a side view, what I think Eddie was asking was whether it's okay to close or flex the hips slightly, so the legs will be "in front of" the body.

The One-Armer is a monster! For all the reasons you listed, it feels like a whole new skill. Balancing in all the new directions is a totally different animal from the ordinary Handstand. I guess this is where flag work will pay dividends down the road!

@Finnbar.. Post your heart out.

I'm currently workin on getting my scapulae out of an anterior tilt, so I'm doing corrective work for this - trap 3 exercises, PB supports, Ido's scap and shoulder routines, and some other strengthening exercises for external rotators.

I occasionally PNF my pecs and try to pain ball my pec minor from time to time. This improves my posture and shoulder angle in the handstand extensively, so I should probably be doing that a lot more, as well mobility for the thoracic spine (check out eric cressey's youtube channel). My handstands also feel a lot straighter and more solid in periods when I'm doing Ido's floreiro workouts. They involve a lot of bridge work, which is good for opening your shoulders. This is pretty much the extent of my shoulder flex work right now.

Remember to REALLY push through your shoulders when you're in a handstand and consciously working on a gradually more open shoulder angle without arching your back. Thinking "shoulder to earlobe" helps for me.

This is what I'm doing, but unfortunately I can't tell you whether it's the right approach for you as you might have something completely different restricting your shoulder ROM. Stay away from things that cause pain and be patient.

I'll leave your last question for someone more knowledgeable to answer.

For those of you lacking inspiration, check out this clip posted by Ido on his facebook page. The whole act is great, but if you want to be wowed, jump to 6:35 or thereabout.

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@Mr Brady

Thank you I really do appreciate the information!

Mr Brady said:

Now you still have to stabilize it, so to work that think of squeezing that tip to your side and even lifting your armpit to it (assuming you are in a handstand).

Once you get the idea of this you can meter the amount of squeeze you need to get the most drive out of your arms, but if it feels like your scaps are really sticking out this will help.

Could you clarify two things for me please?

-When you say lifting your armpits do you mean towards my hands or towards my hips?

-And what is meant by 'drive' out of your arms?

Again thank you very much for your time

@Archbishop o balance

I'm afraid I don't understand some of the terminology but I'm learning , does anterior tilt mean that the upper portion of the scapular is tilted forwards? I'm going to start Ido's shoulder and scap work, It can only do good surely . I've also been considering adding some bridging work (really starting to wish there were more hours in the day thought!!)

There is a local circus school which I'm planning on checking out in the next few weeks. I really want to make some progress with my handbalancing, I've been sitting still progress wise for far longer than I like to remember!

When I make some progress I think I'll follow suit and post a video

Thanks again

Finnbar

O' Balance and i are saying the same thing in our own way.

Push into your hands, lift up from the floor, this will make your armpit move away from the floor, your ears move towards your shoulders.

Really these are all just some images for you to play with to help you start to find your handstand nothing more.

Its great if you can hook up with some other interested people, the learning goes much better that way.

Study the pictures, and just play around with the movements, experiment and learn, its a process.

Thanks for your response! I have been practicing alot lately and I keep feeling like my legs are in front of me when straddled and I start to "try" and shift to one arm. I also am feeling rotation in the hips. It's hard to make them turn to the side without rotating. I think this is a flexibility issue, so I will keep working on it. Thanks again, can't wait for the video!