Handstand workouts and pulling movements

I am curious about Equilibrist artists - do they train any pulling movements (eg. front lever, etc.) to balance out their shoulder training?

I remember reading somewhere on this forum that a 3:1 pulling to pushing ratio was recommended in order to keep healthy, non internally-rotated, shoulders. Since Equilibrists obviously spend a ton of time training upside down however, I would assume that achieving this pull to push ratio would be quite unrealistic. So how many pulling movements do Equilibrists train and in what quantity do they perform them, if any at all? And which ones? I am quite curious, as Equilibrist tend to have very visually impressive and "balanced" physiques! Pun mildly intended

A.J.

I am pretty sure it all depends on the Equilibrist and their trainer. I am training to be an Equilibrist, but I am teaching myself, because there are no Circus schools in Dallas that offer Handstand work. Encho, one of the best Bulgarian verticalism acts, Does Bowers, Straddle planche, and a front lever (although the front lever he does the grip is slightly different). Our very own HAndBalancer Spends NINE HOURS a day on his hands. Some people on this website can do one armed handstands as well, but they still train the front, back lever, planche, and other gymnastic moves.

I am no crazy exerienced, so please take as much info as you can out of this but do not take it to heart. But i do hope i was able to help.

-Ian

Hand balancing is a skill specific discipline, so naturally people that spend more time training hand balancing are better at it.

I've had a chance now to train with two of the top hand balancing students from the Kiev circus school and neither of them do any pulling whatsoever.

I have met a few hand balancers who did participate in some light pulling, like the occasional pullups, muscle-ups, and front levers. However, their balance skills did not come close to that of the ukranians.

Handbalancer from this forum trains straps as well, which involves a lot of heavy pulling from awkward angles

heh, I dont spend as much as 9 hours a day on my hands, then I would be injured or not making any progress. I stay VERY active for many many hours a day though since Im in circus school and spend all day training balancing or straps as well as dance a lot. However, i keep doing handstands all day long, but I dont consider doing some 1 arm balancing here and there training any longer.

Like yuri said, I do a lot of straps and a lot of the pulling work seem to have given me some extra strength for balancing. Scapula training in all directions is good, and I believe it is wise to balance out the pushing and pulling in the long run.

Encho was a ring specialist (if im not wrong) who became a handbalancer. You can easily see he does not posess the greatest flexibility, but he is very very strong. Interestingly enough, most of the guys coming out of kiev(and other places) are far better than him, both strenght wise and technically, but he seems to give a strong impression to people because of his incredibly muscular look. He is still very good though.

Sorry Handbalancer,

I don't know why i thought you said nine...maybe my mind just put a number in there. But i do believe your right. I saw a thing on youtube yesterday call Florian Handstand with a guy in a bathtub...incredible but not nearly as mucular as encho. I guess its his "attractive physique" that makes him such a fun person to watch.

-Ian

Handbalancer said:

Encho was a ring specialist (if im not wrong) who became a handbalancer. You can easily see he does not posess the greatest flexibility, but he is very very strong. Interestingly enough, most of the guys coming out of kiev(and other places) are far better than him, both strenght wise and technically, but he seems to give a strong impression to people because of his incredibly muscular look. He is still very good though.

encho seems to be the gateway to hand balancing for a lot of people, both due to his physique and his act being artistically easy to comprehend.

from what I heard, encho was a flyer in sports acro and was skinny back then. When he took to solo hand balancing he got a lot bigger

I'm not 100% on this either though

Thanks for the info everyone, this is quite interesting to me! Reading these posts, I get the impression that pulling movements are rather optional for Equilibrist.

Yuri - did the athletes in Kiev have an shoulder or postural problems from all their balance training? If not, any guesses as to why this might be? I am wondering if there is something different about balance training compared to general Gymnastic Strength Training™ (rings, ect.) or even traditional weight lifting in a gym that makes the lack of pulling movements safe...

Cheers,

A.J.

There is something about balancing that puts it in a class of its own. Handbalancer have spoken many times about the longevity of handbalancers. Its not as hard on the body.

In yoga its thought that the family of balancing poses, handstand, headstand, shoulderstand are therapeutic in nature and i think to a large extent that's true. Though of course what the high level performers are doing is going to take a toll, the basic skills are very refreshing. At my level, when i'm a little mentally fatigued doing a couple of handstands at the wall gets me feeling ready to go again. If i'm really wiped out a long Iyengar style supported shoulder stand is one of the best things to do.

Yuri: Could you please share some more details about your training with ukranians? (I'm thinking Pavel Stankevich and Sergei Timofeev?) They look almost unreal to me. Relatively skinny (but ripped as hell), extremely flexible and skilled.

The ukranian artists I've trained with are Denys Tolstov and Andrey Moraru

Denys is probably one of the top hand balancers in the world, I got to pick his brain(I think I may have annoyed him) a bit at the Le Reve audition. He has more of a classical style.

If you would have seen this guy try to climb a rope, do pullovers on the bar, or do squat with added 25% bodyweight you would have no idea the things he is capable of.

But on his hands, he is unreal. He has a lot of strength, but it is all specific to handstands.

Andrey's style is more artistic and dance-like. I've been training with him semi-regularly and he is a super nice and humble guy. He is about 6'2" and weighs 170 pounds, so super skinny. He has really big hands and forearms though compared to the rest of him.

As far as his handstands go, he is completely relaxed. He does the minimum work to hold the balance and thus saves energy.

Is there anything in particular you want to know about their training?