Inverted Butterfly Cross Progressions?

[Marlon]

The cleanest Japanese handstands I've seen are from Fabian Hambuechen and Alexander artemev
 

 

1:05

 

 

0:58

 

I assume the reason that most gymnasts have very arched wide arm handstands is because their regular handstands aren't hollow to begin with.  Most elite male gymnasts I see seem to have tight shoulders, presumably it's hard to keep them flexible when you're that freakishly strong from all the ring strength?  That and, as some people have already mentioned, it's just plain easier to hold with an arched back because you get more pec recruitment.

[alec_ar]

@Marlon, those were both some nice examples. Thanks for sharing. I particularly liked the air flare-handstand combo before the Japanese handstand.

 

Anyway, not to digress from the current digression, here is a video of where I am now at with the Inverted Butterfly. I haven't uploaded in a while but I've been hard at work as usual. It took a long time but I am finally able to, about once a day, do an inverted butterfly with no feet assistance and with the support on my forearms as opposed to my humerus. The transition from upper arm to lower arm support came with a huge leap in intensity, but that was expected. Pretty excited, hopefully in a couple months I'll be holding the handles of the device and do a full rep there.

 

The first rep is the one without any feet assistance.