Hand Balancing Tips

Some things are just hard to do unless you have a gift for them. So to get good, you work at them and take tips from as many people as you can talk to that know how to do it. So I'll give you some good tips of my own that helped me out.

Lets work from the ground up.

  Your forearms. Your ability to grip the ground must be substantial. Both sides of your forearms need to be equally strong according to their proportions to balance out the resistance required.

   Your Triceps. Without the power of your triceps, your elbow/elbows would simply buckle and you'd fall over. So make sure to practice and make yourself better with a series of tricep strengthening exercises. I do not advise that you go for weight training with your triceps for hand balancing, for strength and size, you do weight training, but with hand balancing, you can body weight muscle isolation while you work out other muscles. Everything is meant to be worked out in groups.

   Your shoulders. Your deltoids are incredibly important. Your shoulders are the other part of your arms that decide how long you stand. So work those out, by standing on your hands.

   Your core. So in hand balancing, say you're standing on one hand, there are two parts that hold you up and steady. Half of it is your arm, and half of it is your core. Believe it or not, your arm may be the thing holding you up and off the ground, but your core is just as important. Without a strong core, you'd be all floppy and fall over. So, do core strengthening exercises, those are important, and do stupid things when you practice hand balancing, not things that'll get you hurt, but try out new things and those will make you stronger and you'll be able to hold those older positions better than you last were as you progress into the newer ones.

   Another thing I learned when getting into hand balancing is that you need to thrust your chest out, and arch your lower back as much as you can. Naturally your body will hold at an angle when standing on one hand because when standing up with something above your head, your back muscles are required to engage, but when you're standing on one hand, it's different because your upside down and you're balancing something much larger than plates of metal put on the ends of a metal dowel.

   It's also good to have considerable leg flexibility unless you're incredibly strong and can just hold yourself up without a problem. You should be able to attempt the splits and at least be able to have no more than five inches between the ground and your groin. So you may have to stretch before you get into hand balance practice.

   I'll say that your entire body is like a giant box of pineapples as far as weight dispersion goes. But luckily we've been designed to balance that awkward weight different muscles put just in the right place at the right time made to work on cue with the proper amounts of energy being produced.

   Following these tips will you help with getting things like one handed handstands with a foot tucked in, lotus one handed handstands, flag freezes, hanging air babies, and if you're a nutter, one handed planches. Which I'm actually working on, so just for you to get a little inspiration going here for your one handed hand balancing, go on ahead, try to learn it before I put up a post.

Exercise No. 26 Pull up bar pull over

An exercise that targets lats and pectorals at once... well I have it for you.

Simple enough, you hold  onto the pull up bar and keep your arms straight to some degree, it's okay if you have a little elbow bend. This is all about pulling up without bending your elbows.

   Don't pull, but push down. As you come out, it should feel like you're doing a front lever, but your feet need to be pointing down. Just push enough to go up, and keep the tension as you go down.

   This is also a good prerequisite to have down prior to muscle ups so you can get yourself up for the maneuver to pull yourself above the bar. Work on it with bent elbows, and so forth. Good luck.

-The Fitness Cookie 

Start Now or Start Never

Here's a good question that's asked a lot, when should I start working? Yes, I've discussed this topic a time or two before. But, it's good to touch up on at least one or two more times. So when should you start?

Do you need to start? Do you already work out? Then you don't have to worry about starting a workout unless you're starting a new work out for different results and gains. But that's something else to talk about.

   Now this goes for people who just do one kind of workout, like running, or cycling. What you're doing right there is good enough to keep alive for a long time, so you don't really have to worry about starting up a new workout unless you just want to look better.

   So, start your workout, start it now. Do something new, and become stronger in different ways.

Disclaimer Post

My disclaimer post.

This blog is a general fitness blog where I talk about anything concerning fitness and health. Certain movements in this blog that are taught are very challenging, and dangerous if the participant is not ready for such a movement, or doesn't know how to do it properly, or has physical limitations of any sort.
   I am not a certified fitness coach, all advice is only told to the best of my abilities and knowledge.

   Therefore, I take no responsibility for any possibly sustained injuries, I disclaim ownership and give all credit to any images that may be subject copyright, and any links to videos that are not made by me.
   Enjoy your workouts.

   

The Fitness Cookie.

Chest Workout (From the top down)

So, the chest, something a lot of people are concerned about because you can see them in the mirror, and they look pretty good when they're sculpted with the proper work outs. Let us begin?

You can either go for simply looking good, which is the concern mainly of women. So you must incorporate a pectoral workout into your program, and you will be happy and good to go with what you have. Now, if you are male, your concern is to build muscle and become incredibly strong, well, incorporate a high intensity workout, something with a lot of weight, a lot of body shock, something that you know will make you sore. 

   The exercises that will cause pectoral shock if you will in body weight exercises are things like super man push ups, triple clap push ups, planche push ups, lots of tuck planche push ups, and various other things that involve pectoral contraction for the motion to be completed. Who knows, maybe you have your own weird exercise that works out your chest.

   Here are my workouts, varying from, easy, intermediate, advanced, and very advanced.

Easy: 1. 20 Push ups.

         2. 5 Clap push ups.

         3. 10 push ups.

         4. 15 Incline push ups.

Intermediate: 1. 50 Push ups.

                    2. 10 Clap push ups.

                    3. 30 Incline push ups.

                    4. 25 Push ups.

                    5. 10 Push ups with hands as close to hips as possible.

                    6. 10 Diamond push ups.

Advanced: 1. 100 Push ups.

                 2. 25 Clap push ups.

                 3. 15 Chest tap push ups.

                 4. 5 Back clap push ups.

                 5. Planche practice.

                 6. 10 Tuck planche push ups.

                 7. 10 Clap behind back push ups.

                 8. 10 One arm push ups on each side.

                 9. 30 Diamond push ups.

              

Very Advanced: 1. 150 Push ups.

                          2. 40 Clap push ups.

                          3. 25 Chest tap push ups.

                          4. 5-10 Triple clap push ups.

                          5. 20 Planche push ups.

                          6. 20 One arm push ups on each side.

                          7. 50 Diamond push ups.

                          8. 50 Tuck planche push ups.

Now feel free to incorporate weight lifting into this, that helps with general body weight strength and core stability. Weight training is good in general, so keep that in mind. Enjoy your workout.

Bicep Workout (From the top down)

So your biceps, located in the front part of your arm that guys usually brag to their friends about every time you do a series of curls with 20 pound dumbbells. These muscles can become considerably large with a series of calisthenic exercises and weight exercises.

Now I'm not saying you have to look like that guy, if you do, good for you. But the idea is to gain strength, and get some toning done in the process. You don't have to work so hard to where you're borderline popping veins and crap as well as being sore all of the time.

   To make your biceps stronger, it's not that hard, just a simple workout, usual circuit of working out, and proper rest since you're going to be working all of your other muscles out.

   Weight training makes your biceps become larger, by far more than you can fathom by just doing pull ups and levers. It's considerably simple, you just have to do a high circuit, high intensity, high resistance, high weight, program if you want your biceps to swell.

   So I have the four usual levels concerning intensity levels and so forth. The first two are good for people just looking to get in shape, and the last two are hard, and very hard.

Easy: 1. 2 Sets of 3 pull ups

         2. Do 1 pull up, stop when all of the way up, and hold for 5 seconds 3 times.

Intermediate: 1. 3 Sets of 5 pull ups.

                    2. 2 sets of 2 L sit pull ups.

Advanced: 1. 4 Sets of 10 pull ups.

                 2. 3 Sets of 5 L sit pull ups.

                 3. 5 Muscle ups.

                 4. 5 Archer pull ups on each side.

                 5. 2 Front levers each for 2 Seconds.

                 6. Try a back lever, doesn't really matter if you can get it yet or not.

Very Advanced: 1. 4 Sets of 20 pull ups

                          2. 3 Sets of 10 L sit pull ups.

                          3. 5 Sets of 5 muscle ups.

                          4. 3 One arm pull ups on each side.

                          5. Hold 6 front levers for 5 seconds each.

                          6. Hold 5 Back levers for 5 seconds each.

                          7. Hold pull up position for 10 seconds on one arm on each arm.

Now like I said, feel free to get involved in weights, workout your muscles with free weights as well to work your muscles out. Get a feel for things, and progress in both ways. 

Hollow Back Tips

I thought I'd give a little advice for the few of us who actually do these so that you can know how to do these a little better by holding them longer and extending both legs.

You have the beginner hollow back, where you tuck one leg in, and both knees are bent and your legs pretty much hang and you're suspending yourself by strength and resistance of your arms holding you up at the shoulders.
   Your shoulders not being able to bend back and around is the cause of being able to do a hollow back in most cases. But to progress, all around strength is the most required of being able to do a good form hollow back.
   Your shoulders and triceps are where your balance begins. If you can do a handstand, your triceps are generally strong enough, but your shoulders have to be incredibly powerful. Like I said, it helps a lot if you can do handstand push ups, and a hollow back handstand. Not the kind you see in the picture, but like a regular handstand, just with your back arched and you leaning backwards. It's important you be able to lean backwards on your hands, not forward to where your wrists are coming to a sharper and sharper angle, but to the point of where the angle in them is easing up and they're straightening out more than when you're in a regular handstand.
   Now being able to lean backwards with both legs out, so much as being able to do it without much of knee bend, your mid and lower back have to be incredibly strong. You can perfect this with head hollows easily, but in the real hollow back, your strength and energy are going into your shoulders, triceps, upper back, lower back, mid back, abdominals, and everything else much more since you don't have your neck which is very stable to support you in this.
   The only thing I can really say to get a stronger back for this, is that you just need to practice. Do neck bridges, those help, and a good stretch and exercise is to do bridges, but push back onto your hands as far as possible to where you have less weight put onto your feet. Lean as far as possible without falling backwards, get to your maximum point, and hold it as long as you can. Push yourself further each day and your back will become stronger and stronger.
   Also, another way to get into these and practice them is to go into an inverted hollow back, and then just ease your legs out. It's hard to hold it, but you will be in the position and a place that you can hold it.
   And remember, to get good at something, you have to practice all of the time. Set up a program for practicing and keep trying until you get it.
   Good luck.

Form Perfection

The most common mistake in exercising is lack of form. It's also a cause of injury, imbalances, and loss of gains. So to avoid those issues, we must come to the conclusion of perfection in exercise form.

Plenty of exercises that are done wrong can result in pain, discomfort, and imbalances. For instance, if you tend to lean to one side while doing push ups, even by just a little, there are two things that can happen. First you will see imbalances, and then because of certain alignment muscles that are being engaged, your spinal column may end up being put out of line causing neck pain, and discomfort which will also lead to limited movement because it simply hurts to go the direction that you're out of alignment.

   Your form has a lot to say when it comes to impressiveness in showing your feats of strength and body movement. You could be the strongest guy in the group that has the most power, and be able to lift the most weight, but you could also have the worst form.

   Bad form in weight training also can lead to serious injury. Mainly because weightlifting is a sensitive topic due to the fact that if you do something wrong, you're going to hurt yourself. Weights are far more sensitive in terms of injury than in calisthenics because it's a weight that doesn't belong to you, your body is learning how to balance it in a different way, and if you mess up, well there goes six weeks of gains and delicious protein shakes.

   Either way, perfected form is a necessary part of exercise. The reason they call it good form is because it's the best movement for you, the most challenging, the most beneficial, and the safest.

   Now the next question is, is it dangerous to get into a good form? Because when you start out, your form is bad and you have to work on getting better at it, so that makes it dangerous right? Absolutely not.

   There are a few examples I'm going to share with you. Lets say you have bad form in weightlifting, you're really strong and can dead lift three hundred pounds, but your back bends and creaks like mad. You stop, that's damaging to the spinal column, so where do we go from a situation like this? You go to a lighter weight, you straighten your back, squat lower, and if needed, get a coach or somebody who works at the gym to help you out.

   Planches, another thing, is it dangerous to start out with bad form in those? No, not at all. Because it's bodyweight, and if you do a planche wrong, you might as well be doing a handstand. So to perfect your form, you watch yourself and observe, clean things up, start out from different positions to see which one you get your best form from and so forth.

   Form perfection only takes observance, a few steps back, clean up the old steps, make them look good, and work back up to where you were. Sure it'll be a little harder than you last recalled doing those exercises, but because you're paying attention and looking at the way things are done, and you notice you're actually looking better in your form, it will become less of an issue when you try to do it with good form, because you will be used to doing it with good form instead of bad form which will actually be harder.

The Best Thing For Us All

Here's something for you to think about. You don't have to choose just one thing to focus on, be it exercise, music, writing, art, or whatever it is you do. You can do as much as you want to do.

I've met people so involved in doing what they love that they have absolutely no time for the boring mundane things in life that most people consider living. Whereas these people that are doing what they love, are the ones that are actually living life.

   You could be a couch potato, or the guy or girl who's riding two hundred miles on their bike every Saturday, working as a music veterinarian during the week, feeding homeless children during your after hours, taking your family across the country in an RV during the summer time, skiing down mountain sides in the winter, and constantly unicycling with any possible chance that comes your way while you go down the book club three times a week.

   It's fun to do what you love, so who's going to stop you? You don't have to choose just one. Hobbies are different than relationships.
   Now you can either consider fitness a hobby, or something you force yourself to do because your doctor told you to if you want to live another ten years. It's all about whether or not you love to do what you do.
   To be a healthy person, mentally, and physically, you need to have at least one thing in your life that you love to do. When you do something you love, it allows you release of the negative energy inside of you.
   Negative energy can be dangerous in all cases, so to expel it we must do something we love, and something that is good for us. So I'm not talking let loose in the evenings, party and drink all night long, I'm saying find something that will make you happy, something that gives that ability to experience alone time and reflect on things and let the mind wander in it's natural ways.
   So think about it, go find something you love to do, it doesn't just have to be one thing either, get out of the house, move away from the office for a bit, whatever it takes, do something you love and you'll feel better.

Tricep workout (from the top down)

So to get a good tricep workout in, you have to know which exercises to do. Because most people don't really know what kind of tricep exercises there are to do with body weight, they tend to not do them very often. But I'll give some that will cause you to see gains in size and strength.

There are various things you can do to get good tricep gains, with body weight and weight plates. Again, I advise overhead presses and bench presses for this, no dumbbell kick backs because those are stupid, tricep extensions with heavy weight are good, and anything that is a form of a press is good for your triceps.

   Mainly go for the medium to high numbered sets for size gain and high number of sets low number of reps sets for strength gaining

   Now to continue with the bodyweight section of this. I have a few things. Tiger bend push ups, straight up tiger bend, any kind of push ups, planche push ups, handstand push ups, regular push ups, tap push ups, clapping push ups, and dips.

   Anything where your arms support your body weight will be of some benefit to your triceps. Specifically tiger bends on parallel bars, tiger bends on the ground, and dips will all workout your triceps.

   There's really no level to this unless you're talking tiger bends in handstands which you can eventually learn with time, practice, and gaining in strength.

   So I'll give you sets and numbers that you can start with and work your way up from. Levels of Easy, Intermediate, and Advanced, and Very Advanced.

   Now the tiger bend if you're wondering is much like a push up, but your arms go inwards and to your sides. Like you're doing a really crappy planche but with your feet on the ground.

Easy: 1. 3 Sets of 5 ground tiger bend push ups.

         2. 3 Sets of 10 tiger bend push ups on bar about mid to lower chest height, bench, chair or against the wall.

         3. 1 Set of as many dips as you can do.

Intermediate: 1. 5 Sets of 10 ground tiger bend push ups.

                     2. 5 Sets of 25 tiger bend push ups on wall or bar.

                     3. 2 Sets of 5 dips on parallel bars or straight bar.

                     4. 5 Handstand push ups against the wall.

                   

Advanced: 1. 4 Sets of 20 tiger bend push ups on ground.

                 2. 4 Sets of 30 tiger bend push ups on bar or wall.

                 3. 4 Sets of 8 dips.

                 4. 2 Sets of 10 Handstand push ups against wall.

Very Advanced: 1. 5 Sets of 25 tiger bends against wall or on bar.

                          2. 5 Sets of 12 to 15 dips.

                          3. 5 Sets of 25 tiger bend push ups on the ground.

                          4. 2 Sets of 10 Handstand push ups without the wall.

                          5. 5 Handstand tiger bends parallel bars or on the ground.

Shoulder Workout (From the top down)

I'm going to give you some excellent shoulder exercises here, ones that will make your shoulders get a strength that just lifting weights and doing push ups can't give you. Shall we begin? I'll talk about the exercises and give a routine to work with.

Now as we all know, to get strong, or big shoulders from body weight, you must do a high circuit program. This isn't so much as a body weight program to get your shoulders like Arnold's or Ronnie's, but to get them nice and strong and to have a control in your shoulders that most people don't have.

   To get big shoulders from body weight, yes, lots of handstand push ups, planche push ups, tuck planche push ups, handstands, planches, flag freezes, all of that stuff. I'll talk about how each exercise targets the muscular structure of your shoulders.

   So as we all know, any kind o shoulder exercise works out the triceps and pectoralis minor or pectoralis major. But certain exercises are about seventy five percent shoulder. Handstand push ups for example require mostly if not all shoulder.

   If you want big shoulders, and don't have the choice of using a weight set, you always have body weight to your advantage, and as much of it as you want. Now I'm not saying get fat and then start working out, that would be ridiculous for obvious reasons.

   So you can try a lot of crazy things, and these crazy things will make you a beast! Now shoulder size depends on your genetics. We're simply going for strength here because with strength comes size obviously. To make your shoulders strong, you work slowly into things, but you do things that involve intense movement and shock that will make them stronger.

   So I'll give you four shoulder workouts based on difficulty. Easy, intermediate, advanced, and very advanced.

Easy: 5 sets of 5 pike push ups. 

         5 sets of 5 push ups.

         Tuck planche practice.

Intermediate: 3 sets of 20 pike push ups.

                    Hold handstand against the wall for 15 seconds.

                    Eat pie.

                    3 sets of 10 tuck planche push ups.

                    Handstand practice.

Advanced: 3 sets of 20 pike push ups.

                 1 minute of handstands.

                 10 Handstand push ups against the wall.

                 5 Handstand push ups.

                 5 sets of 10 tuck planche push ups.

                 1 handed handstands against wall. 20 seconds on each arm.

Very Advanced: 25 Handstand push ups.

                          30 Tuck planche push ups

                          5 Planche push ups.

                          2 Minutes of handstands

                          15 seconds of planches.

                          30 Handstand push ups against the wall.

Now these help build up the entire shoulder system. The reason why I put handstand push ups against the wall, is because the help build up your rear deltoids because even with handstand push ups, your chest will be the one side of you pointing to ground mostly, and there will generally be more front deltoid in that exercise.

   Enjoy, once you move past the levels of these exercises, you can start working to your abilities and seeing where your limits are and how to become stronger in the movements you find yourself struggling with.

   Also, overhead presses, bench presses, all of that are good for gains in shoulder size. Dumbbell presses and barbell presses together offer for excellent gains. To get somewhere, you have to work hard, that's how you get strong, with a lot of weight, a lot of shock, and a lot of work.