Beast Skills

RSS feed

2005-08-10T21:35:00.000-05:00

Due to popular demand, I now have an RSS feed for the new site. You can subscribe here - http://www.beastskills.com/feed.xml

I'm adding this post so that those with an RSS feed to this blog can now change their subscription to the new feed. Thanks all.

IT IS HERE

2005-07-12T23:27:00.000-05:00

www.beastskills.com

When I started this blog last year, I suspected it may outgrow itself. Things have been getting a bit hard to navigate, so a change was in order. And that change has finally come - Beast Skills, the web page.

You'll have to bear with me as I tweak things over the next coming weeks, but the site is fully functional right now and has all its content. This will probably be the last post on the blog, but I will continue training posts on my new site.

Thanks to everyone for their support. Enjoy the new site!

One Arm Pullup

2005-07-01T19:34:00.000-05:00

Got it! Cranked my first one arm pullup in the gym today, both left and right arm, full hang, chin well over the bar. Kind of surprised myself. I've been doing one arm chins (palm facing me) for a couple weeks now, but the pullup (palm facing away) felt just out of reach. Maybe it was all just mental.

Anyways, I'm excited. And I really want to put together a OAC/OAP tutorial. I'll start laying it out and taking pictures in the coming weeks.

And just a quick note and question for those working the skill. With the OAC, my body seemed to turn in one direction, while the OAP my body turned the opposite direction. Example - one arm chin with the right arm, and my body wanted to turn counter clockwise. a one arm pullup with the right arm, and my body wants to turn clockwise.

The turning with the OAC is easy enough to fix with the free arm, but what to do with the free arm on the OAP? Put it behind my back? If someone has experience with that, feel free to comment. I'll continue playing around with the skill. Good luck to everyone with their training.

Handstand to Elbow Lever and Back Up

2005-07-01T11:05:00.000-05:00

So here is the solution to the challenge I posted about a month ago, plus a few recent training pictures at the end.

Something to keep in mind for this challenge - While you may have the elbow lever down, and your handstand may be solid, this exercise will really test your total body control as you transfer between the two skills. If you have difficulty with the strength, I recommend working on your handstand pushups and especially your handstand press.

So here we go.

Lowering Down
The main thing you have to focus on while lowering from a handstand into an elbow lever are your HANDS. Therefore in the description below, I've included a picture of the step, as well as the corresponding hand position.

Alright, you'll start off in your handstand, with fingers pointing forward. Nothing new so far.

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You'll then you start to bend the arms and dip your head forward. If you recall, this is similar to the position for the handstand press, except your legs are out straight this time. Your fingers can begin to turn outwards slightly, but it is not essential you do that right now. While this is a transitional position, you should still be balanced. If I can hold it long enough to take a picture of it, it's balanced.

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For the next step, your arms have bent to 90 degrees and your face is near the floor. At this point you'll want your hands turned outwards so that it is easier for you to stab your elbows and prepare for the elbow lever. If your fingers are still facing forward at this point, you will find it difficult if not impossible to stab in your elbows.

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In the final step, you will simply turn your hands and point your fingers towards your feet as you level out your body into an elbow lever. If you recall back to the elbow lever tutorial, this hand position will allow you to open up the angle of your arm and balance the skill. So if you find yourself stuck in the previous position, remember to turn your hands and open up your arms.

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The one error I see in this skill is slamming your body into the ground instead of stopping above the ground in the lever. As I said, this skill is about control so you'll want to work on your shoulder strength to control the descent, and your core muscles so that you can maintain a straight body as you level out.

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Pressing Up
Of the two skills presented here, I'd have to say that this is probably the harder of the two. In the elbow lever tutorial, I gave a slight hint on how to start this move. If your arms are at a 90 degree angle while you are trying to hold an elbow lever, then your feet will raise up. You'll use this to your advantage now as you go from an elbow lever to handstand.

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Once your arms are at 90 degrees and your legs start to rise up, you'll want to push downwards with your hands. The motion will feel similar to a handstand press up, but you should try and keep your body straighter. A slight arch in your back and legs is ok. If you get stuck here, work on your shoulder strength.

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You may notice at this point that my hands have not changed position. They are still facing backwards. I find it easier to press up into the handstand position before I turn my hands, rather than moving hands mid-press. If you find one way works better for you than another way, then go with it.

At this point in the skill, I'm upside-down with a very awkward hand position. It may happen in practice that you'll fall over toward your head at this point. Remember back to the handstand press and the ways to fall safely out of a handstand. On your head is not one of them! While I usually pirouette to get out of a bad handstand, I actually find a forward roll to be easier in this case. Again, pick what feels best to you. Just be careful and don't break your neck!

I might suggest facing a wall, but your hands would be so far away, that catching the wall with your feet may do some damage. So I'd prefer you work without a wall on this skill, just make sure you can come down safely out of a bad handstand first.

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Ah, we're up and we've changed our hand position. The handstand is stable. Congratulations!

So there you have it. Handstand to Elbow Lever to Handstand. This is not the easiest of skills, but is still attainable as your shoulder and arm strength increases. Good luck to everyone!

Recent Training
I'm pulling a one arm chin from this distance, so I guess I can check it off my list now. If I drop my body any lower, I start to rotate around the shoulder joint.

What really took me over the edge was weighted one arm negatives. I used a light weight (~5 lbs) but on the descent I was able to stop myself at any point.

I've got some great ideas to increase my numbers for this skill. I'll certainly be writing a full article about my training, and subsequent training for multiple reps. I'll also start up training for a one arm pull up (hand facing away from me) very soon. I don't see this as taking that long, as the one arm chin training seems to have gotten me most of the way there.

So here it is, left...

And right...

Planche training is going real well too. Here's a recent pic.

But before we start breaking out the champagne, I just have to say that this is my max effort, and a hold for only about 2 seconds. But it feels strong, and I like it a lot more than the straddle planche.

I still need to work on the height of my legs though, as a couple previous takes looked like this.

I get into the position by starting in a tuck with bent arms, then I lean forward and press my arms straight while straightening out my body. I still think that I'm lower than I really am, so I'll have to closely monitor the exact height of my legs so that I can feel the flat planche and train consistently.

I'll be using this hold along with some straddle planche pushups (which feel ugly right now) and some assisted planche pushups. With any luck, I'll have a solid planche in a couple more months.

Hope everyone's training is going well. I've got many more tutorials to come.

Elbow Lever Challenge

2005-06-09T19:34:00.000-05:00

Well, I would've posted this about a week ago - but I'm in the process of moving right now. Add on top of that my new ISP made a mistake in sending out my internet equipment, and I'm forced to use public library computers for the moment.

So apologies for no recent post, and much apologies to all those who have emailed me and having been waiting a solid week for a response. Once I get online at home, this post will be up and running. Thanks.

The Elbow Lever

2005-05-21T11:59:00.000-05:00

I've been making good progress with the one arm elbow lever -

So I figured it was about time to write up something on the two arm elbow lever, more commonly referred to as simply 'the elbow lever'.

For those unfamiliar, the elbow lever is a position where the body is held up horizontal to the ground. But unlike the planche (where there is NO support along the length of the body), the elbow lever uses one's elbows as a resting and balancing point for the body. This makes the skill much easier than a planche.

An elbow lever -

It's a fairly simple skill really. There's just several key points in order to find the correct position.

The Hands

You'll want to put your hands down on the ground about shoulder width apart, with the fingers pointing to the side, or even slightly backwards. This hand orientation is essential in balancing the skill correctly.

The Elbow Stab

What's this about stabbing? Well, as I mentioned before, your body is resting and balancing ON your elbows. In order to do this, you need to learn the correct place to put your elbows. This placement is called "stabbing".

As you can see from the picture above, you'll be placing your elbows to either side of the middle. The placement of the elbows is fairly intuitive, as your elbows aren't going to be able to meet in the middle of your body, and if they are placed any farther out, then your body is not resting on them.

The picture below shows a single elbow stab into the correct position. Your elbow should rest right at the edge of your six pack.

If you were to take one arm and stretch it across your body like so, then you can easily find the correct position. It should feel like your elbow is sitting into a groove.

Of course, this is also a good stretch to do if you find inflexibility is making the elbow stab difficult.

You can also work the traditional shoulder stretch to help any flexibility problems.

When your elbows are stabbed, your arms will be parallel or turned slightly outwards. If you try this skill on a set of parallettes or rings, your arms will definitely turn outwards, forming a trapezoid in the empty space.

The Start

With the correct hand orientation, hands about shoulder width apart, you'll want to lean forward and "stab" both your elbows in at the same time.

You should start to feel the support that your elbows will be giving you.

If you are having problems getting your elbows into position. Beside stretching during each practice session to increase flexibility, you can also hunch your back over. I find this helps in getting the elbows into the right position.

Whether you start with your body in a straighter position, or hunched over is unimportant if you can extend into the elbow lever in the end.

The End

After you stab in your elbows, you'll want to arch your body to make it more horizontal. This will lift you off the ground and into position.

There are three main points to remember when extending into the elbow lever. You'll be doing these all at the same time -
1. look upwards - the spine follows the head, so looking up will flatten things out.
2. lift up your legs - you'll feel this in your lower back, as you'll essentially do a reverse hyper extension of the back.
3. lean forward - you'll have to lean forward and open the angle of your arms to balance correctly. Elaboration of this point follows.

oh yeah . . . and don't forget to breathe. I know it's hard, what with your arms stuck in your gut, but it helps to cut down on the red face.

The Arms and Balancing

The most common mistake regarding the arms and balancing that I see is keeping the arms at a 90 degree angle. This is simply because that arm angle feels more natural when you are pressing something away from you (in this case, the ground).

Doing this will put your body off balance, and your legs will generally rise upwards as you fight to stay up.

So if you find your face heading toward the ground, like the picture, then it's often a matter of the angle of your arms.

Instead of a 90 degree angle, lean forward as you straighten your body. Your arms should be at more of a 135 degree angle, like so.

This will shift your weight and balance you out quite nicely. This is also why your hands are placed with your fingers facing to the side or slightly back, as it's not really possible to get your arms to this angle if your fingers are facing forward. You'd have to fold your wrists over top your hands.

Supplemental Exercises

Working the elbow lever itself will build the necessary strength to hold the position, but if you're having a bit of trouble straightening things out, then the best exercise I can recommend is Supermans.

Lay down on your belly, then lift your upper body and legs upwards, so that you look like some delusional superman trying to take off from the floor. This is a great exercise, regardless of whether you're training for an elbow lever or not, but working this will help strengthen the back.

Wrap-Up

The elbow lever is something that should be practiced in short sessions fairly regularly in order to learn the correct balancing and placement. Each time you get into an elbow lever, it'll feel a bit easier.

Here's another picture of an elbow lever I had, so you can see things from another angle.

You're levering your body on your elbows. Simple enough, eh?

Where to do this. . .

Once you figure out the elbow lever, it's quite a simple move to do just about anywhere you can get your hands down.

For a platform that's a bit above your hips, you can put your hands down, then hop up and land into the elbow stab.

After you've landed in the stab, then it's just a matter of extending yourself and straightening out. Of course, make sure you have this skill on the ground before you start taking it to new heights.

CHALLENGE

So you've gotten the elbow lever down, and you're looking for the next step. Well, take your newfound skill and try to press up into a handstand from it. Or start in a handstand and lower yourself down into an elbow lever.

I've already given you a hint as to how you'd start to press up into a handstand, but I want everyone to kick some ideas around in their head before I describe any solution or post any pictures. Good luck to everyone.

And Now for Something Completely Different

2005-05-08T19:55:00.000-05:00

I've been getting a bit of traffic through my blog and it's great to see the volume and diversity of the people. I greatly appreciate all the feedback and comments that I've been receiving. Thanks to the good people at Statcounter.com, I'm able to see where everyone is coming from, like so:

And below, in no particular order, is a list of countries I've seen visit over the past couple weeks. It's really cool to see all the countries - it's starting to look like an attendance sheet at the United Nations.

Australia
Belgium
India
Singapore
Finland
Hong Kong
Italy
Norway
United States
United Kingdom
Germany
Denmark

Ireland
Republic of Korea
Japan
Bermuda
Czech Republic
France
Netherlands
Canada
Sweden
Bosnia and Herzegowina
Spain
Israel

Panama
South Africa
United Arab Emirates
Serbia and Montenegro
Portugal
Slovenia
Qatar
Poland
Greece
Pakistan
Nauru
Jordan

I guess what I'm trying to say is that this site has been growing at a healthy pace. And it's necessary that it starts to change into something else. For these past several weeks, I've been planning and working hard to bring about this change.

Things are a bit crazy for me now, but I do promise more tutorials. I've got at least four in my head now that I want to post. Even if you don't see multiple updates or much activity in the next couple weeks, I can promise you that I'm working hard on this site. Stay tuned.

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And now, so there's a bit of relevance to this post. Here's some some great pictures of bodyweight skills.

This first photo is of an unknown man doing handstands on some chairs. It looks like he may be at an army camp. I love this photo simply because its age shows how long these skills and feats have been around.

I hate to say "there's nothing new under the sun", but if you dig around you'd be surprised how much has been done in the past.

This next photo is of the Bouley Brothers - Armand and Tibbet. I don't know which is which, but I have to say that the top man is holding the closest thing to a "victorian" that I've ever seen. It's certainly higher than a regular front lever.

So maybe you want to grab a friend and give this a go. . . or you could just pick your jaw up off the floor and get back to training! Good luck!

Circles

2005-04-26T23:01:00.000-05:00

Here is my tutorial for double leg circles on the mushroom. What you'll read below is one of my most technical posts to date. For those unfamiliar with what the skill looks like, scroll all the way down to "Odd and Ends" for links to video clips.

For those who are working towards a circle on the mushroom (and eventually the pommel horse), I hope this guide will give you the best analysis of all the movements necessary to learn this skill. I'll just be covering work on the mushroom, since I figure if you're working the circle on the pommel horse, you're beyond the scope of this page.

Despite the tome written below, the double leg circle isn't that difficult to pick up. Well to clarify, it's a skill that takes a short time to learn, but a lifetime to master.

And for the first time on this page, helping me demonstrate the skill, is Chuck:

He's from Ikea, a town in Sweden.

*crickets chirp*

Anyways...

The Mushroom

For those unfamiliar, here are pictures of some training mushrooms.

It's quite obvious how the apparatus got its name. The mushroom is a training device that's used to teach circles and flairs for the pommel horse.

Introduction

The circles I describe will be going in a CLOCKWISE direction. So switch up lefts and rights if you are practicing a counter-clockwise circle. I will be referring to various positions on the mushroom with numbers, or by simple comparison to a clock face. Here are the positions and corresponding numbers (1 being the start, of course):

Next, we'll talk about where you should be putting your hands on the mushroom. Even though it may feel intuitive to put your hands near the middle of the mushroom, you'll actually want to put them a bit off center, away from your body as such:

So they'll be shoulder width apart, in the top 1/3 of the mushroom. When you get your hands on the mushroom, you'll understand where to put your hands so that they're forward of the center. I'll describe the importance of this below.

So together, your hands and the numbered positions will look like this:

Now we'll learn the first position and walk around to each point on the circle. These are the GENERAL positions you want to be in when going around in a circle. I will get to the specifics of each position later, when you start getting off the ground.

The First Position

To get yourself into the correct position, place your hands on the mushroom as described above. You'll want to put your legs together, get your body in a neutral to slightly arched position, and lean slightly over the mushroom.

Below is David Kikuchi of Canada, showing nice form for the first position.

The two biggest mistakes made in this position are lifting the hips up and away from the mushroom, and not leaning over the mushroom enough. As Chuck demonstrates below:

hips up too high

leaning too far away

Both will throw your circle off-kilter from the beginning, as both mistakes take your body away from the mushroom. You're going to be circling over top the mushroom, so you need to keep your center of mass over top the mushroom. Like so:

first position

Next, we'll be WALKING around the mushroom into the second position, cause you've got to learn to walk before you learn to fly.

The Second Position

For a clockwise circle, lift up your left hand from the first position and walk around 1/4 of the mushroom to your left. When you get to the second spot, you'll want to put your body in a position like so:

side view

front view

Keep your body in a straight position; don't sag down on top of the mushroom. You'll want to keep the hips close to the mushroom and lean over that right arm. Below is a picture of Ivan Ivankov of Belarus, in which you can clearly see the lean involved.

As far as the hand goes, Chuck is lifting his arm up in such an exagerrated manner so that he remembers to lift it when he's flying around the circle. I suggest you do the same.

The Third Position

Walk yourself around the circle until you hit the third position. You'll now be putting your left hand back down and getting your body into this position:

third position

This time you'll be leaning back slightly. Most importantly, you should be trying to EXTEND your hips. Like you're trying to touch the ceiling with them. Of course, you'll be extending with your body the entire circle, which includes straight legs and pointed toes. But at the front here is where many will slack off with their body extension. The biggest mistake I see in this position is bending at the waist or "piking". You don't want to be caught sitting down on the mushroom!

don't sit on the mushroom!

This is the reason you put your hands down where you did. With the hands on the front, there is not as much mushroom in front of you, so you won't have the urge to pike yourself in order to circle around.

So both hands are down on the mushroom. Arms are straight.

Here is a shot of Jair Lynch of the United States travelling through the third position.

The Fourth Position

The fourth position is simply a mirror image of the second position. So lift that right hand (extra high as a reminder), and remember to lean over that left arm.

side view

front view

After this, walk back around to the first position. Walk around the mushroom several times in this manner to get the general idea of the skill.

Ready? Let's learn how to fly.

The Cast

The cast is simply a wind-up for the circle. It will give you the power necessary to start things up.

You'll want to start by getting into the first position. Next, you're going draw your right leg back (in the case of a clockwise circle). Now it doesn't make sense to draw your leg backwards in a straight line, because you won't be travelling along a straight line. You'll want to draw your right leg back in a circular path. I think of tracing a semi-circle with my right foot for 1/4 of the circle, in other words until it reaches the "4" on our mushroom.

And raise up your left hand.

Here, in perhaps the strangest photo I've ever had taken, I'm trying to show the correct position for the cast. Notice how my hips still stay close to the mushroom (chair). Don't slack off now and pull the hips away. Tracing the semi-circle will help to keep you close.

And here is a picture of Alex Schorsch, a gymnast now competing for Stanford. This is his cast for circles on the floor. Notice how his right foot is drawn back a quarter of the circle and his hand is up in the air.

After you "wind-up" you'll start the cast by doing two things SIMULTANEOUSLY. You are going to bring down your left hand and quickly slap the mushroom, while you swing your right leg around into your left leg.

The slap on the mushroom is to give your body support as you quickly pass through the first position. It is a quick slap, because you need to lift your hand up almost immediately to pass into the second position.

The swinging of the right leg should almost feel like you're sweeping your left leg out from under you. What you're really striving for in the leg sweep is to start your body off in a horizontal plane. Problems arise when you start to JUMP into the circle, rather than SWEEP.

Below is a chart illustrating the problems when you jump into a circle. The solid black horizontal line represents the ground, while the curved line represents the path of your feet.

As you can see, if you jump up into the circle, you'll often travel past the second position without a problem, but then you'll lose your height and coming crashing down in the third position.

If you work on sweeping the right leg and bringing both legs around in one plane, your path will look much better:

Then you'll be able to hit multiple circles without fear of hitting the ground.

Hip Torque

You might have heard about the importance of torquing your hips for a circle. Why is it necessary? And when do you do it?

Look at the diagram below. In it you can see the direction the hips are facing as they come around to the third position. Now if you were to keep your hips pointed in that direction, there's no way you would clear the fourth position. You need to twist your hips to be able to make it around for another circle (see diagram).

The hip torque is achieved by twisting your hips in the opposite direction of your circle. If you were to stand up straight and be shish-kabobed through your head straight down to your feet, that is the axis that you will be twisting your hips around. So for the clockwise circle, twist your hips counter-clockwise. You are attempting to twist your hips so that they face the mushroom. Chuck demonstrates the twist of his hips while his body travels around the mushroom.

Just to stave off any confusion - while the arrow indicating Chuck's hip twisting looks to be going clockwise, as HE looks down at his hips he will be turning things counter-clockwise.

As mentioned, this will allow your body to come around and through the fourth position. If you find that you often hit your left hip in the fourth position, then it's probably the case of not twisting enough.

So when during the circle do you start the torque? Just before you hit the third position. If you think of the mushroom as a clock, with the first position as 6, and the third position as 12, then you want to try and twist at around 11. I've found that merely looking in that direction as you cast into the circle helps you to twist at the appropriate moment.

There is also a twisting of the hips at the 5 o'clock position on the mushroom. This will turn your hips outwards and allow you to go from the fourth position around to the second position. This twisting is very intuitive and it's likely you won't even notice it. It's the torque at 11 o'clock that you'll often have to remember to do.

Leading Parts

As you head through the circle, you'll be focusing on various parts to "lead" the way.

In the first half of the circle, you want to work on pushing the chest and hips through first. This will extend your circle out and prevent piking. If you think about kicking your feet through for the first half, there's a tendency to bend at the waist, which we already know is undesirable.

For the last half of the circle, you want to work on leading with the heels of your body. This will tend to keep the body straighter, so that you don't bend at the waist again. Remember one of the "don'ts" for the first position was having your hips too high? Well, leading with the hips for the last half of the circle tends to put you in such a position, which breaks that horizontal path that you're striving for.

"Amazingly", you'll switch which part of your body leads right after you've torqued your hips (11 and 5 o'clock on the mushroom).

Lean And Push

As I've mentioned throughout this post, it's essential that you lean at every point in the circle. By leaning in the opposite direction of your feet, you'll keep your center of gravity over top the mushroom.

In order to help get into the lean, you'll want to push off with your hands as you lift them up. Nothing too severe, but be aware of the work that your hands and arms have to do. If you find yourself falling off the mushroom, or catching yourself abruptly with bent arms, then you may need to push off stronger.

For right now you want to be able to keep your orientation the same, especially if you plan on taking the skill to the pommel horse. When practicing your circles, you'll soon learn the amount of pushing and leaning you need in order to remain facing forwards.

Ultimately, there are two things that will change your orientation - putting your hands down too slow, and putting your hands down too fast.

In the first of these situations, you'll be circling along but then start to push harder, lean, and ride the circle a little longer. Your hands go down slower and you start to turn. This is called "czeching" the circle, and it starts to moves your hands into a position like so:

As you take those long wide movements, your body will shift directions in a clockwise direction (in the instance of a clockwise circle). In comparison to a regular circle, czeching a circle will make things feel slower.

The next situation is where you purposely try to turn and put down your hands as fast as you can. This is called a "spindle", and will begin to move your hands like so:

As you twist quickly to get your hands down, your body will shift in a counter-clockwise direction (for a clockwise circle). In comparison to a regular circle, this will speed things up.

Now there's a time for each of these skills, but when you are learning the basic circle, you want to be able to keep control and remain facing forwards, putting your hands down in the same position each time. In general, I've seen more people have a problem czeching their circle than starting a spindle. So if you find yourself moving your hands around and turning your orientation with each circle you perform, then try to get your hands down faster.

Final Tip

One of the most important things I think you should keep in mind is that you have to find the RHYTHM of the skill. The circle should have a nice beat to it. Your hands should be going up and down like 1,2,1,2,1,2. If you sound like you're limping - 1...2,1...2,1...2, then work on getting the hands down faster or slower. Adjusting the amount of torque in your hips can help adjust the timing of your hands as well.

Training Progression

Now that you've got a handle on all the elements of a circle, I recommend starting from ground zero and adding on 1/4 of the circle at a time.

So after you've walked around the mushroom several times, you'll want to get into the first position, step back, cast, and stop yourself at the second position. It doesn't matter if you felt you could go all the way around. Just have patience and make sure you get the beginning down cold.

After several times casting and stopping to the second position, just add another 1/4 of the circle and trying casting and travelling to the third position. Be cognizant of keeping your cast horizontal, as well as making sure you RIDE through the second position on the way to the third. Just about anyone can make it to the third position by jumping over the mushroom, but sloppy technique like that will only make the next step more difficult, as you will have to go back and fix your technique.

I feel a indicator of good technique when casting to the third position is if you feel like you have to slam on the brakes to stop. You should feel like your body could continue travelling around if you hadn't stopped it. If you feel like you're dropping into the third position, then you very well might be. Remember that chart with the wave path of your feet? Don't do that. And as for hip torque, you can start it, but it's not essential that you focus on it at the moment.

If you feel ready, add another 1/4 to your circle and cast to the fourth position. This will test your technique more than anything. Do you jump into your circles? Then you won't make it around. Did you forget to twist your hips? Then you'll probably catch your inner hip on the mushroom. Besides remembering all the sticking points of a circle, the most important thing I can repeat is to RIDE the skill through each of the positions. Don't be in a rush to the end and try blowing past a position. The circle is a smooth, flowing movement.

If you're making it to the fourth position consistently, then taking it back around to the first position should be a piece of cake.

After your first circle, practice casting and performing one circle at a time. Get that one circle down well before you start up multiple circles.

When you begin multiple circles, remember the tips. Pushing with the hands, leaning, and really getting the hips out will power your circles around. A bit of practice will show you how to keeping the circles going. Just whatever you do, don't get lazy. Circles require constant force to keep going.

Odds And Ends

Now of course learning a circle on the mushroom is a prerequisite to performing it on the pommel horse or floor. Here are some excellent clips of circle work on both.

Pommel horse circles
David Durante from Stanford Men's Gymnastics.

Floor circles
Alex Schorsch, a Stanford gymnast, back in high school.

Anywhere else you could do circles? How about those concrete bollards you see around the city?

I've seen this done by a bboy named Kujo on the "Detours Video". A quick clip of Kujo is available here. No circling in the sample clip, but you will see a whole lot of planche goodness.

I mention circling on bollards simply to plant the crazy idea in your head for the next time you're walking through the city. Good luck!

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Hope you find this tutorial useful. I've tried to cover everything I know in regards to the circle. If you have a question, or if something is unclear, feel free to shoot me an e-mail.

Of course, it figures that after my most complicated post I'll be out in California for the extended weekend, away from a computer, but I'll get back to any emails next week.

I hope I didn't scare too many people away with the size of this tutorial. The circle is a very fun skill once you find the flow. Once again, good luck to everyone!

A Better Straddle Planche

2005-04-25T17:42:00.000-05:00

So I was sitting at work today thinking about how my planche progression was coming along pretty well. And it occurred to me that I had only snapped pics of a one-legged planche. How does my straddle planche measure up now?

Well, I drove home from work, kicked off the shoes and grabbed the camera. Results as follows...

I guess I still don't know where my legs are, but I'm hitting a straddle planche, more or less! And I'm balancing it on the ground, which is even more exciting. It felt much more solid than my previous parallette straddle planches.

So I guess I can recommend to work the one-legged planche in order to bridge the gap between the advanced tuck planche and straddle planche. It seems to have built up my shoulder strength enough to make extending into a straddle easier.

As far as the circle/flair post goes, I'm trying to finish up the circle post by tonight. It's pretty extensive and is taking a lot of time. I won't even be addressing the flair until another future post. But don't worry, you'll have more than enough to read right now.

Research and Development

2005-04-16T17:58:00.000-05:00

Hello there! While you're waiting for the tutorial on circles and flairs, I figured I'd post up some pics of my current training, simply because it's been too long. So here for your reading pleasure, is my progress...

The first big thing to announce is that I'm working the one arm chins again. I can crank one if my arm is slightly bent, but I'd like to be able to pull one (and eventually many) from a complete dead hang.

I got back into this skill with some heavy two arm chins. Heavy meaning, building up to 150% bodyweight. And I hope to continue to up that weight. I keep the reps low, no more than 5 a set generally, for the sake of my elbows. I'll end up a session with some lockoffs and negatives with the heaviest weight. This helps finish up things when I can't pull up with the weight anymore. I'll also give myself a good day or two of rest inbetween sessions to let myself recup properly.

Next, the progress that I'm most excited about is my one arm handstand. I've been trying to work this everyday for short sets. This plan has helped tremendously.

As far as technique, I've started to focus on really pressing my supporting shoulder out (just like a regular handstand), keeping my body very, very tight, and most importantly - lifting the other hand up slooooowwwwllllyyyy. If you whip that hand off the floor too fast, you'll just throw yourself out of balance from the very beginning. In addition, I'll often try to hold myself up on one hand for as long as possible, while the fingers of my other hand just barely brush and touch the floor for balance.

I've tried the skill with legs together and split. Splitting the legs lowers my center of gravity slighty, and helps to balance a bit - especially at the end of the set when I'm tired.

For the first time, I feel I can slightly control my one arm handstand balance. Like I said, I'm excited.

I snapped this next shot, because I thought it looked good with the picture on the wall... haha...

The planche is moving forward, slowly but surely. Here's a pic of my one legged plance on the parallettes. I'm trying to straighten the bent leg out slowly, bit by bit. It's going to take some time though.

The position on the ground feels much stronger now. It use to be hard to hit anything close to this on the ground, but now I don't need the extra deathgrip on the parallettes to pull it off.

I'm not too concerned with the elevated butt/crooked body right now, since it's a bit difficult to line things up with one leg out and one leg in. On the ground especially, I feel like I'm going to knock my knee. As I build up the strength in my shoulders, the legs will straighten out and I'll be able to level myself off, and my shoulders are definitely getting stronger.

The main exercise I've been doing recently is planche pushups with my feet on a chair. I find it very important to really lean as far as possible and get into the planche position at the top of the rep.

I've been adding weight to this exercise by throwing some plates in a backpack and putting the whole thing on my back. This exercise is great work for the front of the shoulders and chest. I feel like I've been making good steps by combining this with static planche holds.

Finally, I've been playing around with the wide handstand a bit. Balance is particularly tricky because the hands are turned 90 degrees from a normal handstand.

The one problem with training this is that I run out of floorspace quickly as I begin to move my hands outwards!

Working something like this seems like a good way to get yourself ready for the inverted cross. And now that the weather is getting warmer and the daylight longer, I'll be taking my rings to the local playground and working on both the iron and inverted crosses.

So that's what's been keeping me busy for the past several weeks. This is the part of the training where I've got to grind away at the skills. I mean, I'm still reaching goals and making progress, but there won't be some incredible day when I jump up into a new skill for some time now.

Onward and upward! Good luck to everyone with their training!

Circles and Flairs

2005-04-11T22:03:00.000-05:00

By popular demand, I'll be making my next post about circles and flairs on the mushroom and pommel horse. First, I'd like to stress right here that I was NOT an elite athlete, just merely someone on a club gymnastics team.

me!

But even still, I think I can provide enough technical explanation to start someone out. In the end, you'll want to listen to your coach of course, but I hope to help anyone who may not have adequate coaching at the time.

The Handstand

2005-04-05T00:44:00.000-05:00

The handstand - a fundamental skill if you are interested in bodyweight exercises. Working it will build strength and help develop total body coordination.

I'll be throwing a lot of information at you in this post. Before you dive into this tutorial, I need to explain something. I'll be describing the handstand piece by piece, so that you can better understand the form and technique. But when you train the skill, I want you to put those pieces together in your head. As I said, it's an exercise in total body coordination. Do not get so focused on one part that you confuse yourself and neglect another part. Everything must work together. So read through everything first and try to get an overall sense of the skill.

Oh... and make sure to practice A LOT.

We'll start with the "modern" handstand as a base to jump off. This is a straight handstand that is the standard in gymnastics these days. With your body in a straight line, this is also considered the "cleanest" looking handstand. I'll describe variations as I get to them.

Let's start from the top . . .

The feet

When you first start training, try to keep your toes pointed. Yes, this is mainly for aesthetics. You could still perform a handstand with hook feet, but I feel that when I straighten my toes it helps to line everything up. The feet point upwards; the body flows in that straight, upwards direction.

The legs

When you first begin, you will also find it easier to try and keep your legs straight and together. Keeping them straight will prevent them from flopping around like limp noodles, making things harder to control. Keeping them together will prevent them from flailing about as two different entities. You've got enough on your mind trying to coordinate the rest of your body. So help simplify things and keep those legs together for now!

The torso

The torso is one of the major components that will determine the look of your handstand. As far as your torso is concerned, a straighter handstand is achieved by slightly tensing the abs to keep your body in line. You will get handstands like this:

If you were to relax your abs a bit, let your torso and legs fall towards your backside, and bring out your head (discussed below) then you'd wind up with handstands like this:

Gymnasts back in the day held handstands with this significant curve in their backs. For this reason, I'll call this the "old" style handstand.

As gymnastics changed, the handstand was straightened out for both aesthetic and technical reasons. The modern form allows harder, more complicated gymnastic skills to be performed.

The shoulders

You'll want to really extend and engage the shoulders. This tension will give you greater control. Think of shrugging your shoulders upwards or trying to push into the floor. The difference looks like this:

unshrugged

shrugged

The head and arms

You'll find your head position will be the single greatest factor affecting your back/handstand shape. Why is this? Because the spine follows the head. If you really pull your head out (to look at the ground for instance), then your spine will follow suit and bend. This will give you that banana shape. Try and keep your head between your arms as much as you can. Instead of pulling your head out all the way out to stare at the ground, try to look upwards a bit with just your eyes. This will help to keep your head in and your back straight.

To those familiar with the Brazilian martial art known as Capoeira, the head is brought between the arms even more, so that a Capoeirista can watch his opponent, instead of the ground.

Two capoeiristas square off

a neutral head position allows one to see their opponent.

So you've seen three styles of handstands - modern, old, and capoeira. You may be asking yourself "which is the best?" In the end, none are. They are simply different variations for different situations. Unless you're in a Capoeira roda, or in front of Olympic judges, perform whichever one you want. I use each for different purposes myself.

That being said, I would still recommend that you learn all three. Each variation you try will help you better understand and control the different components of your handstand.

And as for the arms - straight and shoulder width apart for now. Not much else to say about them.

The hands and fingers

I place my hands on the ground like this.

Keep your fingers spread out slightly and facing forwards. This is to allow for the greatest amount of control and stability in the handstand. The fingers are a huge part of controlling the handstand; something I'll explain below.

Training

To start training for the handstand, get yourself a wall. You'll be kicking up against the wall to get use to the position. So put your hands down about a foot away from the wall and kick one leg up. Bring the other leg up to follow, so now you're in a handstand against the wall:

And try to do this so that your feet come to REST on the wall, not slam into it. This kicking will start to teach you the right amount of force you need to kick up into a free standing handstand.

Now that you're in position, try to lightly kick away from the wall into a free handstand. Like so:

toes on the wall

toes off the wall, holding a handstand

If you fall back down to your feet, simply kick back up and try again. If you fall towards your back, the wall will catch you. It's your training wheels. Your back might be a bit arched at the moment, but this is something that can be adjusted later. For the now, you're trying to bring your feet away from the wall and balance the position. This leads us into the essential way to keep balance - the fingers.

Like I mentioned before, your fingers are spread out to give you the most control. Here is where that control comes into play. With the handstand, you are most unstable in one plane - front to back. When you start to feel like you are leaning towards your back, you should press your fingers into the ground and bring yourself back upright.

Now your fingers don't have to do all the work. Remember how I discussed keeping your toes straight, your legs together, and your abs tensed? Well, all this comes together now as you try to balance yourself. If you keep your body under a bit of tension, then your fingers can move this single unit back into a balanced position. If you let everything relax, then it's like trying to stand cooked spaghetti on its end.

Continue tapping away from the wall in this manner until you've got a sense of how to correctly balance yourself. As I said, fingers play a huge role in balancing, but don't forget your legs and midsection to help as well.

Away from the wall

Feeling good so far? Well then get the heck away from the wall! The sooner you drop the "training wheels" the sooner you can develop a solid handstand.

For your first couple (read:hundred) handstands, you'll want to find a relatively open area where you can land safely without kicking something.

Ready? Do you remember how hard you need to kick? Well then, give it a go and get yourself inverted. If you haven't fallen over yet then try to keep yourself upside-down for as long as you can. Feel free to walk around a bit if you need to get your balance.

If you're walking around, your legs may split a bit, your back will probably be arching, and the whole thing in general will look ugly, but you're in a handstand, and that's what matters. Fighting to stay up as long as possible will help build up the strength and balance that you need.

If something goes wrong

I covered this in the handstand press tutorial, but it's critical to describe here. Other than "falling into a heap", there are two ways you'll be getting out of a handstand when you start to fall towards your backside - the roll and the pirouette.

The roll is simply a matter of tucking your chin to your chest, bending your arms slowly, coming down on your UPPER BACK and rolling forward. Please don't piledrive your head into the ground. It's just a simple forward roll out of danger.

When you start off, you'll probably only want to do this where the ground is soft (a lawn) and where you have a bit of space (a lawn).

The second technique is the one I prefer - the pirouette. Here, you'll keep your arms straight throughout and turn your body 90 degrees out of danger. In this picture, I was in a handstand, and began to fall to my backside (the right of the photo).

Now imagine your hands are trying to turn a steering wheel 90 degrees, and turn your body off to the side. And just like you see in the picture, you'll land on your feet, facing your hands. Is this move really that difficult? I don't believe so. I hope I'm not confusing anyone or glossy over the topic. I think it'll make sense to you when you start training.

Both these techniques are greatly preferred over slamming into the ground with a flat back, or trying to put your feet down and landing into a bridge. Trust me.

Saving the handstand

Now if controlling a handstand was like driving a car, the finger pressing and ab tensing, etc, would be the normal turns and microadjustments we make during a ride. The techniques below would be analogous to violently jerking the wheel from side to side.

I'd try not to even read this section until you're handstand is starting to shape up into something you can work with. This is nothing you're going to use regularly as your handstand gets solid, but I figure it's useful to know when you are fighting to stay up.

First is a technique to save a handstand that's falling to your feet. It's a quick bend of the arms that will dip your shoulders and bodyweight forwards a bit, in hopes of saving things.

Please, oh please do not plow your face into the ground. If you don't feel like your arms and shoulders can handle the load, then don't do this. Just fall back to your feet and be no worse the wear.

This next technique is for when you begin to fall towards your backside. By quickly flexing and bending at the waist, you can hopefully shift your bodyweight back over your hands and save yourself.

Both techniques, as you can see, involve a rapid shift in bodyweight. You'll want to develop a good handstand where you won't need to do any of this violent wobbling around. But it's always good to keep in the back of your mind, should the need arise.

So there you are folks, the handstand...

Let me know if something is unclear. For such a fundamental technique, I want everyone to understand and learn the skill. Best of luck with your training.

Simple Handstand Press

2005-03-21T23:37:00.000-05:00

Today we'll look at the handstand press, a relatively simple move that'll put you up into a handstand. We'll be looking at the bent-arm, tucked press which is the easiest of the lot.

Not surprising, you'll need to develop a handstand, then the pressing strength.

If you don't have a handstand, throw yourself up against the wall and practice.

I'll assume that most reading this have a handstand, are working towards one, or know how to work towards one. If demand calls for it though, I'll write up a short piece on working towards a handstand. Eh, I might do that anyway in the future...

When you have a good solid handstand (5-10 seconds at least), then you'll want to start working on the pressing strength to get up into that handstand. Enter, the handstand pushup.

If you can do this up against a wall, then you're almost there. Just work on the exercise and get your reps up to around 5, at least. That way, when you press into a handstand you'll have enough strength to balance yourself, rather than expending all your energy on one press.

Can't quite do the pushups? Well, throw a pillow/cushion under your head and work on lowering yourself down SLOWLY to the ground. Please don't dive head first through your floor!

These negative repetitions will help to build the necessary pressing strength. During these negative reps, you can work on stopping yourself in various positions along the way, as well as pressing back up only a couple inches, instead of the entire way. All these things will help build up your shoulders.

Need something more hardcore? Grab yourself a set of parallettes (like shown below) or two sturdy chairs. Kick up and work on a FULL range handstand pushup. Just like before, if you can't get the full range right now, you can lower yourself down slowly or try pressing up while a few inches above the bottom.

If you do decide to do this, be careful, especially with chairs. You have to kick a bit harder to get your legs up higher and I don't want to hear about anyone putting their feet through their wall.

Another thing I've tried recently is to attach ankle weights to myself and press-up. I've got to start working these on the parallettes or attach a couple weights to my belt, because the weight I have on now (15lbs) isn't that difficult. Just make sure you get into position by getting slowly into a headstand, then pressing up. If you kick up with ankle weights on, you WILL put your feet through your wall!

In any case, it's another idea to work with. But I'm getting ahead of myself. If you can do several regular handstand pushups, you have the necessary strength for this skill.

Now the obvious question people might have is.... can't I just work my military press in the gym? Sure you can. I just like to train as close as possible to what I'm working towards. Working handstand presses against the wall will get you use to pressing upsidedown and even get you prepared for the *gasp* free standing handstand pushup!

So it's your choice really, but that's my preference.

On to the press.

You'll want to get into a tuck position and put your hands out about shoulder width in front of you. Take note that your shoulders are higher than your hips right now.

Now what you're trying to do next is to get your hips higher than your shoulders. We'll do this by bending the arms. There will be tension in your arms and shoulders at this point, as you are now holding your bodyweight in the air. Keep yourself tucked. And despite what it may look like (?) don't rest your knees on your elbows. Your elbows are close by, but provide no support.

In addition, don't bend your arms too much. If you bend them to 90 degrees, you'll mash your face, as you can see below.

But trust me, if you ever do this, you won't the next time. It's a fast learning curve.

Here I've got some old video of myself pressing on the P-bars. Now there's a bit of swing and I'm not in a tuck, but I want you to see how much I bend my arms.

size (599 KB)
shoot me an email if it's not working

If I was to bend my arms too far on this press, I'd either be pressing a much farther distance than necessary, or I'd roll forward. And if you're not prepared for that, it can be messy.

When you've bent your arms to the correct angle (a bit greater than 90 degrees), and your hips are higher than your shoulders, it's time to press up and begin to straighten out your body.

The most important thing I can say here is KEEP YOURSELF TUCKED!

If you open your legs before you reach the position shown above, it's called "planching" the handstand. This means that you're extending into more of a planche position then a handstand position. This is obviously harder, and will probably cause you to fall down and fail the press. Keep yourself tucked until right after this position, then straighten out your arms and legs....

Bam. You're in a handstand. Straighten up the body, as desired.

What to do if something goes wrong

While learning this, even though your handstand may be good, and you're strong enough to press, you'll find linking the two together takes some work. So what do you do when you find yourself overpressing and falling to your back?

I hope you know these safety measures from regular handstand training, but if you don't, here they are. Use them everytime you start to fall towards your back. They are safer than merely slamming yourself back-flat into the ground, or trying to put your feet down and slamming into a bridge (ouch!)

First, you can roll yourself out of trouble. When you feel yourself start to fall, TUCK YOUR CHIN TO YOUR CHEST, and then ROLL OVER YOUR SHOULDERS, NOT YOUR HEAD. It's just a simple forward roll.

(first take, amazing!)

Umm... I'd also recommend trying this where you can roll away safely. The space you see me in is a bit cramped.

The second option, and the absolute best option I recommend if you're working on parallettes, is to pirouette out of trouble.

(first take again, incredible!)

What this entails is turning yourself 90 degrees to one side (the right side in this case) while you push off with the far hand (my left hand in this case). With any luck, you'll land on your feet.

You can see why this technique is ideally suited for the parallettes. If you were to try and roll, you'd end up falling in-between the bars. By turning yourself like this, you can effectively turn yourself out and away from the bars. This will save you some pain.

Of course you can use this on the ground, I actually prefer it to the roll, but know that it's the only technique you'll use if you take things to the bars.

Bonus - L-seat to Handstand Press

Last time we worked the L-seat and I mentioned it would be beneficial to learn the position on your fingertips. This skill is the reason why.

First, you'll start up in the normal L-seat position - on your fingers, of course.

Next, bring your legs back into the tuck position.

Now you'll bring your feet from the front to the back. This is where your fingertips come into play. The extra inch or so that your fingers give you will let you bring your feet around easier. If you can get your feet to the back without this extra clearance, then by all means go ahead, but to those who would otherwise have trouble, just get up on your fingers and see how much easier it is to get into the press position.

Now, I flatten my hands, and I'm ready to press! Nothing to it.

Hope you enjoyed this post. Future posts will be working off the base of skills and exercises shown here. Good luck training until then!

I had to take a short break

2005-03-10T19:06:00.000-05:00

So as I mentioned before, I had a bad case of elbow tendonitis. I gave it a good two weeks of proper rest. I mean, I didn't do so much as a push-up on it. I even gave up squats for that time, since even holding the bar on my back was causing some discomfort. Yes, this all drove me crazy, but it needed to be done.

Well, now my joints feel much better. No more tendonitis flaring up everytime I do a pullup.

So new updates will be coming soon. I've got enough material swimming around in my head for three updates at the least, and that's just for starters. I've just been a bit busy now to put it all down properly. But look for something in the next week.

Stay tuned...

L-seat progression and tricks

2005-02-21T01:41:00.000-05:00

For those completely unfamiliar, this is an L-seat on the rings.

As you can clearly see, the legs are bent at a 90 degree angle to the torso, so that the entire body forms an "L" shape. Hence the name.

I realize that for some reading this page, this is far too basic. Patience! I'm starting from the beginning and will be discussing skills and progressions that should leave everyone busy for quite some time.

But first... training for the L-seat.

The L-seat has no motion to it, and requires very minimal balance. It is a simple skill that is easily acquired by building the necessary strength. What's one of the best exercises for building that strength?

HANGING LEG RAISES!!

Of course, straight legs is more advanced and if you can do a hanging leg raise with straight legs, then you're probably already able to do an L-seat. For those who do not have the strength quite yet, just hang and raise your legs into a tuck. Or you can head to the gym and use one of these machines-

If you are building up your strength with the machine above, make sure you are working your repetitions strictly. Bouncing and swinging your legs up is cheating and is a waste of time. No momentum!

What if you have no pullup bar or regular access to the leg raise machine? No problem. I didn't have all that "fancy" equipment either when first learning an L-seat. You know what I used? The ground! Imagine that.

First, get your hands by your sides and lift yourself off the ground in a tucked position. If this is a struggle, just continue to work on the position until you can easily hold it for an extended length of time.

When holding the tuck becomes simple to do, I want you to work on holding yourself in that same position but up on your fingers instead of a flat palm against the ground.

So while you started off with your hands like this...

You'll now want to work on supporting yourself up on your fingers, like this...

This will build strength up in your fingers and become very helpful in future tutorials (hint hint). Careful not to pop a tendon in your finger though. If your hands are feeling fatigued, do not try supporting yourself on your fingers. And if you feel that there's absolutely no way your could support yourself up on your fingers, then work on finger tip pushups to build up that strength.

When you do have the necessary hand strength, go back and try the tuck position up on your fingers.

The remainder of the progression will be shown up on fingertips.

So now that you've gotten the tuck position, we'll extend a leg out to put more stress on the muscles.

Make sure to switch off legs to build strength evenly.

And of course, the next step after that is the L-seat itself.

Your legs should be straight, and this should be a pretty easy position to hold. If your legs are bent and/or you are shaking to hold the position, then take a step back and work some more on the previous positions. If your body is leaning real far back to hold the position, you also need to take a step back. The torso should be perpendicular with the floor.

Quite simple, right?

Below are a couple fun tricks you can do with the L-seat, and below that we have some skills that will take you beyond the L-seat.

For these L-seat tricks, you'll want to get back down on your flat palms.

This is for the safety of the fingers, which would most likely be injured due to the stress and motion that would be placed upon them. To repeat and restate - You should not try these tricks up on your fingertips!

L-seat walking
Now that you're an expert on the L-seat, get up into the position and try walking forward. You'll find it easiest to keep your arms straight and simply lean back and forth while moving your hands forward. Like a waddle of sorts. I also find it helpful to keep my wrists glued up at my side - right along the point where your glutes meet your hamstrings. This is a killer on your midsection if you try to go for any appreciable distance.

The two most important lessons to learn from this trick:
1. Keep your wrists glued to your sides
2. Move by leaning your body weight from one side to another - a shift from side to side.

This will all become very helpful to you as you try...

The L-seat turn
The L-seat turn is a skill where you change the direction you are facing while in an L-seat. This is one of my favorites because you can get some considerable speed on the ground. It's just a matter of learning to shift and control your body.

While you can just turn yourself 90 degrees or 180 if you want, I find it much more fun to spin around in continuous circles. With a path looking something like this. (view from above)

Now, you could move yourself around in this path by taking short choppy steps, similar to the L-seat walking, but if you want to really nail this skill and fly around the circle, you'll need to take more sweeping steps.

What this will require though, is that you really lean over as you step around. So if you look back at the diagram, things will go something like this.

1. push off your left hand and lean over your right. swing your legs in a clockwise direction at the same time.
2. as your left hand comes back down to the ground, push off with your right, lean to your left, and continue swinging your legs around.
3. as your right hand comes back down, push off with your left and repeat the process.

Piece of cake. It'll just take you a bit of time to get use to the amount of body lean you need. Too much and you'll put yourself on your side. Too little and you won't move enough with each hand switch.

How far along the circle should you be moving each time? Well, you could easily move 1/4 of the circle each time. I know this because this skill can also be performed on the parallel bars.

A 180 degree L-seat turn on the P-bars would look like this:

Just like the previous L-seat turn described, this is going in a clockwise direction as well. Your hands will start on the two black dots at the bottom. You'll push off with your left hand and swing your body to the right. As your left hand lands and you are on a single rail of the P-bars, you'll then push off with your right hand and land it on the other rail - effectively turning yourself 180 degrees.

That tip I gave you earlier - keeping your wrists glued to your side - comes in very handy here. By keeping your body tight to your wrists, you will be using the hand and wrist as a solid base and pivot point. As confusing as this sounds now, it'll clear itself up for you as soon as you give it a try.

For further clarification, I was able to track down and copy a video of myself doing an L-seat turn on the P-bars. This is from the end of the year performance.

(size 2.05 mb)

If you look at the still shot above, you can see the body lean that I previously discussed. I've just pushed off with my left hand and I'm leaning over my right hand and wrist. I'm also going a full 360, but you shouldn't have any trouble applying my diagram to a 360 turn.

Beyond the L-seat
The skills that extend from the L-seat are fairly obvious. . . and increasingly difficult. They are...

The V-seat

and

The Manna

I have not begun dedicated training towards either one, but you can clearly see the importance of flexibility for both skills. Hamstring flexibility is vital for both, and shoulder flexibility looks to be a major component of the Manna.

Have fun with the L-seat ... and goodluck if you work towards those skills beyond it!

Tendon Strength

2005-02-13T23:13:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, I've been spending the past several weeks in recovery from elbow tendonitis.

An increase in my one arm chin-up training left my joints screaming and even a simple two arm chin-up was a pain. I'll give the one arm chin training at least another week's rest, but I'm back to most other exercises.

I figure now is a good time to speak of the basics of tendon injury and strength. This will probably be a very basic review for some, but I hope to educate others who are not as familiar.

What is a tendon?

A tendon, simply put, is what attaches your muscles to your bones. In the picture above, you can clearly see the relationship between the three. As the muscle contracts, it pulls on the tendon, which moves the bone.

Importance of tendon strength

If we understand the relationship between muscle, bone, and tendon - we can see the importance of strengthening the tendons. To make an analogy, imagine your muscles are your car engine, and your tendons are the tires. Now you may have a lot of horses under the hood, but if your tires aren't good enough, then you're not transferring as much power as possible. The whole system needs to be strong.

So let's look about a bit more at the muscles and tendons.

First, here is detail of the muscle

The muscle is composed of groups of muscle fibers. When one trains to increase the size of ones muscles (hypertrophy), the muscle fibers increase in size. While a larger muscle definitely helps generate force, it is not always indicative of true strength.

For example, a bodybuilder's main goal is to increase this muscle hypertrophy all over his body. Are bodybuilders the strongest athletes out there? Certainly not. My love and respect to Schwarzenegger, he's very strong, but his training was for muscle growth, not necessary raw strength - such as a powerlifter or olympic lifter trains for. It's just a different training goal, that's all. And don't even get me started on these bloated bodybuilding freaks of today...

There are plenty of Olympic weightlifters who look nothing like bodybuilders, but who toss monstrous amounts of weight up over their heads.

Looking good for a bodybuilding competition may suit some, but if you want muscle that will work as well as it looks, then you've got to strengthen the tendons to be able to transfer the power. Again, don't take me wrong, bodybuilders are still very strong, but pound for pound, you can't beat the weightlifters.

Difference in Training

Generally speaking, weighttraining workouts that advocate higher numbers of reps and sets for far less than maximal weights will promote hypertrophy and work the tendons to a lesser degree.

To stress the tendons, heavier, near maximal weights for less repetitions should be used.

Some places, like the hand, absolutely require strong tendons for staggering feats of strength. This is because hypertrophy in the hand will occur, but only to a limited degree. It's the tendons that must be stressed and strengthened to create incredible power.

My hand strength training has never consisted of high repetitions with lower weights. This is why Ironmind created the Captains of Crush high spring tension grippers. It's high tension that will build hand strength, not endless repetitions with a weak store gripper.

Tendon injury and recovery

When training with higher poundage, we must remember the stress put on the tendons and allow for adequate recovery. This is especially true of the hands, which can be injured easily and which take a long time to come back from injury. Lower weight, extremely repetitive actions can also cause tendon damage. (think tennis elbow or carpal tunnel)

My training mistake for the OAP involved using a high poundage (only 15lbs assistance) and a bit too many sets (2-3 repetitions for 6 sets). Especially when training something like the OAP, where so much force is focused on the elbow joint, I should have used less sets and allowed for my body to adapt over more time, rather than rush things. Live and learn though...

Tendon injury will be felt at the joints, as opposed to along the limb, as in muscle soreness. Tendon injury also takes much longer to heal than muscle damage (soreness) due to the lower blood flow. It therefore requires more rest and rehabilitation to be back at 100%.

At the time of injury, it is the smartest course of action to inact the R.I.C.E. treatment - Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. In other words, you'll want to stop the activity, wrap an ice pack around it, and take some anti-inflammatory medicine (ibuprofen). There's research looking into whether RICE really is the best method for recovery for tendon injuries, but until otherwise noted, slap on the ice and pop an ibuprofen.

During the follow days and weeks of recovery, you'll want to avoid the activity that caused the tendonitis. You can use heat pads and massage to get the blood flowing through the tendons and speed healing. Some very light range of movement exercises for the joint with bands will also help to move some blood through the area. But the number one thing that you can do to make sure things heal up properly is REST. If you try and jump into your activities again full bore, you just reinjure yourself and have to start back from square one. And under no circumstance should you be trying to "work through the pain". This only serves to keep your tendon injury around much longer, and most likely elevate its severity until you'll need more than heat and rest to come back.

In other news...

Onto better news, my one arm handstand is coming along nicely. I'm training it in my room now, with little fear of tossing over to one side and putting my foot through a window.

Right now my training is focusing on the planche and these one arm skills - one arm lever, one arm handstand, and one arm chin (soon). I have been working my overhead pressing strength and will begin training for a one arm handstand pushup. This will be against the wall, of course, but if I can train it alongside my freestanding one arm handstand, then maybe I'll be able to combine the two for a freestanding, one arm handstand pushup!! (one can dream)

The elbow injury did get me back on a better stretching routine, which is absolutely essential if I ever hope to start training flairs or a V-seat.

Speaking of lower body, I've continued to make great progress in my squats. When I can bump my working set up 10 more pounds, I'm going to put down the iron and start up a plyometric training program. I ran track in high school so my legs have always been quick and I've had a good vertical, but I feel a concentrated jumping program should have me grabbing some basketball rim!! Yes, me, a 5'8" guy could some day be dunking! Once again, one can dream...

I'll finish up the L-seat tutorial and try to post it sometime this week. That will precede the handstand press tutorial, and then I'll smash the two together for an L-seat to handstand press demonstration, per your request.

Good luck to everyone with their training, stay safe and injury-free!

Start With The Back Lever

2005-01-23T16:53:00.000-05:00

In the ranking of strength skills on rings, on a scale from A to E, the back lever sits at the A level. This means it is one of the easiest strength skills to perform. That being said, it should also be one of the first skills you master. Especially if you are working towards higher level skills like the front lever (B level) and planche (C level). The back lever builds upper body strength and teaches the important skills of total body tension and coordination.

Alright, square one . . .

First, you'll grab the bar (or rings), get into a tuck, and invert yourself. Simple enough.

Continue bringing your feet over your head until you can get in the position shown above. For those who never did this as a kid, this exercise is called "skin the cat".

You'll want to then bring your feet and legs back up over your head to get back to the start. When you first start this exercise, you will want to stay tucked as you bring your legs up and down. As you get stronger, work on keeping your legs straight and moving your piked body back and forth.

Soon you'll get strong enough to start trying some positions. Whichever position you choose to work on, I find it helpful to straighten my body as soon as possible. On the rings, this is simply achieved by getting into an inverted straight hang. With a pullup bar, you have a bar and doorframe to contend with, so simply straighten like in the picture above.

If you feel ready, try lowering down into a one-legged back lever. Having one leg tucked-in will take some of the weight off the skill. This position feels a bit odd in comparision to a regular back lever, but it is easier.

If the one-legger gets too easy, just straighten yourself out and lower down into a back lever. I find it easiest when I look at my feet as I lower down, so I can see when I'm horizontal. After you level out, just pick up your head and look forward.

In performing any of these exercises or skills, make sure you land on your feet when you drop off the bar or rings. Smashing into the ground face-first isn't fun for anybody except the people watching. So don't do it. Land safe.

Other that that, the most important tip I can give you for performing the back lever, is to lock your back and arms together. Below, anatomy man will show you the muscles that you should be fusing together.

By keeping things tight, you will create tension in your upper body and recruit the large muscles in your back, instead of just your arm muscles.

I've tried to demonstrate the difference in muscle tension in the following pictures.

In this picture above, I am using my arm muscles when holding the bar, but I'm am not using my back muscles as greatly as I can.

Here, I have flexed my arms and back muscles to create tension in my entire upper body. As I said, it should feel like your arms are locked to your lats (your latissimus dorsi, your wings, your back!!). So in the end, this is what your back lever should look like if shot from above. Use as many muscles as you can. Why make it difficult by only using your arms?

The back lever really isn't that hard to get down. If you already have a bit of pull up and dip strength, you might be able to pull off this skill at first go.

Good luck!

The Progression of Things

2005-01-17T21:33:00.000-05:00

First, my front lever is much more solid now. It use to be a strain and struggle to hold one. No longer...

a shot from the back

and

a shot from the front

I've been jumping up into a front lever just about every time I went through my door. No long workouts, just short, frequent ones. The constant repetition helped tremendously in strengthening the skill. I can actually say I have a front lever now.

My one arm handstand has become the forgotten child.

I don't tend to practice this too much at home due to the very real risk of injury when I fall over to one side. Therefore, I only work on it at my gym in the matted room... with plenty of space. In any case, I'm seeing a bit of progress and my current state has me up on one hand with a one finger assist.

It's always tempting to snap my assisting hand up to my hip and try and hold a one arm handstand in practice. While this generally gives me a short-held o.a.h., it's not going to give me a solid one! If I can gradually lower the assistance needed from that finger, until I can curl up my hand off the ground into a fist, then I'll have it solid.

What am I aiming for? CHECK THIS OUT. This guy holds a one arm handstand for an easy 10 seconds. The video is from style2ouf, a french breaking site with some incredible clips.

Guess that creates a good segue into a video of my straddle planche attempts. Like the last video, it'll only be hosted for a week.

(size 17.1 mb)

I filmed this on Jan. 6th when I was able to wrestle my work camera back to my place. The film is crappy, but you can see my current state of planche training. I still don't know where my hips and legs are, and the straddle planches are shaky, but there's something there! There is definitely something there. It's been such a long fight, so I'll take what I can get. I think if I start training this skill like the front lever - with a shorter number of reps more frequently - it will really help to bring things along.

OAP training took a bit of a blow this past weekend. The skill feels like a real grind, so I figured I would work on my endurance for the one arm chin, so I increased assistance to 15 lbs. With this assistance, I'm training to get 5 reps. When I can get 5 reps, I'll drop the assistance down to 10 lbs, etc...

Well, I got a bit overzealous since the reps were easier. Too many sets later, I still felt ok. But two days later when I went to do some regular chin ups?? Oh man, the elbows started screaming!! Tendonitis, damn. I tried some more chins today and the elbows still yelled a bit. Things are getting better, but I have to watch myself closer now. No more all-night one arm chin workouts. I'll still work for 5 reps, but I'll keep the sets at a much lower number.

On a positive note, my regular chins feel weightless. And my one arm assisted chins are definitely moving faster than before.

I've been very pleased with my hand strength training. Here is a picture of my #2 close.

Hmm, well you'll have to trust me that it's a #2.

I first closed a #2 a few weeks ago, but some KTA training has me smashing it consistently now - even with my left hand. I even no-set closed it with my right hand! For those unfamiliar with the grippers, a set is assistance from the non-closing hand so that you can get all your fingers around the gripper. The set puts your fingers in a better position and gives you a bit of a headstart on the close. When I can no-set the #2 consistently with both my hands, I'll start up another cycle of KTA training to mash my beef builder super master gripper - it's about a 2.5 in terms of difficulty.

If you have any sort of interest in training your grip, please check out the gripboard in my links section to the right. It's free to register and is home of some of the strongest hands in the world.

What else has my hand strength gotten me? How about some airtime under a 40 pound block weight!

I finally picked it up this past week.

This is a training breakthrough that's very exciting for me. That 40 lb chunk of metal had been glued to the ground for far too long. I had been working two handed lifts with the block, as well as some assisted one hand lifts. KTA training had strengthened my hands, and I have been doing some additional thumb work after I stopped the KTA. It's the thumb work that I feel really helped push my hand strength over the edge. So grab those pony clamps and get training!!

A Video! and more chair handstands...

2005-01-11T22:58:00.000-05:00

I was able to make this quick video of myself demonstrating and briefly explaining the chair handstand. The video is grainy, the sound is iffy, and my ad-libbing leaves something to be desired, but it should clarify the entire process I outlined in my last post.

(size 20.8 mb)

Due to the way in which I'm hosting this video, it'll only be available for one week. If you really want to see the video after that time, just shoot me an e-mail.

This next picture is a shot of me doing a chair handstand on a "high stack". It's just three chairs stacked on top of each other. I'd only try this trick with those particular chairs, because they are identical, sturdy, and have flat tops and bottoms.

And despite what every single spectator said, they are not held together in any way. Oh yee of little faith...

I hope this shows that the chair handstand - and perhaps any skill I mention on this page - is as much a matter of mental control as physical. There's really no difference between a handstand on a high stack and one on the ground. Only your mind makes the distinction and creates the fear.

This next picture is a skill called "the illusion". I tried to describe it in a previous post, but this picture will do a better job explaining. It's what I'm doing in my profile pic (the pics are same event, a year apart).

It's easy to see that my left hand has a straight shot to the ground, so that the seat of that top chair is completely unnecessary. If you want to give this a shot, start by putting another chair under the front legs of the top one, then work on tilting the top chair off that support chair. Or better yet, ask me. I won't throw up anymore about the illusion unless there's demand for it.

Whatever you do, do not... please do not try the illusion unless your regular chair handstand is spot on perfect. Another chair and two more feet in height can really hurt you in a fall.

And finally... the double illusion. You can see the idea of the single illusion taken to another level (literally!). I'm the top dude on the left side.

I've seen pictures of professional performing groups have 7 or 8 people in one of these illusion poses. They make the chairs smaller as you get to the top, and the lean is greater to fit everyone in. It looks pretty amazing!

Whew, that's enough chair handstands for awhile now. I'll make another post regarding my training progression in a day or two. I also hope to put together a few more tutorials soon. Good luck to everyone with their training.

Handstands on Chairs

2005-01-03T10:15:00.000-05:00

Performing a handstand on a chair is one of my favorite skills to do. Not surprisingly, it's also the skill I'm most requested to do. A handstand on the floor is impressive to many people, and handstand pushups even more so - but as soon as you throw a familiar object into the mix, people tend to pay a bit more attention. Everyone is familiar with a chair, and the thought that someone could press a handstand on one seems impossible.

Physical Prerequisites:
First, you should be able to hold a solid handstand before you even look at a chair. I'm not talking about a 3 second hold, I'm talking about a 30 second hold. Each and every handstand you do on the ground should be in control, and you should be able to come down on your feet in control from every handstand.

Having a press handstand is tremendously helpful, although not entirely essential. The ability to do handstand pushups is also a great help. The more arm and shoulder strength you have, the easier this should be.

I'm laying out these physical requirements because I want anyone who tries this skill to be ready and safe. You must remember that this is not a handstand on the ground. Whereas you might fall forward onto your head and shoulders when learning a regular handstand, this is not an option on the chair. Everytime you come down, you should be in control.

Training Precautions:
1. Start up against a wall, just like learning a regular handstand. Chances are that you aren't use to the arm position and things will feel a bit odd. The wall will help should you need it.

2. Use a sturdy chair. I'm using a folding chair in the pictures below, but I'd consider that slightly advanced. You want to start with a solid wood chair with a back that is not too high. If the chair back is too high, your bent arm will be crammed up against your body and the handstand will be much more difficult, if not impossible. You also don't want to use a chair that may fall to pieces while you're upside-down on top of it.

3. Clear things away from you. Yes, I realize that I'm in the middle of my room with weights, computer, bed, and/or windows to kick, but I have tremendous confidence in my technique. When you first try this skill, your technique might need some work. Clear a space around you for safety's sake.

4. Look out above! Some forget that they will be trying a handstand a couple feet off the ground. If you have low ceiling or light work above you, find another place. Some may not appreciate footprints on their ceilings either.

5. Come down safely. When you are lowering yourself back down to your feet, try to do so in a controlled fashion. This will prevent any stupid injuries caused by slamming back down into the chair and then tossing yourself backwards onto the floor. In the event that you lean too far forward/left/right and start to fall, pirouette while holding onto the chair so that you can land on your feet standing.

Alright, now that the disclaimer is over, onto the skill.

The first important detail is proper hand placement.
Your hands will be a bit off-center. If you picture the chair as a square, then your hands will be on opposite corners. This placement is essential for balance and control. If you place your hands in the middle like you are lining up a regular handstand, then balance will be difficult.

Make sure that the hand that is on the back of the chair is the closest one to you. That arm will be bent during the handstand, so it needs to be back close to you.

The hand that is on the seat of the chair will be further away from you. Grab around the front of the seat for greater control. This arm will be straight during the handstand, so make sure the palm is well on the chair for a solid base.

If it feels more comfortable, you can spin the chair around and switch hand positions. The right hand would then be closer to you and the left arm farther away. I'd actually suggest practicing both ways to keep your strength balanced, but it's very likely that you'll develop a favorite side.

We'll now start off with the basic way to get up into a handstand. While keeping the hand placement described above, squat up onto the chair.

The next step is where your feet leave the terra firma and things can get dangerous. If you already have a solid press handstand, this step should be self-explanatory. Press up with this different hand placement.

If you do not have a press handstand, or it is not that solid yet, you may want to try straightening your knees to get your hips up, then extending into a handstand and/or giving a slight hop to get your hips up. I have not personally used this technique, but a number of girls capable of doing this skill have described it to me.

Whichever method you use, make sure that your legs remain tucked close to your body. If you try and extend into a handstand before your hips are over your head, then you'll be "planching" the handstand and the weight of your legs will bring you down. Lift your hips completely, then extend your legs.

If all went according to plan, you are now in a handstand on top of the chair. I like to think of the straightened arm as a solid base where I am placing more of my weight. My other arm is bent to 90 degress and works on control. Of course it has some weight on it, but it should be less than the straightened arm, so that it doesn't tire out quickly. Understand the role of each arm? Base and Control. It'll make more sense when you're there.

When you are done, just reverse the steps. Tuck your legs in first. Then lower your hips, land in a squat on the chair, and step off. If you fail to tuck your legs and simply fall down out of the handstand, you run a good risk of smashing your shins into the chair. I've seen this happen plenty of times. This is why I ask you to be in control of both the handstand, and coming down out of the handstand. You're not entirely safe until you get down, step down off the chair, unplug your computer and stop trying crazy things you read on the internet ;)

Too easy you say?

Need more of a challenge?

Try pressing into a handstand while you're sitting on the chair. If you try this at your next social soiree, I guarantee you'll be the talk/weirdo of the night.

Instead of a squating onto the chair, you're simply going to twist your body and reach one arm between your legs to grab the chair, and another one behind you to grab the back. You're striving for the same exact hand placement as the first method, except now you've got the rest of your body in the way.

Next, start pressing so that your hips start to lift off the seat. You'll have to tuck that trapped leg (my left leg in this case) so that it'll clear over the chair seat.

It's just a basic press from there, same as the last one. Bam. You're upside-down.

Now if you want to finish things off with style, come back down the same way you got up. This will require a controlled descent until you can split your legs and straddle your posting arm. In the last few inches, while your butt is hovering over the seat, turn yourself into the proper sitting position. Touch down, then let go of the chair and cross your leg up on your knee. Smooth.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. The chair handstand is a lot of fun and not too hard once you get the hang of it. And I can predict with absolute certainty that someone will ask you to do this, once they find out you can. Stay safe!

Hope you guys had a great holiday season and a happy new year. Goodluck to everyone with their 2005 goals!

Holy Straddle Planche Batman!!!

2004-12-23T01:04:00.000-05:00

Three cheers for digital cameras!! No sooner did I post about my difficulties with the straddle planche, then I decided to give it another go and use the digital camera to see my exact body position.

Lo and behold, on one of the first shots, I see this!

What a site to see! Although. . . where's my head???

I took several more pictures with different camera positions. Most were a better shot of my ceiling or my bed, than anything I was doing. With a bit more trial and error and some dumb luck, I was finally able to get some decent shots.

a little high for my taste, not quite as level as the first.

Better, legs still look a bit high.

Eh, a bit too low now.

Alright, now I'm just too tired.

After this fiasco, and the crooked one legged planche shots previously taken (the camera rested on a pile of pillows), I'll just ask for my girlfriend's help in picture taking.

But I digress.

This time around, I just leaned forward and pressed into the straddle planche instead of lowering down. I think it was easier because I was not wasting energy balancing in a handstand from the start. Each was held for a solid 2-3 seconds on average.

Most importantly, I pinpointed the root problem I have with my straddle planche - I don't know where my legs and hips are!!! Of course I'm trying to level my body out, but since I'm exerting maximum effort (and things get worse when I get tired), I just don't have adequate awareness of where I am in space.

Interestingly enough, I always thought my efforts looked like the last picture in the line. I was flexing my lower back so much, that I was sure my hips were far too low. But apparently, this was not the case.

It was all pretty exciting, and I know now that I can use the straddle planche in training. I'll still focus on the advanced tuck and one legged planche, as I can hold those longer. In addition, I'll start focusing on the advanced tuck pushups with more gusto now. When I improve my time on those skills, I'll improve my hold on the straddle planche and be able to control my hip level.

And once the straddle is mastered, it's just a hop, skip, and jump to a full planche, right? hello? hmmm.

EDIT: I'm hoping to catch a video of this in the very near future. I may not be holding it for any considerable time, but even a short video removes the doubt of photo trickery.

A New Path Towards the Planche

2004-12-18T09:03:00.000-05:00

In my planche training, I've seen pictures and read about the straddle planche. I've even lowered down into one on some parallettes. But in all my training, it's never felt comfortable trying to hold one, or even get into the position.

For the visual learners, here is a great picture of a straddle planche:

Note - this is not me. Although, I'd say the resemblance is uncanny!

So my problems with a straddle planche - It's my hips, I think. I'm just too inflexible in my hips!! Flexibility has never been my strong suit, so until I start a dedicated program for working towards my splits, I'll have to find another way to get to the planche.

Enter. . .

The One Legged Planche

This planche position felt great. It was a little bit harder than the advanced tuck position, but still felt very strong. My hips are a bit higher than I'd like, but I think this is on account of my tucked leg. Straightening of the bent leg should help me flatten my back out more. In the very least, my extended foot is in line with my shoulders and head. Holding the position for the camera was not that difficult, it was trying to fit my entire body in the shot!

Speaking of the spatial limitations of my room, I also like this one legged planche because I'm not kicking things, as with the straddle planche.

It's obvious that the progression for this one legged planche is to slowly extend the tucked leg until the two are together and I'm in a fullout planche.

Interestingly enough, I've been working a similar position for the front lever. Instead of trying a straddle front lever to work up to the front lever, I simply extended one leg and varied the extension of the second leg. If it worked for the front lever, why not the planche?

After the shot above, I met up with a friend of mine and his brand new kettlebells. For those unfamiliar, kettlebells look like this:

Cannonballs with handles.

I'd heard the praises of these weights for quite some time. But still, I wasn't sure if swinging or clean & jerking a kettlebell would be far superior to doing the same with a dumbbell. I mean, it's just a change in handle position, right?

Wrong.

I guess I should've known, as I was first surprised at the simplicity and effectiveness of the block weight (see my home gym post)
Anyway, the kettlebell is absolutely incredible for swings. If I used one for nothing else, it would make the cost worth it. They're much easier to grab with two hands for swings, and much more resilient to the inevitable dropping that will occur. They'll generally smash into the ground bottom down, so there's little chance the handle is going to break off. Swinging and catching from hand to hand was great fun, as was turning the kettlebell over in the air and recatching. Even using a 16 kg (35.2 lb) kettlebell for swings, as light as it was, felt great and really got the blood flowing.

My buddy had a 16 kg, 24 kg (52.8 lbs), and 32 kg (70.4 lbs) kettlebell that we used to crater the grass outside my gym. Clean & jerks, snatches, and shoulder presses felt great with these kbs. And I learned of the "bottom-up" press. You simply grab the kettlebell like you're going to shoulder press it, but you keep the ball above your hand. You have to grip hard and feel the balance in order to press the kettlebell and not have it come back down on your forearm.

After the quickest hour and 1/2 workout of my life, I headed back home and snapped this picture:

Fantastic to see that I'm consistently hitting the same position. I'm looking forward to see the progress I can make with this new position.

Active Recovery

2004-12-15T16:42:00.000-05:00

Finished up a week of KTA training this past Saturday. I'm mashing the #2 again. The high volume gripper work leaves your hands with a soreness not regularly felt. The best solution for this? Contrast baths!

It goes as follows:

Get yourself two buckets, fill one with water as hot as you can stand, and the other with cold water and a couple trays of ice cubes.

Stick your hands in the hot water. Open and close, stretch and crack them for about 2 minutes. Take them out of the hot water and put them into the cold water for 2 minutes. Switch back and forth several times.

At the end of it all, your hands might look something like this:

Nice and red from all the blood flowing through them. This will take the ache away and allow your hands to get stronger.

This whole concept is referred to as active recovery. The theory of active recovery is to help your body along in its natural process of healing itself. You may often hear someone say that the body doesn't get stronger when you work out, but when you rest. This is very true. Only with rest can the body adequately recuperate and recover. Anything you can do to help the recovery process will only help to make you stronger.

For other body parts, try a bit of light stretching or light work with bands. Both will get blood rushing to the area without breaking down and taxing the system. The idea is to help circulation, not to get in another workout.

If you're not thinking about recovery, then you're wasting a lot of time that you could use to get stronger. So grab some buckets, grab some bands, and get to it!

Home Gymnastics and The Front Lever

2004-12-08T22:02:00.000-05:00

My front lever isn't that good at this moment in time, so I was happy to grab the doorframe the other day and hit this:

And from the other angle it looks like this:

I've got to chalk this up to my slightly bent arms though, because my front lever on a pullup bar with straigher arms isn't quite this strong yet. Regardless of that all, it was a fun skill to grip the doorframe and hover horizontally in my kitchen for a bit.

And while we're on the subject of front levers, how about some pics for inspiration?

In this first one, we've got Brad Johnson working a one arm front lever. He has a kettlebell in his one hand, what weight I can't recall. When I get around to pulling some pictures off of videos, I'll post up a front lever of his that he performs on some ceiling rafters. Absolutely amazing hand and body strength!!

And this second picture is the from another person who inspires me, John Gill.
Here is his classic one arm lever picture:

The front lever is actually rated the same difficulty as the iron cross in gymnastics, but it doesn't get nearly as much pomp and circumstance as its brother. Despite that, it's still a fun skill to work at and as you can see from my pictures above, can be performed around the house.

If you haven't seen it already, Coach Sommer has an excellent progression for the front lever here. (Planche training too!)

The Planche, part 2

2004-12-06T22:51:00.000-05:00

Posted my tuck planche pic (seen below) up on the Dragondoor forum. A much better response than I anticipated!! I got "excellent progress" "nice!" and "I'm envious".

This type of strength training tends to keep me to myself, so I think I lose a bit of perspective as to my progress. I have come a long way!! But I know I've still got a ways to go. The challenge is the appeal for me. Setting an impossible goal and reaching it. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it...

On the hand strength front, I've started up another cycle of KTA training, or Kinney Training Applied. It's a workout plan developed after Joe Kinney's training methods. Joe was the first man on earth to close the Ironmind #4 gripper. It takes an estimated 365 pounds of force to close that #4 gripper. I have one. . . . it feels like a brick. I can currently close the #2 gripper, or about 195lbs of force.

These grippers are heavy duty. The approx. strength of each is as follows:
Trainer - 100lbs
#1 - 140lbs
#2 - 195lbs
#3 - 280lbs
#4 - 365lbs

They can all be purchased at ironmind.com. There's even a "guide" and "sport" gripper which take about 60 and 80 lbs to close, respectively.

With the KTA I'm planning on closing the #3 sometime next year. Quite reasonable, I think.

My Home Gym

2004-12-05T17:33:00.000-05:00

While I was taking a picture of my planche progress, I figured I'd snap a shot of my exercise equipment.

Hmm, seems a little hard to see, but I'll try and describe what's there.

The dumbbells in front with white handles are my thick handled adjustable dumbbells. The white is merely a section of PVC pipe I picked up from a hardware store and slipped over the existing handles. The thicker handle works the grip everytime you pick it up. I like to use these dbs for everything from one arm snatches to hammer curls.

To the left of the dumbbells is some blue ankle weights. Great for hanging leg raises. Since they have removable 1/2 pounds weights inside, I can even use the ankle weights for microloading various exercises.

The other piece of white behind the ankle weights is a piece of my very large parallettes (made from pvc pipe). They're hidden under the black sheet from my bed, but they're as long as my bed and about a foot high. Good for handstand pushups and such.

The center square of black is some compressed foam workout flooring I picked up. It's pretty cheap for a couple squares. Three squares sit there in the middle, while I've got a fourth one that I move around my floor depending on need.

Sitting on the black foam is different weight plates. I picked these up for a song at some yard sale awhile back. Never ever bother paying full price for weight plates. Someone is always selling their weight set somewhere. Honestly. It's a universal constant.

The white circle in the middle is my ab wheel. A piece of equipment that comes very cheap. Don't spend more than $10 for one, and I've even seen them as low as $5. It's a fantastic piece of equipment. After reading some work on the ab wheel by Brad Johnson, I've split the two wheels apart to make a mini-axle. Now I can grab the axle in the middle and do one are ab wheel work as well.

The grey chunk to the right of the ab wheel is one of my 40lb "block weights". You simply take a dumbbells (80lber in that case) and you hacksaw off the heads. You're left with a chunk of metal that you can hopefully pick up from the top with your hand. It's an amazing hand strengthener. I've got two 40 lbers (an 80 cut up) and two 25 lbers (a 50 cut up).

Small mirror behind the whole pile of things. Picked that up for free. It helps for planche training because I can look into it and see the height of my hips.

Above the mirror are my CoC grippers. They are some heavy-duty grippers that increase to some insane poundages. I've got the the trainer, #1 - #4 CoC grippers, as well as a Beef Builder Super Master, which is about a "2.5" on the CoC scale of grippers. I mashed the #2 a couple months ago, but put down the grippers for a bit to focus on the one arm chin. I hope to mash the #3 in the coming year.

Above the grippers on the wall is a shelf with various grip-related items. A powerball, some chinese therapy balls, some rubber bands to put around my fingers and open my hand (works the back of the hand), some pony spring clamps to work the thumb, some pumice stone to grind down callouses, and some decks of cards for tearing.

On the right in front, is a sledgehammer which is fantastic for levering. Check out Eric Godfrey's page regarding sledge hammer levering.

Behind that is an old whey protein container. I keep bent nails in it. A blue-lided tupperware container with chalk sits on top.

And behind that on the cinder block is a box of the nails I'm currently bending - 60d timber ties. I haven't gone on a serious bending streak for quite some time, but I can still "U" a timber tie.

On top of the timber ties is my set of rings from ring training. These things are great. Real easy to set up and I can even use them on my pullup bar at home.

Above that, where the floating softball resides, is a hanger with chains, stretch bands, jump rope, weight belt, and some towels. The softball (and a baseball out of view) have an eye hook drilled into them. I string some length of chain through some weight plates and hook the softball/baseball on the chain as a handle. Pick up the weights with the softball/baseball, voila, easy grip strengthener.

Out of view are a swiss exercise ball (the girlfriend picked it up, I like it though!), and a bucket of rice. Stick your hand in elbow-deep into the rice and stir it around with just the fist (break at the wrist) it'll burn your forearms up. There's also a wrist roller, and a piece of wood with a chain for working my pinch grip. And finally, I've got a small peg board like you use to have in elementary school. It's just waiting to be mounted.... maybe the next place I live!

Now here's a piece of invaluable equipment... my pull up bar.

I've got a couple towels drapped over it for towel chins, as well as a 12' piece of rope. By tying one end of the rope to some weight plates and grabbing the other side of the rope near the bar, I can work my assisted chins. If I pull too hard on the rope (for too much assistance) then the weights go up, my assisting hand goes down and I go nowhere.

When I say I'm "10lbs away" from a one arm chin, this is what I mean. One arm grabs the bar, the other grabs the rope with 10lbs on the other end. Simple, yet effective.

Oh boy, what a long post. But it gives you a look at what I've got in my tiny 10x10 room. My equipment hardly takes up 3 square feet of floor space. You can shape your home gym to what you need, but don't think it requires a separate wing onto your house. You can get a pretty darn good workout from just an adjustable dumbbell.

PLANCHE CHALLENGE!!!

2004-12-05T09:48:00.000-05:00

Someone posted a planche challenge up on the Dragon Door Training Forum. He was working towards a planche, hadn't seen too many planche pictures, and thought posting some progress pics would be just the thing to kick him along.

I was game for this, as I've been working towards the planche and could use a bit of competition in the matter. So here is my current state of planche training.

It's called the "advanced tuck planche" and the defining characteristic is my flattened back. Once I can hold this for a fair amount of time (30 some secs) I can start to extend my legs into a straddle planche.

I've also lowered down into a straddle planche on some parallettes before, but this felt like maximal effort (as my eyes were about to explode) and not useful at this state for training. I'll be working the advanced tuck for the time being.

We'll all be in this to motivate each other and eventually hit a planche. Even in such a seemingly individual pursuit, teamwork still has its place.

OAP update
Cranked some dead hangs one arm chins with just my other pinky finger over the bar for assistance. Also did the same thing with my ring finger, which the girlfriend informs me is even weaker. This was on friday. Saturday I went to my favorite hole in the wall to work out and ran into my buddy Jeff. We jumped up on the bar and hit some one arm chins with a small hop.

I'm telling you, it's only a matter of time now. Those little hop one arm chins were cake. I would catch the bar with only the slightest of bends in my arm. I think it's merely the fact that I'm moving and have that initial momentum that makes the skill easier than the one arm dead hang chin.

Anyways, I was rewarded with my back to back OAP training with a tendon flare-up in my elbows. Damn I need to stop working them two consecutive days!! Today is a rest day, and monday will be some running, so my arms will have plenty of time to recuperate.

10 pounds of Turkey

2004-11-28T13:19:00.000-05:00

After that Thanksgiving weekend, I've got about 10 more pounds to hoss (heave and toss) around now. These bodyweight exercises might feel harder for the next week or so, heh heh.

Last Monday was one arm chin work and I got both arms down to 10 pounds of assistance. My left arm is able to pull with 5 lbs of assistance, but I dropped back to 10lbs so each arm would be worked evenly.

Worked several single reps with the one arm chin. Eventually increasing assistance until I was pulling up with 25lbs assistance. Finished with some explosive two arm chins and pulls. Going through the range of motion complete, but fast, seems to help generate more power in my pulls.

The elbows were aching after that workout, onset of tendonitis like I've mentioned before, but a good night's sleep and rest from chins and I'm back to 100% in a day. This stage of training has me stepping right up to the line of overtraining and then knowing when to back down and recuperate. So far, so good. More one arm chin work tonight.

Some planche training yesterday was very good. I used a pair of 15lb dumbbells as floor handles so that my hand were grabbing the db handles, instead of splayed out on the floor. The wrists weren't taking the brunt of training. Worked very well. I'm going to start training that way more often.

Work hard, work smart

2004-11-22T22:21:00.000-05:00

"Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect."

- Vince Lombardi

So here are two skills that I'd like to master.

The Front Lever

and

The Planche

I'm getting close to the front lever, but the planche is still down the road. Especially one as technically perfect as that one ol' Blaine is showing. Regardless of the difficulty of the skill, or how close I am to performing it, I keep two things in mind. This is to work hard, and to work smart.

You've got to give it your all each time you practice. When you make excuses, you're only letting yourself down. I know it sounds like I'm about to ask you to win one for the gipper, especially after the Lombardi quote, but some need a reminder, or swift kick in the butt to stop slacking.

The second part is equally as important. Working smart.

All the motivation and desire in the world isn't going to get you the strength you're seeking if you go and train incorrectly or inefficiently. It's this reason that research is an important part of my training. Insanity is often defined as performing the same action twice and expecting a different result. So if you're training for a certain skill and don't seem to be progressing, then continuing that training is insane.

Even when I'm progressing nicely on a skill, I'll still research it tirelessly. Each new piece of training information I find may help me train more efficiently. It may give me new and better drills to perform, or give insight into proper muscle application and strength. Even rereading previously gathered material can prove to be helpful. I try to wrap my mind around every detail. This is what some may call obsessive, but I merely call being thorough.

I wrote this entry because working smarter recently paid off. Rereading an article regarding the front lever gave me new, rarely mentioned, insight into the muscle tension in a front lever (and iron cross as well).

And today while researching, I found more information for planche training. I feel like I've been through ever resource out there for planche training, but I was still able to find some helpful information.

Every little bit helps. So give 100% each work out, but work smart to make sure that 100% is not going to waste.

My Profile Pic

2004-11-20T11:11:00.000-05:00

Here's a better shot of my profile picture. This is yours truly doing a handstand on two chairs on the grassy mall of UMCP. It was posted in the school newspaper. Very cool.

I'm performing the "illusion" with these two chairs. What this means is if the editor had kept a few more inches at the bottom of the picture, you'd see the front legs of the left chair "floating" in the air. The weight of my left arm is going down through the back of the left (top) chair, into the front legs of the right (bottom) chair. The setup makes the front of the left chair superfluous. I'll post up a clearer picture sometime, instead of confusing everyone with a description. And if I can dig it up, I'll post up a "double illusion". Ooooo Aaaaaa

Yeah, it's no David Copperfield (fortunately), but the most common response from onlookers is "they must be stuck together". Ah, you non-believers.

Grip and Bench

2004-11-19T22:41:00.000-05:00

Tested my grip and bench today, two things that have been put on the back burner.

The grip is still strong, as I was still able to close my #2 gripper this morning. I'm thinking of starting another week or two of KTA training and really mastering the gripper. It's perfectly reasonable to believe I can mash the #3 gripper sometime next year and get the title "Captain of Crush". Hell yes, that's going on my resume!!

Of course, once I'm at that point, my old gymnastics coach will have all the more reason to call me "Bearpaws", and my coworker will probably complain even more when I shake his dead fish of a hand. (I'm not squeezing hard! honest!)

Laid down for some sets on the barbell bench press. I've been working the dumbbell press for a good length of time, so I was interested in seeing what the numbers would be under the bar. While I wasn't disappointed, I still see that I've got room for improvement. A double bodyweight bench would be phenominal, certainly a beast skill, but I'll take baby steps back into this one and try to hit around 155% of my bodyweight for the time being.

I was very happy when I was able to work on and improve my weak squat, so I'll be working hard to have the same success with the bench.

Poor sleep last night on account of a company party and visit afterwards to my sister's. Poor nutrition this morning as I ate breakfast on the run, a substandard purchased lunch, and grabbed a quick snack before working out. Not one of the strongest days then, so I'm optimistic to see how the bench feels on a better rested day. Until then, it's research time for a good bench program.

CPR, OAP, and KYA

2004-11-17T21:52:00.000-05:00

Got CPR certified this past monday! Of course, that's about as hard as handing $40 to a stranger, but regardless it's a step towards my new career in personal training. I'll knock first aid training out in the beginning of December, and then choose which trainer certification(s) I want to study and test for.

On the training front, I worked on the OAP a bit after the CPR cert. I was definitely tired from the previous nights, but still pulled decently. During my squat workout yesterday, I needed to remove some ab slings that were hanging from the power rack chin up bar. How did I get up there and remove the slings??? A small jump with an OAP! Of course the momentum helped me get up part way, but I was cranking for a good portion of the ride upwards. It felt especially good to just stop and lock my arm as I worked with my other hand to undo the caribiner. Damn, now that's some real world strength application!

Seriously, it's only a matter of time now. I just need to keep the old elbows and shoulders healthy. The right arm needs a bit of work in the bottom position and I'll be sure to work some one arm dead hangs with it.

I started thinking of the other skills I'd like to acquire and the various training progressions required for each. This is what was turning in my head:

front lever: The shoulders are coming along well, but I think my weakness is actually my core. I've got to start working on more dragon flags.

one arm handstand: I was playing around with this just yesterday. My progression is coming, but it's going to take some more focused training, just like the....

one arm lever: I mentioned this previously. It'll be a goal in the very near future. If I master the one arm lever and one arm handstand, then we can start talking about the one arm handstand press.... muhahaha.

iron cross: my training has been far too sporadic for this. This, of course is due to availability of rings. Now that I've got my own set and some stretch tubing that should suffice, I'll start back up on this in the winter time. Because I should definitely acquire this skill before the....

planche: This is a "C" skill on rings, so it'll be some time before I see a true planche. Regardless, this is one of my favorite skills and one I train for fairly regularly. I think a focus on my bench press should help on this as well. My bench is a bit lacking, and some extra pushing muscle can't hurt.

flairs: I always thought this was such a hardcore stunt to pull on the floor. My love for the move is probably what drew me to pommel horse in my gymnastic years. I was able to throw some flairs on the mushroom, but always seemed to lack the flexibility for floor flairs (say that 5 times!). Last training go around just left my right wrist aching. So before I go at this again, flexibility will be the first concern.

v-seat: I never had a tremendous want to learn this skill, but I figure since I've had the L-seat for so long, that I should learn the next step in the progression. This will also be another good skill to work for when I working for the flexibility for my flairs.

vertical leaping: I think the time is just about here for another plyometrics program to increase my vertical. I've always had good ups, but I'm looking to dunk a basketball. At 5'8", that's one hell of a skill. I read some old advice that said one should be able to squat double their bodyweight before they start plyometrics. Whether this is true or not is irrelevant at this point, as I passed that mark the other day. That squat is actually what brought the whole idea back into my head.

Too much on the plate!! It's always been a challenge to limit myself. After the OAP, it seems that the one arm lever, one arm handstand, and front lever are the new goals. Of course, the planche will still be there as always. Letting go of that training routine would be like abandoning a child.

I've got to finish this post with a story about the weight room the other day. I was working on squats in the power rack and I see two guys working with 335lbs or so in the rack next to me. Now, with their form and technique, it didn't look like they should be handling that weight at all, but I let people work out the way they want. No one likes a know-it-all. Anyhow, after they're finished, the conversation went something like this:

guy #1: "should we take the weights off now?"
guy #2: "nah, someone else will get them"
both guys walk off.

Both of those guys better count their lucky stars I was coming up and racking weight at the time. By the time I got out from under the weight and turned around, they were gone. Otherwise, I'd have finished the day with a KYA workout - kicking your .. butt.

El fin de semana

2004-11-14T23:58:00.000-05:00

Headed back up to the parents house for my dad's birthday this weekend. Lots of fun the whole time. Even got in some light planche work, in addition to the handstands I randomly throw about the house. No, this is not odd behavior for me ... par for the course, really.

Some swiss ball work before I head to bed tonight, as well as one arm lever work and training experimentation. I seem to be progressing well with the OAL, but don't practice it on a consistent basis to nail it down quicker. I've been too focused on other skills recently, the one arm chin for one.

On that note, there's no quicker way to slowed progress and frustration as trying to train for 100 different skills at once. You'll start crawling at a snail's pace for each one, and rack your brain trying to find time for it all.

Picking just a few strength skills helps one keep focused and stay motivated with quicker accomplished goals. I'm speaking from experience on this one, as I've had to consciously cut down to two or three skills to work on at a time. Anything else is just greedy >:-)

Getting Back on the Road

2004-11-11T21:16:00.000-05:00

Four years I ran in high school
Three seasons per year
Twelve total seasons of running
Yet thanks to certain coaches, I became soured to the whole idea by the time I graduated. I took off the shoes and put them away.

Well, the five year break is over now. I bought myself a pair of running shoes a few weeks ago and have been hitting the road a couple times a week.

Holy crap, I'm out of shape... running shape.

But this will give me better endurance and maybe even drop a pound or two, which is always helpful when you're working for bodyweight feats. And besides, it's always good to strive for good all-round fitness. There's nothing sadder than watch a guy (who can lift a mountain of weights) get winded running a lap on a track.

So I went running tonight and remembered how much I enjoy it. Listening to my rhythmic breathing becomes a form of meditation. I can gather my thoughts or just clear my mind.

It's not the same on a treadmill. When I'm on one, I just feel like I'm keeping up, not actually running. Everything feels too controlled. But out on the road, I control everything. Master of it all.

5 pounds

2004-11-10T23:51:00.000-05:00

I worked the one arm chinup on my home pullup bar tonight. With my cheap assistance set up, I was able to see tonight that I'm only 5 pounds away.

just 5 pounds.... oh man oh man oh man.

Only with my left arm though. The right still needs about 15lbs of assistance. I figure these differences are normal for a skill like this. And a 10 pound differential really isn't much at all. If I was pulling a 30lb differential between arms, then it's time to get outside more. *whistle*

I've been told that as I get closer and closer to the one arm chin, to relax and take it easy to prevent injury. I'm happy to report that I have been taking it slow and careful. The one arm chin is murder on the elbows and shoulders if you perform too many reps. So I've been keeping the rep count very low and giving it plenty of rest. If I feel any throbbing in the elbow (onset of tendonitis) then I give it a solid day or two until it subsides. No problems at all.

On another note, anyone who lifts weights should be working the squat as well. If your knees and back are healthy, then get yourself under the bar. Where I work out, I see too many healthy college kids sit down on the leg press and work with weights I could military press overhead. So kids remember, quit being a baby and do your squats.

I've been working a 20-rep squat routine for the past couple weeks; adding 5 pounds each workout. You can read about THE 20-rep routine in this book Super Squats. I'm embarassed to say I haven't read the book for the exact routine, but I've read more than enough about it to start it up. It involves one set of squats for 20-reps. This will whup your butt. I've heard the book also asks you to drink an inordinate amount of milk. This gives the 20-rep routine its other name, the "Squats and Milk" routine. It's all supposed to add a lot of strength and size. Personally, I wasn't looking to gain 30+ pounds (of fat), so I didn't up my calories substantially, just continued my healty eating.

Anyhow...

Working 20 reps works. I loaded some big wheels on the bar and rock bottomed it last night. Felt great. Felt light. After you crank through several workouts of 20-rep squats, a single effort for high weight feels like nothing. I surprised myself.

In the beginning...

2004-11-10T13:33:00.000-05:00

I'm starting this blog as a place to record my journey along the path of physical improvement. That's a pretentious way of saying, writing down stuff 'bout weightlifting and stuff. dur dur.

I'll be writing down some of my workouts as I want, as well as thoughts on my training. But oh wait, I want it to be a bit more than that. More specifically, I want to write about my quest for those mythical strength skills.

I'm talking about the "beast skills".

It's those skills that you've read, heard, or perhaps even dreamt about, but never thought they were possible - one arm chin ups, one arm handstands, handstand pushups. . . The things that your grandfather use to do after trudging home 20 miles, waist-deep in snow, with the blazing hot sun overhead. It's those fantastic feats of strength that make people's jaws drop - hence the name, because people will certainly call you a "beast", and I'd wear that as a badge of honor.

And while some who read this may have no interest in my obsessions, maybe the page will get them interested in fitness anyway. I'll take that.

So that's a quick view of what's to come. If I post to this blog on a semi-consistent basis, maybe I'll even start a webpage.