Mastering Hand Balancing For Pure Upper Body Strength And Power

Mastering your Body-Weight isn't easy by any stretch whether you're small, big, overweight, thin or whatever and many people believe or lead to believe that Calisthenics is nothing but a warm-up and doesn't require a lot of strength. I feel sorry for those who actually believe that and whoever told them that is a piece of crap period. Sure there are certain exercises are very simple to learn but overall the hardest thing is not always the consistency but finding the right challenging exercises that take you to another level.

I have done Hand Balancing in the past doing enough to wear I held a free-standing Handstand for a short but amazing amount of time especially at my size. The ultimate form of upper body masteryb is without question the Handstand. For decades, athletes from all over the world have done some form of Hand Balancing in their lifetime; from wrestlers to acrobats, gymnasts, bodybuilders, Trapeze Artists, Weight Lifters and many others. Did you know the most successful bodybuilder of the 30's and 40's was in fact a master Hand Balancer? His name was John Grimek; he held Weight Lifting Titles, Mr. Universe Titles, a 2-Time Mr. America Winner, Olympic Champion & one of the best Muscle Posers of his era credited many of his accomplishments to Hand Balancing. One of the greatest wrestlers of his generation Karl Gotch believed that when you became good at Handstands, you had mastered your body-weight pretty good.

It is one of the most difficult aspects of training because for one just getting over the fear of being upside down makes many people cringe and further more it's more than just holding with your arms; your core, your legs, shoulders, wrists, chest and hips all have to be in sync with each other otherwise you will fall on your ass or worse. It's also a very distinctive form of Isometrics where once you can hold a Handstand whether using a wall or not you are developing an insane level of strength and focus that can carry over to other areas of your training. Some of the strongest pressers in the world have used Handstand Push-ups as one of their main exercises since lifting your own body-weight isn't easy enough.

If you're willing to learn you don't need to go to a Gymnastic School to get lessons although having a coach can most certainly help your progress, you can learn Hand Balancing in the comfort of your own home. For building the strength to do Handstand Push-ups against the wall my best pick would be Legendary Strength's Ultimate Guide To Handstand Push-ups; this book will take you from basic holds to little tid bits of being able to do the push-ups and learning some major differences just from the way you tilt your head. Really cool stuff. For being able to do them free-handed without any wall I put my money on Eddie Baran's Gymnastic Handstands Course; this book/DVD Combo will teach you the fundamentals of Free-Standing Handstands from holds to push-up to even able to walk on your hands in a straight handstand. Be able to do amazing things and do a skill not many can do.

Now if you want to take it a step further and gain skills only less than a handful of an entire population can do why not learn the steps from Calisthenic Kingz Official Guide To Mastering Handstands & Handstand Push-Ups and built up to being able to do one of the most difficult push-ups in existence The Diamond Handstand Push-up. Order all three courses if you want or pick any of the three, whatever works for you. Doing Hand Balancing is a lot of fun and once you really get into it, it becomes more like play. Ed Baran didn't get into Gymnastics until the age of 35, imagine that for a second; most men that age are retired and had their time, Ed was just starting and now over the age of 50 he's still at it and has one of the most impressive physiques around. It's never too late to learn so what's truly stopping you from doing something awesome? Here's something really cool, just last year before turning 31 I did a video of doing a Free-Standing Handstand Push-up when I was roughly at a Body-Weight of over 250 lb. You think a 180 lb. man has a tough time, add 70 lb. to that and it is one of the rarest things around. See the video below....

Many years prior to that I made a video when I was roughly mid-20's doing Handstand Push-ups at around 235 lbs. starting in a HEADSTAND. I swear to this day I don't know how I did it or what but I got it on film and it was really awesome I was able to do that. One of these days I aught go after this feat again. Who knows, check it out below....

Many things are possible when you are so damn passionate and put in the work that drives you and gives you something to strive for. I made it possible by training hard, smart and working towards that goal and I did it in less than a few years, took me more years just to be able to do one FSHSP and the courses I learned from didn't come until years later. I know if you work at it and practice you can definitely get there faster than I ever did. Make it happen.  

Developing Real Functional Strength & Conditioning Using Animal Movements And Bridging Exercise

Lately I have been combining two of my personal favorite methods of exercise & that's animal movement and the variations of Bridging. Since integrating these methods together in separate workouts throughout the day and evening I'm feeling leaner and more muscular in areas that I have forgotten to build on.

The Animals are my strength & cardio go to method because of the way you move in awkward positions and filling up the lungs with oxygen while putting the muscles and tendons to work as you move in the positions themselves from the shoulders all the way down to the feet. The Bridging Exercises are my go to for Flexibility, Agility & Conditioning of the entire muscular structure. Holding a bridge in the three positions (Back, Front & Gymnastic) for 1-3 minutes each is a hell of a stretch and really unlocks the muscles in the spinal areas. More than just holding, I also rock back and forth in both front and back bridges, wall walking into a bridge and touching my chest to the wall; these exercises alone really hit the spot and open up the body in a very unique way that only up until almost 20 years ago that Fighters/Wrestlers and Yogis knew about in modern western culture.

You can create combinations of different methods however you want but I feel that when you integrate Bridging with Animal Exercise, you are developing not only strength & flexibility but creating a well rounded physique that gets you lean and mean when practiced regularly. Now that doesn't mean you jump into holding advanced bridges and animals off the bat. It takes time and patience plus some exercises may not suit everybody so adjust according to your body and fitness levels. After nearly 12 years of doing these, I still have things to learn and master so don't feel bad if you don't get things going right away. Go at your own pace and be able to do things that are comfortable at first and when they become easy, move up to the next level. For some, it may take a few weeks, others months or even years to really hit advanced stages in both methods.

The best thing to do is have fun and pay attention to how your body feels; this isn't a contest to see how far you push yourself. Like with every form of exercise it's important to be careful, not so damn cautious that fear is really striking you in the face but to do the best to your current abilities. Here are the best courses for these two methods.....

http://bitly.com/Advanced-Bridging

http://tinyurl.com/qbl6d54

How Was Your Thanksgiving???

Welcome back to Monday and on Cyber Monday at that. Hopefully you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the people you love and shared in how thankful you are. I'm also sorry for those who had to fight the next day on Black Friday getting the best deals possible for your Xmas Shopping.

Had a great time spending Thanksgiving with my girl and her family at her Dad's place; watching a little football and eating it up with awesome food. Going crazy helping people find the best spots to save money for the holidays and bringing you guys the best resources in fitness and health. I never want people going out and fighting in the social snake pit of death just so you can find the best toy for your little one, a TV the whole family can have or deals on the best movies for anyone. It's not right to trample among each other and go insane.

I want you guys to have the safest shopping experience possible because its my job to help you find amazing deals and save a ton of cash around the net without needing to go anywhere you don't feel the need to. That's the beauty of technology these days where it's great for a past weekend like this that you don't ever have to fight for what you want when you can snatch up deals in the comfort of your own living room and leave the crazed lunatics to their own demise. I hope you had a wonderful weekend and here are some places you can go to for Cyber Monday Deals. Better hurry and grab what you need.

Amazon

Legendary Strength Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale

ONNIT

-Cyber Monday (Free Fitness Program Deal) At Advocare

With the above I will send you a free fitness program that's a 30-Day Program with any order you make at my personal store. Get fit and get amazing results with powerful supplements and going at your own pace with a 30 day workout program filled with basic bodyweight exercises that target every area of the body and you can do them on any of the 3 levels you're area of fitness is at.

Battling My Own Demons

This will be a different article than you're use to reading especially when it comes to a different side of me I rarely talk about. So as a warning there will be things you may not like and things you don't want to hear or read but I feel the need to open up a bit.....

A lot of issues that I've had for years have been in my own head and have doubts about myself from time to time that I can't always let go. It's an uphill battle of emotional fitness so do speak and some days I just want to be left alone and need to be in my own element. I struggle with trusting people in my life and there's an extreme few I do trust and two of them are my biggest female influences (yes you're one of them holly my love, you give me hope and love when I need it the most).

I don't easily get depressed because a good portion of the time I end up laughing at the most random things and some people I know just can't deal with it because it's weird and think i'm some kind of freak or something. I do however have a side to me that when I'am down, some people sense it right away and want to help but sometimes you just need to let me be, I'll get out of it eventually and I'm grateful those who do their best to help but I need to be left alone in order to be my best again.

My struggles with trusting people has been a battle with me ever since I was little. People I love and cared about have stabbed me in the back and I never truly got over it and feel alienated by them because I felt used for their benefit. I have been forced into little things that shouldn't be a big deal and a lot of them really weren't but I make them big for some reason. It's not fun being rejected and it definitely isn't fun when its your own flesh and blood, the people you look up to when you were younger. I have been used for my strength, my level of sympathy for others and being used just to be manipulated to help someone else. I'm very much a happy person and I do love what I have and what I have earned money wise, respect from others and what I have received from others that makes me thankful for what I'am. I have a horrible ability to cry and at times when I have it's usually something major and it doesn't last too long. I don't ask for sympathy, I don't ask to be felt sorry for and I certainly don't ask to be praised for; all I do ask is to be heard and form your own outlook and quite frankly because of my nature I do care about what some say good or bad because it's who i'am.

I have tried to please others for so long and be helpful to them in whatever the best I can. I still do on occasion and on those occasions I still get used and fall for it. The only people I truly please these days are the ones that truly matter to me and I don't ask anything in return because they are worth it to me and I do it because I feel it's important for them from the little things to major things that really hit it for them. For those that I do my best to please have become the same people that stabbed me in the back and wanted more than they should've gotten out of me.

I've always been a loving and caring guy; anybody who knows me knows this wholeheartedly and I would go to the ends of the earth for those I feel the closest to. I don't truly hate anyone but there are those that I love so unconditionally it shows and there are those that I do love but can never love to death because of what they have done to me emotionally. I have been beaten up, torn down emotionally and have been physically exhausted from trying to be there that don't give it back a fraction of what I've given and its made me want to punch someone in the face so many times but I don't because to me it'll make me more like them than who I truly am.

Life is never easy no matter who you are or how rich you are or how poor you are and what your status is to society but in the end it's up to you to make it interesting and what YOU can control. We all have demons, some far greater than mine can ever be but push comes to shove I'll be open about myself. I have many influences in my life and that includes the three women in my life that have the biggest on me and that's my mom, my girl and my second mom Juanita. Others include Bud Jeffries, Logan Christopher, Tyler Bramlett, Kevin & Michael Nicholson (my brothers from another mother). These people have shaped my life in ways no one else could even if they don't realize it. I may have my own personal demons but they're the ones that make the light shine brighter than anything else. Whether you think more of me or less it doesn't matter, what matters is that I hope you have a chance to read this and that you know how open I can be. Fitness is not always about being in physical shape or what's better than what, it's about learning how to be fit in areas many never see and what shapes them both inside and outside.

Things Just Keep Coming Together With Primate Training

The power of influence and inspiration can come from anywhere even in a single moment where it only lasts for a mere 10 seconds can change your entire life from then on. That's what gives me the drive to do Primate or Ape/Monkey exercises, its having those little moments that really shine on my brain like for example seeing the updated trailer for Kong: Skull Island inspires me even greater to have that kind of strength, that kind of enormous ability to move and feel like larger than life. Apes truly are the most awesome strength giants of the Animal Kingdom.

It's not easy to walk on your knuckles, let alone be able to speed up and jump while adding in the ability to just hang from a bar for quite a period of time. Even 10 seconds from a dead hang is challenging especially if you're a big guy like myself. I take pride in learning how to move my body in all sorts of directions and mainly being able to move like a primate in the safest ways possible because lets face it, unless you're tarzan or have some secret DNA that allows you to have the tendons and muscular adaptations of a wild beast its impossible to move the same exact way a primate does. We may not be able to swing on vines gracefully but we can improvise using our structure to move through the Monkey Bars or do acrobatic feats on the swing, hang from a pull-up bar and develop powerful grip strength, Squat down and hold it like a Chimp. There are many ways to develop our own style of Primate Fitness.

Since getting back into this, I'm feeling a greater since of flexibility in my spine, my fingers are building strength in the tendons, my knees are getting stretched in the deep squat positions, my oblique are getting stronger from the hanging position, my wrists feel like solid rock, my abs are getting leaner little by little and my upper body conditioning is increasing. You don't need to be a gymnast or an acrobat to get into this, it takes practice but with the right progression for you it can make a huge difference. The power of the primate is inside all of us, whether the theory is we are descended from apes or not doesn't matter but I do believe because of the shape of them compared to us is nearly identical from the chimp and gorillas we must embrace having that possible connection.