The Unknown Benefits Of Handstand Training

In the world of Physical Culture, a lot of things come and go, some things work, some don’t and others just have a way of taking things to a whole new level and one way to look at is looking at the world upside down. In training of the handstands, this teaches you to look at things from a different perspective and I mean this literally, when you hold a handstand either up against the wall or free-handed, you have to teach your body how to use it from a very different light. Think about it while you read this.

 It’s not easy at first to get into a handstand, believe me I know how you feel. At first it seems scary, like waking up in a different place and don’t understand where you’re at. With practice, you learn to shut that off and become comfortable in your new surroundings. Eventually when you hold a handstand, you will find out right away that you can’t be very loose otherwise you’ll fall. Keeping the body tight is essential to your progress. Holding the position isn’t just an exercise, it’s a test of will.

 Tighten up the body in a handstand is the foundation for Hand Balancing and when you hold it for a period of time, you’ll find out about the benefit of increased blood flow to your body especially in the brain. Flex your body in every position, point your toes, flex the calves, squeeze the legs together, tighten your torso and press your hands into the ground as if you’re going right through it. What this teaches is to use the body as a complete unit, powerful, strong and tight like a steel rod.

 Practicing on the wall is a start and whether or not you aspire to be a gymnast or an acrobat but the most important thing is to keep your body relaxed while in a flexed position. I realize that sounds like an oxymoron but yet you will soon understand the concept that holding the position itself brings great benefits to your body, making it strong and shrinking fat and building muscle while increasing strength in your tendons and ligaments.

 I’m giving you this tip not to progress to handstand push-ups which you should eventually progress to but to teach you the value of Internal Power meaning you’re strengthening the body from the inside out. Isometric Handstands bring blood flow into the body meaning stronger organs, increased flow to the muscles and strengthening the very things that help hold the body together meaning bones, tendons and again ligaments. This is what I like to call Isometric Practice, fusing the mind/body connection to build strength in every form of your body both internally and externally.

 I realize I have repeated a few things here but a lot of people don’t see how certain things work and a lot of people think that if you want to get stronger, lift weights, ok let’s test this theory, you picked a few barbells and dumbbells and you worked them hard, now test yourself in the handstand and see how strong you still are. I bet you, you won’t last more than a few seconds. Strength does not always mean picking up the most weight or how big your guns are and it certainly doesn’t matter how you look. Strength in different arenas gives the body variety of what it can do, it’s not just meant to pick up a weight, hell even in the old days of Physical Culture men and women didn’t just lift, they wrestled, did gymnastics, were circus performers, entertaining strongmen all these things and yet were strong and many different areas and sometimes lifting weights had nothing to do with it.

 It’s all about looking outside the box and using your body in ways that other things can’t transfer over. If you’re interested in Hand Balancing, practice it not just to hold a handstand but hold it and move it with intense will from your mind and your body together, you will see things from a new light you never thought of and find some unknown benefits that they didn’t teach in the course. You’ll know once you experience it, it’s a feeling you can’t get from anything else.

The Astounding Strength & Grace Of Acrobats & Gymnasts

 

  Ever seen Cirque De Solei or something similar and even Gymnastics, than you know how cool it is to see these world class athletes fly through the air with grace, power and beauty. Just having the speed and the strength to pull off certain moves is just incredible and you never know what comes next. To me Aerialists are one of the most powerful people pound for pound in the realm of Acrobatics.

 There have been debates who have the strongest this or the strongest that, you got big arms than you have some serious upper body power, powerful legs you can either squat a lot or run like the wind but yet the Core is what separates the men from the boys. Your torso carries the most power and strength in your body next to your legs being the strongest. When it comes to athletics, gymnasts have pretty much the strongest core in the world. Think about it, how do they fly through the air, hold hand balances so perfectly and move around on their upper bodies as if they were legs?  If they didn’t have strong torsos, everything else would be gone in a snap. Now some people think Bodybuilders have strong abs but in reality, it’s just the opposite, not all of them but most have very weak torsos to do anything basic let alone incredibly superhuman. The stronger your Core is, the rest of your body is strong, this doesn’t mean do nothing but crunches and sit-ups and leave everything else out, it takes the whole body to work together.

 

 

 One of the most kick ass shows I’ve ever witnessed was in Las Vegas where there was a vampire show called Bite. This show featured smoking hot and beautiful women, jaw dropping dancing & acrobatics and heavy metal that was just as powerful as the performers themselves. During one segment, a man who was pulled from the audience gets bit by a vampire, turns into this incredible monster with a shredded body that you need to see to believe, becomes consumed by the powerful bite and begins to take hold of a chain hanging down, wraps around his arm and begins to fly and twirl in the air like a madman and reaches down and with one arm picks up a woman and bites her as well. I can’t tell you the rest of the show but I can assure you that same actor has powers in real life that even he can teach you how to grab a hold of.

 

 

 An important aspect to keeping the body fit and ready for anything is to keep the blood flowing throughout the day. Doing small little exercises can have a huge impact on your level of strength and power beyond belief. Even the most experienced gymnasts and acrobats do some form of exercise throughout the day because during practice or even rehearsals, they have to be in top shape otherwise they can lose their spot on a team or worse be out of a job. Learn to use your time for these little things and big changes will come. “You don’t have to do much, for doing a lot” Karl Gotch.

 

 

 Practicing Hand balancing is the most basic component in both acrobatics and gymnastics because what some teach Bridging in wrestling, Hand Balancing is one of the first things taught in those areas of sport and entertainment. Hand Balancing isn’t for everyone I understand but there are those who want to learn it and get good or even great at it. At the same time, how cool would it be to have the strength to hold yourself up in Handstand and move around just like a gymnast or an acrobat? You don’t have to be a either one to get great benefits from this type of training. If you want to practice it, than look no further from my friends Logan Christopher and Ed Baran.

 

 

 In both acrobatics and gymnastics, the number one rule is to keep the body strong in every movement and by that I mean the whole body from your head to your toes. You will learn how to keep the body tight and strong because being loose anywhere can spell disaster or you’ll just not be able to do even a basic exercise. Learning to use your body in complete unison builds awareness and strength in ways nothing else can match. Anybody can lift a weight one way or another but you can’t hold yourself up in certain positions without the whole body working together.

 You may never aspire to be a Gymnast or an Acrobat which is perfectly fine, yet you can still have the great benefits and a strong & powerful body once you learn the basic elements of using your body as a whole package and become stronger than the average person. You don’t have to be a world class athlete to find world-class or even superhuman results. All that matters is you make your exercise fun and enjoyable and if you have children, let them exercise with you or teach them to exercise; this builds power and confidence within and helps build character. Have fun and make it worthwhile, even if you have only 5 minutes in the day.