The other day I shared the story of when I first got into bodyweight training, how doing a handstand pushup was one of my first major goals. Just one, to lower down from a handstand, touch the head to the ground and press back up. It took me a couple …
Extended HSPU or Freestanding?
Yesterday, I shared Emil’s story of the long time it took him to achieve handstand pushups (HSPU). I echoed that my journey to my first ever HSPU took about the same amount of time. Emil also asked this question: “Do you think I should try to build to extended ROM …
Consistency for 6 Months
I wanted to share this from Emil as it describes the persistence, commitment to progress, and consistency to achieve real strength. I meant to reply to your fantastic email covering our communication on that Murder workout I once did I believe it would be about 1.5 years sincd then if …
Freestanding Full Range Handstand Pushup
I’m happy to share that I’ve achieved a long-term goal of a freestanding full range handstand pushup. Next step is to clean it up and add reps. How did I get here? First I had a good base in being able to do a freestanding handstand. (I see too many …
Training Highlights from 2019
How was your year of training? What did you accomplish? I find it tremendously useful to reflect on and learn from the past…so that you can do even better in the future. So I’m doing exactly, that I’m showing the best of what I accomplished in 2019. Bent Pressing My …
Handstand Pushup Isometrics
I get asked about handstand pushups a lot. I also get asked about isometrics a lot. Here we cover both! There are quite a few different types of isometrics; I’ve cataloged nine different kinds. Of these two are made use of here. These are: Holding Isometrics Beyond-the-Hold Isometrics A hold …
Full Range Handstand Pushup Progressions
Small changes in body position can make huge differences in doing handstand pushups. The following tip changes the difficulty by about 20%! That makes a difference of doing it and not doing it for many people, or a good number of reps for others. The idea is that by bending …
Full Range Handstand Pushups with Straight Legs
Most of the handstand pushups at full range I’ve done have involved bent legs. This use to be because of height limitations. Now I have the overhead space needed for this tougher version. And that’s just it. This is a tougher version than the same exercise done with bent legs. …
Working Out after 1 Week Fast
Bernarr MacFadden, known as the Father of Physical Culture, was a big proponent of fasting. I remember reading about him testing his strength after a long fast. So this time around, after doing a week-long fast, I decided to do the same. This video shows a couple clips from that …
20 Handstand Pushups
Just hit a great milestone for me, doing a set of 20 handstand pushups without break. Here’s the video: Before the form police start commented, realize that I am doing these this way on purpose. These were done in what I like to call “Easy” form. Most notably the hand …
Arch in Handstand Pushups
When it comes to handstand pushups, how little or how much you arch your back can make a big impact on the exercise. First of all, arching is not necessarily going to hurt you like some people claim. As long as you don’t do it excessively, which depends on what …
Hand Position in Handstand Pushups
Your hand position in handstand pushups is not often addressed, even by those that teach the benefits of this exercise. Yet this small piece of positioning makes a BIG impact. In short, by having your hands out a bit wider, it changes the length of the range of motion, thus …
Can EFT Improve Your Athletic Performance?
Check out my latest article at Breaking Muscle on EFT and how to improve your athletic performance. Is EFT the Secret to Enhanced Athletic Performance? I’ve been working on freestanding handstand push ups. If you’ve never tried them before, they’re quite the combo of strength and skill. Not only do …
What I have Achieved…and YOU Can Too
Like I told you in my last article about practicing what I preach its one of the most important things that I do. So I wanted to take a moment and share with you the achievements I have accomplished and how you can do the same or similar ones by …
Vertical and Horizontal Presses and Pulls
I received a question regarding the balance between vertical presses and horizontal presses and pulls, with vertical exercises like pull-ups, overhead barbell press or handstand pushups versus horizontal presses like bench press, dumbbell rows, inverted rows and similar horizontal movements. Do you really need to do all of these to …