A question comes in from Laid regarding chest to bar pullups: I have a question about body weight exercise. In fact, about pull-ups. I’ve tried many different approaches but I’m pretty bad in them. I can do 10 chin-ups without problem even more, but with pull-ups I can do 3-4 …
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 …
Intensity vs. Severity
The terms we use when it comes to training, guide our thinking about training. As such I feel this is one of the most important terms to “grok” if you want to become stronger. The following comes adapted from The Master Keys to Strength and Fitness where I originally wrote …
How I’m Healing My Shoulder
The other week I told you about how I injured my shoulder in a Thanksgiving football game (actually playing it, not just watching TV). Based on what’s happening there is likely some tendon and/or ligament damage. If it was just the muscles it would be fine by now, but its …
Building an Indestructible Body
The idea behind the Indestructible Body is about building your body to the point of being injury proof. Not only will these exercises and drills help you to prevent future injuries, but the same methods are used to rehab old and often times chronic injuries. What derails more people from …
Improving Shoulder Flexibility and Mobility
If you’re looking to improve your shoulder flexibility and mobility check out these two videos from Gold Medal Bodies. The first one is focused on building the flexibility in the shoulders especially for handstands. Handstands can be one of the most difficult positions for the shoulders, especially a straight style …
Isometrics or Full Range Lifts
Is it better to train using full range lifts or isometrics? First of all, you can use isometrics in two main different ways. You can get incredibly strong and activate your entire body with just isometrics training, like Steve Justa for example. There is a great book called “Functional Isometric …
Your Strength Is Limited By These 3 Things…
Guest Article by Tyler Bramlett Co-Creator Of Bodyweight Flow As you already know, building strength is much more then just adding size to your body. Strength can be built through several different ways including but not limited to; maximizing your nervous system, disinhibiting your sensory receptors, increasing tendon and ligament …
One Small Change = One Big Difference
I remember one day in 2005 when I was working out in my garage in San Luis Obispo, California. I was doing a circuit combining chinnups and handstand pushups (an awesome combo, by the way). I had hit my goal number of reps and sets in the handstand pushups so …
Will Wall Handstands Help Balance? How Often to Train HSPU’s?
I have some cool things in the work for this month. One of them is nearing completion. More on that subject later. In the meantime let’s tackle a few more questions that have been sent in. First off from Carol. “If I keep practicing kicking up to a handstand against …
Parkour Terrain and How Much to Practice Handstands
Thought I answer a couple more questions today. Lots of them have been coming in recently. While I can’t get to every one individually I’ll try to answer them in these posts. “I always wanted to start parkour and didn’t know how to start. When I saw the dvd that …
Free Movement and Complete Control
Free to move and in control. Isn’t that what hand balancing and all acrobatics is all about? Being able to move your body in any which way and having complete control. Capable of hopping onto your hands and shifting one way or another, posting on a single hand then coming …
Hand Balancing Stands?
Thanks to Harley who came up with names of the athletes of those pictured in the ringless Victorian. Tibbett and Armand Bouley. Always good to give credit were it’s due. Now another question I’ve received a number of times over the months. And then you can answer a question of …