The forearm stand comes with several names. It’s been known as a Tiger Stand or a Lion Stand. Don’t confuse it with the Tiger Bend though as the ‘Bend’ part refers to the press from the forearms up into the handstand.
It is about halfway between a headstand and a handstand. You will be balancing on your forearms and hands.
I offer it as one of the lead-up stunts in the Secrets of the Handstand Quick Start Video for this reason. There are many people who never try this move and move onto doing handstands, but it can be used effectively as a stepping stone (not to mention a fun move in and of itself).
Assume the normal sprinter’s stance for a kick-up except this time place your forearms on the ground with your palms facing downward. When you kick up you will need to use less force than with the handstand.
Be careful because in this position it is a little bit harder to come out of the forearm stand safely. Because you cannot roll out of the move easily you may have to turn to one side or the other. I would advise that you tend towards under balance a bit more until you get use to the balance.
Use the wall until you are comfortable with the move and feel ready to go away from it. You can also have someone spot your feet when you kick up.
The balance will be maintained by pushing down with the flat of the hand to stop from over balancing. If you find yourself under balancing let up on the hands and push down with your elbows.
It is important to maintain a upright position in the upper arms while in a forearm stand. Do not let your upper arms collapse downward toward your forearms. Try to keep your chest open and a 90 degree angle in your arms.
Like the headstand this will teach you body positioning in the air. Plus you get some balancing action with your hands.
All the other points of a handstand like keeping your body apply here as well.
Once this move is mastered the next step is the Tiger Bend. But it is a big step. You’ll need great strength and balance to pull it off. There is also the possibility of a one arm forearm stand as detailed in The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing.
Comments
Yo Logan,
You should try Bikram’s yoga, you would really like it.
Keep on doing what you’re doing, always love the emails/articles/vids. Inspirational.
BTW it’s cool that you work with Lucas, I order from him lol.
Peace.
-David W.
Love the “Lost Art…” book and the emails these exercises are great compliments to
My Chi Gong and Kung Fu practices. Keep ’em coming !!
do you shrug your shoulders in the forearm stand?
@Fred: Shrug them away from your ears like you do in a handstand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=006ip4ndThE&feature=player_embedded
Giant Panda does a hand stand!!!
logan, just to clarify, when you wrote “Shrug them [your shoulders] away from your ears like you do in a handstand,” did you mean to shrug the shoulders towards the ears like i do in the handstand?
thanks for your response.
@Fred: Yes Fred, I don’t know why I said away. It is towards your ears.
Logan, your stuff is really informative. I have been at it for months and I have gotten to a certain point that I am excited about. I think the best thing you taught was how to roll out of it, Lately I have made great strides in my pullups, handstand practice, and my benchpress. The thing is I was doing these exersizes and two days after achieving a 10 second handstand without the wall, and finally getting the forearm stand down my back became really sore for 2 weeks and I had to stop because the pain was terrible. The pain finally went away, and no doctor prescribed any sort of pain relief, they just said rest. The exersizes from your neck ridging dvd helped during this phase of pain, and the pain is finally gone and for some reason I am much stronger. Today, I started making strides agian, but I am starting to feel that pain in my lower back again. I added some planch stuff I found online, I was just wondering is this back pain in my lower back part of the price of doing these exersizes or are there some stretches other then my warm up set.
warm up set
run 5 miles
back neck bridge sequence
seated jacknife
reverse bow
general stretch
rest
handstand practice
I want to continue and I was just wondering if there is a workaround for these enlongated rest periods. I am saying when these back pains happen its like someone is grabbing the back of my spine and I have to stop. The doctors say I am fine when they check it out and the rest period usually lasts about a week. That’s a week without any practice. On a good note, each time these pains happen my back does become more flexible, but lately the back pains have been coming in at a much greater interval.
Sorry, just remembered a question. I use the book the lost art of hand balancing and it is stated that the correct handstand position has a slight arc, but when I look at gymnastic videos they say the correct position is straight, but in the Lost Art of Balancing book it is presented as a transitional position from one position to the other, and not really as the correct handstand position. Is the actual correct position just preference or is there a reason that gymnasts say that straight up and down is the actual correct position.
@mark: Its hard to say about your back pain without knowing more or seeing you in action. It could be the bridging, the handstands or the running. Depending on how you do any of those it could lead to problems, though in general they shouldn’t. You can experiment eliminating things one at a time to see if that helps. At least that way you know.
Arched or straight handstands is really a preference. They’re both good. In my opinion the straight handstand is a more advanced move to be learned later on.