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Showing results for tags 'handstand'.
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Hi all, New here and sincere apologies, but I have not been able to find a post that relates to the above. I'm happy to be directed to a relevant post or thread if this has already been covered. I've been working on handstands and tumbling since about a year and a bit. Prior to this I was mostly doing yoga, with a middling level of skill. In addition to handstand and gymnastics classes twice a week, I recently signed up to Emmett's online programme at the Handstand Factory. I also purchased the previous edition of Overcoming Neck and Back Pain and Kit's Shoulder Mobility Vimeo Video's a few weeks ago. I'm doing the shoulder stretches as well as exercises recommended for lower and upper back pain in Kit's book. For years now I have had intermittent soreness in my rt. inner upper back - roughly middle traps, rhomboids area which radiates a little to the neck. Usually it's not a problem, tends to flare up for a few weeks in a year. It seems like it is coming back now as a result of all the overhead work that I have been doing. Aches in that area (sometimes spreading to left side) soon after my handstand practise. Pain seems to go away when I rest and don't train. I have a good physio who did some miraculous trigger point release work and has recommended thoracic stretching (quaduped side stretches, lying back side stretches). Since I've started handstand practise he seems to think that my thoracic and shoulder mobility is reasonably good (been working with Kit's programme), but I should continue to improve it as the range required is greater. He has also said that he thinks that my shoulder strength/stability in an overhead position is not that good for the volume I am doing and this is the main reason for the pain. He's recommended that I do overhead shoulder strengthening exercises e.g. single arm kettlebell carries pronating/supinating forearm whilst walking and also lying on my back/side I work out for an hour twice weekly at the classes. Plus once a twice a week for half an hour at home. At best can hold a freestanding handstand for about 10 seconds before I lose balance. Slowly improving this and happy with my progress. Would love to know what you guys think of the above. Also something to relieve the sore upper back after my workout would be good. I do some lat, neck and shoulder stretching afterwards but no dice. Perhaps I am being too impatient and should just persist with the above, maybe reducing the load?
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Hello, I need some advise here on strength training. My background is ballet dancing and swimming as a teenager, racquet games and yoga as a adult. I am pretty flexible, and have no problem getting into bridge, pancake, front and side splits. I have recently started Taiji and found that has improved my lower body strength substantially, not to mention stablisiing the knees. My problem is getting upper body strength. While practising yoga, I always have problems with stablising my hyper extended elbows in downdog and all the arms balancing poses. I can't do a downdog without feeling strain on either on my right wrist or elbow. I can't do Chaturanga without feeling the strains on the neck and deltoid. Somehow, handstand gives much less problems. For the past one year, I hardly do any these poses but been focusing on gaining better range on my shoulder with Stretch Therapy Exercises. The exercises are great. They have settled quite a few of my issues on neck and shoulder and importantly learned to deactivate overused muscles on the neck, shoulder and arms... . I am currently running a centre teaching others ST. I am small-sized, 5 foot 1 and 99% of students are bigger than me! I wish to gain sufficient upper body strength correctly by using my own body mainly. I need the strength to assist students in class as well as doing simple household chores like lifting a heavy pots. I am currently doing some simple wall planks, getting the shoulder to protract and using the core. On the floor, I still feel the strain on wrist and elbow. Any suggestions to improve are welcome.
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I was listening to a podcast with @Kit_L where he mentioned that a certain amount of elbow hyperextension is useful for handbalancing. My question is, how much? I had people telling me I was going to break both my arms when I posted a bench press form check on Reddit where I was locking out my elbows in their "straight" position-- and that was with significantly less than my body weight loaded on the joints, so I assumed, until now, that I needed to bend my elbows slightly in my handstands. Here is my handstand with my elbows locked: I don't usually experience pain in my elbows in my handstand, but I do sometimes in one-arm planks and this shoulder-opening stretch. Thoughts?
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- hyperextension
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Hello guys!!! This is my first ever post here and I'm really looking forward to engaging with you guys. It's rare to see such an open group of kind encouraging people on fitness forums - I know I'll feel welcome here. Also a quick thank you to Kit. KIt you have allowed me to take my self mastery journey to new heights lately. I discovered you just over three weeks ago and bought so much of your VOD stuff. Very rarely do I find content that works so so so well. After a little help from a friend on my gracilis muscle followed by Liv's prep for pancake class my face touched the floor for the first time. I genuinely teared up...Seriously, then the same thing yesterday with the pike. I buried my whole head in my shins cackling like a little kid in disbelief. So thank you! you guys are doing wonderful things! Anyway, enough waffling. My question is one regarding flexibilty/strength for an L-sit to press handstand. Within Ashtanga Yoga you are probably aware of the repeated action of 'jump throughs' and 'jump backs'. see below video please to reference what I mean n order to do this I'm wondering what progressive loaded types of stretching one must do in order to get that initial lift so that one can take the l-sit back and then to either a handstand or a chaturanga dandasana. I cannot passively fold into a very deep pike. I have to assist myself with a little feet pulling and engage my shoulders. It looks like the bloke in the above video has some serious flexibility and that is what enables him to tuck like that into the l sit right?I understand that you are not a yogi but, surely someone can shed light on the many facets of strength and flexibility needed here. I for example am only able to go from a pike to a cross legged jump back and sometimes a handstand like this video below https://youtu.be/iV4iqS9leaY?t=29 Ultimately I would like to acheive this I hope my question is clear...Thanks!!!
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Hello today I will post my workout log because I find it pretty useful to read other people logs, so maybe I will help someone with my type of training. So to start I want to say that I never trained like this in my past. Before my workouts before were really shitty untill I found out that I was just big ego guy who couldn't say something bad for himself - I guess thats what puberty was for me most. So last summer I got back to basics, I couldn't touch my fingers with my toes and I couldn't do a squat with my heels on the ground but I could do a shitty form back lever hey lol! I trained a lot from last summer and my training intensity went from low - mid - high. So today: One arm passive hang 30,20,10 sec alternating hands One arm active hangs 3x max sec hold 3x4reps oacp pulley sistem with 10 kg handstand negative push ups 5x3 rep - 10 sec descent push ups feet elevated hip size body vertical to floor ( lower intensity than negatives for hspu ) 5x8 RTO dips 5x3 Bulg dips 5x5 I was just practicing mobility here because it's really easy for me but I made a topic about it so I am improving my form, video coming soon dragon flag on bench 5x4 rep One arm passive 30,20,10 sec One arm active hangs 3xmax hold In the end I did 10 min deep squat limbering movements 2x5 mins and I did handstand balance exercises 3 reps each. ( today is not my handstand day) I like to call this day bent arm strength day - MON, THUR static arm strength day - TUE, FRI leg and handstand day - WEDN. SAT