[November 5th - December 31st] Handstands PvP

[Cavilie]

Wonderful advice guys.  I love handstands - I still am not good at all, but I love them. 

 

I just wanted to drop in to point out that we have been at this for 4 weeks - great success!

[Paisley]

thanks for the advice madhatter.  I finally got around to taking some videos today. (sorry its so long - I did cut it down from 7 mins)

 

 

 

from what I can tell I almost need to have my feet past vertical in order to keep myself upright, anything else and I just fall back.  If anyone can see any other glaring problems please let me know.

[Mathieu *Gamer Unleashed*]

Bought Chris's guide and reading through it. Wall planks are isometric holds. He didn't specify exactly what muscles, but he said that being able to hold a wall plank will carry over and help you hold the handstand. Right now I am about 18' from the wall, going to work my way closer,

I almost buy it too... by almost I mean that I saw the sale only late in the evening and it was already over. 

 

I LOVE to see the videos. It encourages me to try again in differents ways. I shold do the same... Unfortunately my son is too young to help me with that..  and usualy sleeping too.. I have found that the plank challeng ehelps me a lot for handstand. My core is straighter now than when I started..., at least I feel it like that. I doesn't have a bent in the lower back anymore, thing that i had trouble with at first. 

[Elastigirl]

I almost buy it too... by almost I mean that I saw the sale only late in the evening and it was already over. 

 

I LOVE to see the videos. It encourages me to try again in differents ways. I shold do the same... Unfortunately my son is too young to help me with that..  and usualy sleeping too.. I have found that the plank challeng ehelps me a lot for handstand. My core is straighter now than when I started..., at least I feel it like that. I doesn't have a bent in the lower back anymore, thing that i had trouble with at first. 

Bummer that you couldn't get it before the sale ended.

 

Good to hear that the planks helped you, I am hoping it will help me break the 30 second barrier

[Cavilie]

Today I had handstand class, which was a LOT of conditioning. It was great.  I feel like I am making progress because today I did 5/10 then 8/10 of my handstand shrugs off the wall! I think the key to my freestanding handstands is to think about open shoulders - when I focus on my shoulders I can hold freestanding much longer.

 

(not me in the video) - handstand shrugs:

 

[Elastigirl]

Achieved a PR today of 45 seconds for my wall handstand. If you hadn't noticed my whining, I had been stuck at 30 seconds for a month. Backed up and did wall plank, concentrating on straight arms. Today I tried for 45 seconds. I'm hoping to be able to do 60 seconds  before the new year.

[Haevyn]

That's a 50% improvement! Definitely worth celebrating. 

[QuirkyDM]

Reposting from the Upside Down Club:

I read this article last week, which was a good reminder for my handstand skills. Specifically, there is a shoulder stretch to make sure you're opening up your shoulders properly and a progression for hollow body which I found helpful. Otherwise, it's a similar progression that I've seen before.

 

It's really been clicking with me the last few days and I thought I'd list what I've been focusing on to help. Today, I had a 5 second hold and a lot of 3 second holds, so if I can start getting the longer holds more than once a session, I'll be pretty happy.

 

1) Tight stomach and tight legs. When I really focus on these, it makes a huge difference to my hold time. If I can't maintain balance, this is where the problem usually lies.

2) Focus on one spot on the ground and don't waiver. This is true for any type of balance you use, not just on your hands. I find a good point is a few inches behind my hands. (ie. towards my stomach)

3) Good head position. At the very start I was arching my head too far back, then I started keeping my head looking straight forward without looking down at all. I'm finding a good spot for my head is just a slight arch back so I'm looking at the floor just behind my hands. (as listed in #2)

4) Remember to breathe. I take a deep breath when kicking into my handstand. And then I just hold it. My goal isn't "how long can I hold my breath in a handstand" so I am remembering to breathe normally and maintain focus.

 

Hopefully some of these same reminders will come in handy for some of you.

[Cavilie]

Awesome thanks! Tell me more about this upside down club please.

Sent from my phone, please forgive any typos and general oddities.

[Abtacha]

So jealous of you all! I'm still doing my wrist exercises. My wrist feels just fine until I attempt a handstand than it starts hurting again

[QuirkyDM]

Upside Down club is an accountibuddies group for those of us searching for our handstand.

[Elastigirl]

So close... 55 seconds for wall handstand. Happy but wishing I could have stuck it out just a few more seconds. Soon

[Mathieu *Gamer Unleashed*]

So close... 55 seconds for wall handstand. Happy but wishing I could have stuck it out just a few more seconds. Soon

A few days to do only 5 more seconds GO YOU CAN DO IT (you could even skip a day just in case

[Elastigirl]

A few days to do only 5 more seconds GO YOU CAN DO IT (you could even skip a day just in case

thanks. Got up Christmas morning and did my handstands-not planning on skipping any days, you however may need the break  

[Mathieu *Gamer Unleashed*]

thanks. Got up Christmas morning and did my handstands-not planning on skipping any days, you however may need the break  

Agrees I could use a break. Fortunately for me, the 30 days plank Torture challenge have ended for me a couple of days ago so I have decided to skip that instead. 

[Elastigirl]

Tomorrow is our final day. Let's see how many of us we can get to do the practice on the last day of 2013

[Mathieu *Gamer Unleashed*]

It is 9h25 and I did a free standing hold of 6 seconds just before breakfast (now time to cook meal for the new year's eve). My son was all disapointed that i didn't wait for him before doing Yoga (he call every exercice yoga). 

 

And now ye have a tie I am very proud to have been part of this challenge. It helps me a lot keeping forus to exercice every day. It may be the last day of the year, but not the last day I do handstand, I will now try to go up a hundread days of handstand and see where I am then. 

[Elastigirl]

I'm very happy with my consistency for the handstand. Had fun battling with Mathieu. I did make gains in my handstand, but honestly, I am still frustrated at my slow pace. I did make 60 seconds today, but just barely, and with great effort. My current plan is to take a week off and then get back to my daily handstand practice. Maybe my frustration is just a bit of burn out, and a break will help my crappy attitude. Sorry, this is sort of a negative post for my final. On the positive, progress is being made, I am stronger, for the most part I still enjoy doing handstands and its just part of my daily ritual now.

[Ignis Fatuus]

I've been sick for the last few days, so I haven't been doing my handstands.  But since today is the last day of the challenge, I figured I'd better get in there.  I think taking a few days off actually helped.  Today's practice was my best yet.  I had my longest hold yet, and it is starting to feel almost natural.

[Abtacha]

You guys are doing great! I'm so looking forward to next week when I'll go back to practicing! Hope my wrist is healed enough!

[Waldgeist]

Current ability: I'm able to hold a handstand planche with my hands about 105 cm away from the wall, which is a little longer than my legs.

 

Even though I massively slacked during december (thesis terror and christmas conspired against me), I managed to get to a complete wall handstand done (under 10 sec, but still) and I could even do some half handstand push-ups in that position. Also regarding wrist strength and that whole area, I can now do crow pose. Just a few seconds but I've struggling with that for years now, so that, too, was a definite success.

 

I hope everyone had fun with his PvP and made some progress, sorry I wasn't more active these last weeks.

Freestanding  handstand is on my bucket list for this year, but no idea how to approach. I'll start sorting that out after I submitted my thesis in 11 days.

[Cavilie]

I loved this PVP! Sorry for not being active on the thread. This was great motivation for me. And my coach said that my handstands look way better. I am still struggling with my freestanding holds, but I found a spot in my house I can practice now.

 

 

I am going to keep working on this for 5 minutes a day!