Bonus Post: The Art of the Handstand (2023/406)

A long while back we found a webpage called "The Lost Art of the Handstand" - it no longer exists, so don't bother looking! Every gymnast and many circus performers need handstands, which come in many forms: one two hands, on one arm only, high on top of another performer... count the ways!

In this bonus post - and don't miss today's EARLIER ONE - we include training tips as well as artistic hand-balance examples (and sometmes less artistic one but good tries!). All in the interests of promoting the fitness and training needed to perform them properly.

New resolution to get stuck in for 2024? 

We cover many positions in these examples including planche - anything where all the weight is mantained on the hands in balance and during movements.

Let's go.

But wait: some training tips:

Yes, shape matters a lot. More...

When you are skilled in acrobatic gymnastics, all things are possible and there is fun to be had too:

Obviously muscle strength is required as well as balance, and can be acquired in various ways:

As Math Albert (Canada), a cool gymnast, tells - keep pushing!

Beau show off a bit:

But, more seriously, Beau shows us the level of training needed to control the body with core strength while getting into hand balance positions:

 

He does backflip to planche, too:

Flexible yoga students like young Rohan also like to show off their skills:

Riley likes practising his pirouettes at home:

Let's move into a collection of still pictures now - again, various styles, some performers excellent, others still finding their way!

Young Andreii shows us more balance and flexibility training:

All essential stuff - like these srtraight-let lifts and pirouettes on parallettes in another enthusiast's home:

Here's how professionals like Jack and Tiego train:

And now a long one to show them in performance: there's a lot ore than just hand balancing in this long video:

A random collection now of aspiring and semi professional guys - with apologies for the f-word on the next soundtrack:

Ilya Molotov, in that last clip, never shows us his body image but, to do that first lift direct off one hand, he has exceptional core strength and very power arm and should muscles and clearly trains for power not size. Good for him - an example to all into fitness is that 'big' is not necessarily a sensible goal. Can you imagine a massive bulging bodybuilder having that skill and control? We can't!

Here's another young boy in his bedroom now, reminding us of what needs to be done:

And some more 'balance and build control' exercises from Chris T:

Backward roll entry from a professional young teen, Chris R:

And again, in training:

 Learning to keep the centre of gravity exactly over the balance point is key:

A final 'spot' for our acro-gymnastic competitive duo in training:

Mikael outdoors:

...and our last spto in this post goes back to Rohan who, quite reasonably, asked in this Instagram post "can you do this?"

...we very much doubt it!