I received the following question from Gary regarding moving from the tuck to advanced tuck planche.
Thanks for all your good advice and tutorials.
Can you help me as I am trying at the moment to go from tuck planche to advanced tuck planche, (sure you have had this question a few times.) I am really struggling with any progress and wondered if there was any tips you knew that may help me along.
This video here describes tips on how to this step of planche training.
The tuck planche involves straight arms and holding your body aloft.
The next step involves making it one step closer to the advanced tuck planche. I originally learned of this as one step in planche progressions from Coach Sommer in this article here. Check it out for more ideas. This includes:
1. Bringing your Shoulders Forward
Bringing your shoulders forward places additional stress on them as the leveraged position is harder to hold. As you progress in teh various planche moves you’re moving more and more forward, requiring more and more strength.
2. Straighten the Back
This one is closely tied into the next one. In fact all three of these are tied together. Straightening the back tends to make you need to raise the hips and move the shoulders forward. A back that is straight (even arched a little) and parallel to the floor is the position you’ll be holding for all future planche progressions.
3. Raise the Hips
The hips should be raised up to shoulder level. In the regular tuck planche the hips are low but this is the main point in moving to the advanced tuck planche. As you raise the hips its natural for the legs to start to untuck. When starting out make sure to keep them tucked but as you improve levering them out is the next step.
I didn’t make it completely clear in the video. Think of these three areas as places you can focus on and start the movement from, but recognize that they are all related.
The planche is a truly difficult move and will take a long time to master. With these moves be content to add a second here, or a slightly better position there. Small improvements over time lead to amazing moves.
For much more on planching as well as all forms of hand balancing consult the Hand Balancing Mastery Course.
Filed under Exercises, Hand Balancing Tips, Planche, Strength, Videos by on Jan 24th, 2012. 3 Comments. 
Here’s a new video that gives you another tip on training the bent arm pressing, specifically the frogstand press, though this applies to them all.
This involves using static holds to build strength and control your press. You must have the strength to hold each portion of the handstand press to really control the movement. This will aid in your ability to smoothly get up to the handstand.
You can find out much more about bent arm pressing in the Hand Balancing Mastery Course.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Exercises, Hand Balancing Tips, Handstand Presses, Strength, Videos by on Jan 10th, 2012. Comment.
Here’s a new video that gives you a tip on training the bent arm pressing, specifically the bent arm straddle press is shown. Of course this would work equally well with any other press.
You can find out much more about bent arm pressing in the Hand Balancing Mastery Course.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Exercises, Hand Balancing Tips, Handstand Presses, Strength, Videos by on Jan 3rd, 2012. Comment.
I’ve been practicing my hand balancing a lot more lately working on some new moves.
Its fun to see the difference between just working towards a new move for the first time and one that you have mastery of. In fact, just looking at this model I came up with 6 steps between the two (7 if you count zero ground).
0 – This is where you can’t do the move
As much as we want to, there are seldom times that we start off being capable of doing many exercises. No one is born with the ability to stand on their hands (heck, they can’t even stand on their two feet without much trial and error). But you go through the process and eventually gain the skills.
There are a whole bunch of progressions and steps you’ll be working on in order to work up to the given move. Like doing the lead-up stunts will accelerate you reaching the next step in the handstand. Full details can be found in the Secrets of the Handstand Quick Start.
1 – Shakily doing it first time
Wow! Isn’t it amazing the first time you accomplish something you’ve been working on for sometime. But chances are that first success is a bit ugly. Your form isn’t perfect, you might not have exactly the right position, but dammit it was close enough to count. It’s a success in my book.
I remember the first time I hit an aerial. By no means was it perfect and flawless. I used tons of speed ion the takeoff and my landing was low and not in optimal position. But I did do it.
2 – Solidly doing it first time
After you’ve done that first shaky rep or hold, the next time you come back to the gym you will progress to something that is more solid. A better hold or a better looking execution. While some people may have doubted your first rep, there is no doubt here. You’re on your way.
When I was working on the back lever in a straddle I was getting close for sometime. Then one day I hit truly parallel and held for about three seconds. I was elated.
3 – Being able to do it several times.
Now that you’ve got a couple reps or holds under your belt its time to increase the volume. Many times when you hit something for the first time, you only manage one of that day. Sometimes you hit a genuine breakthrough and can all of a sudden skip to this step. Now you do several successful attempts at the exercise in one workout.
4 – Being able to consistently do it.
If it’s a tough move you may not hit it every single day you try. Some days you’re “on” and some days you’re “off”. But at level you’re consistently hitting it all the time, possibly after some warmup drills or lead-up stunts. Along with this your performance improves and your volume increases ever higher.
I’ve started working on a number of bent arm handstand presses recently. In the past my freestanding handstand pushups have been hit or miss. Now they are becoming consistent. Want to learn the steps I used? They can be found in a bonus chapter here.
5 – Doing it any time you desire
Eventually you come to the point where you own the movement. You can do it anytime. Fatigue doesn’t matter. If you were woken up out of bed in the morning, you’d still be able to do the exercise. In your training you’re increasing your timed holds big time or pumping out the reps.
6 – Mastering it and moving onwards
Beyond owning the movement you look to the next step. How can you make this movement harder? What else can you do that will take you to the next level? Basically, where are you going next that will start this process all over?
As my mentor says, “Do the drills and get the skills.” This applies to everything and with this model you may see what you’re working on in new light. Plus if you look between the lines there’s some training tips found within.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
P.S. With my increase in hand balancing practice I’ll have a lot more to write about and share with you, including new courses coming down the line. Stay tuned.
Filed under Exercises, Hand Balancing Tips, Handstand Pushups, Handstands by on Nov 22nd, 2011. Comment.
The more strength you have the better you’ll be in hand balancing and acrobatics.
You may be saying ‘DUH’ but this works on multiple levels.
Obviously you’ll require more strength in order to do high strength movements like the planche, iron cross and more.
Among various moves some are more strength oriented like those above and others are more skill oriented like the handstand and more so the one arm handstand.
Still all require some degree of both strength and skill.
Yes you need strength in order to do a handstand. Its not much if you get into a proper body position but it is still present. And if you hold a handstand for a minute or two you’ll start to feel those muscles burning.
Even though it doesn’t require much strength, practicing the skills can take strength and endurance.
Lets say you’re working on the one arm handstand. Maybe you get ten minutes of practice in before your shoulders are fatigued and you can’t get any more quality work in.
Let’s say you’re trying to do a bent arm press. It takes strength plus skill. If your strength is lacking how good are you going to get at the skill of that movement?
Freestanding handstand pushups? Going to be very hard to work the balance of the movement if two handstand pushups against the wall is all you can manage.
So more strength makes doing the moves easier but also allows you to get more quality practice in. If you’re fatigued then its hard to do fine motor movements.
That’s why building a foundation of strength is important. And when you’re just focusing on this foundational strength you want to minimize the skill necessary.
I have a video that talks more about this and the four bodyweight exercises that work best for the whole body.
All you have to do is go here and signup to watch it immediately.
And soon I’ll have even more to help you get stronger and thus more skilled.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
P.S. If you’ve already signed up the next video on the Do’s and Don’ts of Technique is set to come out tomorrow. But if you haven’t go here now.
Filed under Exercises, Hand Balancing Tips, Handstand Presses, Handstand Pushups, Strength by on May 15th, 2011. 3 Comments.
Ryan Hurst from Gold Medal Bodies is here to show you how to move forward with your parallette training. Click here for Part 1 and Part 2. This is the third in a three part series.
By now, you should have developed some foundation strength in the basic parallette press and L-sit. That’s a great start, but we started off this series talking about advanced exercises like planches, and maybe it still seems like we’re a long way off from there.
Though it’s true we’re still not ready for advanced work, we can prepare for it by taking these basic skills and combining them into a combination routine.
Anyone following Logan is not going to be a stranger to the concept of sophisticated skills such as handstands and bridging. You’ve also been exposes to the idea of building from simple variations to more difficult ones. One way we like to achieve this is by building combinations – what we like to call “flows” – that put the basic movements together in more interesting and challenging ways.
Today’s video covers a simple flow exercise you can do on the parallettes.
As you can see, we’ve added one more basic exercise, then put them together into a simple combination.
The routine goes like this:
1. Pushup
2. Swing forward to L-sit
3. Swing back to inverted press
4. Repeat
Perform this for 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 repetitions. Do this 3 days in a row, rest one day, then test your strength the next day to check your progress. We’ve included a sample two week program using this routine that will get you ready to begin serious parallette training – the kind that moves you toward advanced skills.
Download link for sample program
Of course, there’s much more to using parallettes than this. The possibilities are really almost endless, but you’ll need some basic strength and control before you can pull off the fancy stuff.
The program above is a starting point. Once you’ve given that a shot, we encourage you to check out our Parallettes One course, which takes these basics to the next level, building pressing strength and skill that will serve you well for any goal.
Gold Medal Bodies has a full blown course on Parallette Training. Until the end of March you can save 15% off the price of any P1 bundle by using the coupon code ‘LEGENDARY’.
Filed under Exercises, Hand Balancing Tips, Strength, Videos by on Mar 22nd, 2011. Comment.
Ryan Hurst from Gold Medal Bodies is here to show you how to build a training foundation with parallettes. This is the second in a three part series.
If you’ve been practicing your parallette push-ups, you’ve probably noticed that your arms and core feel a little different from what you’re used to. Maybe after a couple of days, you started to get the hang of it, and as your technique improved, you were able to perform the presses more easily.
That’s great, because it means that you’re ready for the next challenge: the most deceptively simple “abdominal” exercise of all time (that actually works way more than just your abs).
Enter the L-Sit
The L-Sit is a fundamental “hold” exercise that exemplifies the whole body tension generated by proper parallette training. Check out this video for a complete beginner’s tutorial on parallette L-sits:
The key point, as in the pushup, is the focus on bringing your elbow pits forward. This allows you to lift your chest up fully and pack down your shoulders. In this position you can bring your hips forward and lift your legs higher, which you’ll find makes the exercise much, much harder.
Strong core activation is initiated with an emphasized full exhale and lock out of the knees into the full L-sit position. If that’s too challenging to start with, you can begin by training the basic tuck position to achieve better form and technique. Try to keep your hips between your hands, or even further forward.
When you can hold the tuck for five reps at five seconds each, you’re ready to move on to the full L-sit.
To make the transition from tuck to L-sit, extend your legs out to a full locked position, fold back into the tuck and relax down. Instead of extending the feel, think of flattening the knees.
While holding the tuck for up to five seconds, extend into the L-sit for one second and return the the tuck. Repeat and gradually lengthen the time with your legs straight. Eventually, you want to work for 5 reps of 5 second holds.
Don’t get discouraged – the L-sit is tough!
You can practice this every day, but don’t neglect your recovery. Keep the volume low and remember to focus on technique above all else.
Once you’ve got a strong L-sit, you’ll have the core strength necessary to begin moving around on the parallettes. That’s what’s coming up in the next installment – so practice this technique and let us know if you have any questions.
Gold Medal Bodies has a full blown course on Parallette Training. Until the end of March you can save 15% off the price of any P1 bundle by using the coupon code ‘LEGENDARY’.
Filed under Exercises, Hand Balancing Tips, Strength, Videos by on Mar 17th, 2011. 1 Comment.
This video shows a tip for the Frogstand I came up with after working with a client on his handstand. Give it a try and see if it helps you out.
By placing your hands wider than shoulder width you can more easily support your body weight thus making the frogstand easier to hold.
On the flip side, if you wish to make it more difficult bring your arms in closer and/or straighten the arms in the frogstand position. This can add in moving forward with tuck planche work.
Want to get more tips like this that help you better to hold a handstand? Check out the new Secrets of the Handstand Quick Start DVD 2.0.
There are just a few copies left with the special deal for the new Advanced Bodyweight Training.
Click here to get more details.
Filed under Exercises, Hand Balancing Tips, Videos by on Feb 17th, 2011. 5 Comments.
Mark apparently got this move from me (and I got it from Professor Orlick in the Hand Balancing Mastery Course), but the way in which he does it was new to me.
Once you get into a handstand move your hands in closer to a touching position, and then from there you move them even closer so a hand is on top of the other hand.
This in many ways mimics a one hand handstand as you’re lessening your base of support. A great lead-up stunt.
The difference is I had always kicked up into position with the hands closer or on top of each other, rather than moving them in. I have to say I like this one a bit more after having just played around with it, although both ways are valid.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Hand Balancing Tips, Handstands, One Hand Handstand, Videos by on Aug 16th, 2010. Comment.
It’s a skill that has long eluded me. A straight arm press.
With my long limbs, I don’t have the leverage and flexibility to quite get the move. Bent arm presses are easy. Straight arm presses not so much. But I am making progress.
There are a number of ways you can work up to this skill. And today I’ll be discussing one which has been a big help.
The first straight arm press to work on is from a straddle. With the legs spread wide the idea is to bring them out and around as you come up into a handstand.
This skill takes strong arms, particularly the shoulders as you must support your body in a leveraged position. Plus you need the ab and core strength to raise the legs up while holding yourself in space.
As the legs start low, it makes sense that in order to make this move easier, you start off with the legs on a raised platform. From here it’s like starting in the middle of the move. The higher up you go the easier it becomes (that is until a certain point where it just becomes awkward due to the height).
As you improve you ability to raise off the ground in complete control, with no momentum, you can lower the height you start from. Eventually you’ll make it to the ground.
Follow this progression and you’ll be able to do straight arm presses from a straddle. From there you can move onto more difficult progressions.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Exercises, Hand Balancing Tips, Handstand Presses, Strength by on Aug 8th, 2010. Comment.
