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Handstand Progressions Part 4

In the gym--handstands are used as part of our strength circuit, in a WOD, or, occasionally for a fun finisher at the end class.  You should be working toward a freestanding handstand away from the wall, a static hold handstand on the wall, and ultimately a handstand push-up.  This final post on Handstand Progressions is the combination of the skill of kicking up on to your hands---and the strength of holding and pressing in and out of a handstand.  Just like getting your first pull-up, getting your first true handstand push-up is a pretty awesome feat....one that takes lots of attempts, and a whole lot of patience.

Handstand Progressions Part 3

In the previous two handstand progression blogs, the drills we have been practicing are designed to develop the skill of performing a handstand.  Check out the previous two blogs to get some ideas on how to work on balance and free standing handstands.  Once you feel comfortable kicking into a freestanding handstand--kicking up to the wall to work on handstand strength is a piece of cake!

Handstand Progressions part 2

Last week I suggested a few balancing drills to help lead into a successful free standing handstand.  Click here to review that post.

Handstand Progressions

As trainers--we can always tell when it is a clients first day in the Elements class after graduating from the On-Ramp.  It never fails that the gymnastics skill for the day is handstands or handstand push-ups.  The expression on most new clients’ faces is somewhere between fear....and ‘are you f**kin’ kiddin’ me?’. 

Width Does Matter!

Lately we have been seeing some folks practicing their parallel bar dips with less than an ideal setup.  When the parallel bars are too wide it becomes increasingly difficult to stabilize your torso as you are lowering into and pressing out of the dip position.  Your wrist, elbow and shoulder joints are carrying a great deal of tension--and small adjustments in the angle and position of your body (via appropriate bar set up) can reduce the risk for injury as well as improve success in the dip and L-sit.

What is long, black, and cylindrical in shape?

Heads out of the gutter!!!!! The object in which I am referring to is the FOAM ROLLER. If you have not seen a foam roller, that’s probably because it has been hiding under Robb’s, or Nicki’s fanny.

So…You Think You Want A Muscle up

Everybody wants to do a muscle-up and I’ve never been totally sure why.  It was the muscle-up that first got me into gymnastics as an adult.  I saw someone on the Internet that was my dad’s age executing a perfect muscle-up and decided that I wanted to be able to do that someday.  Unfortunately we aren’t professional athletes and we all only have a limited amount of training time per week.  Before we all go spend our precious training time working on muscle-ups let’s take a step back and think about progression.

Going Overhead

In Crossfit as in life we are often required to go overhead.  The movement should be the same whether we are doing heavy presses or placing an enormous box of old college textbooks on the top shelf in the garage.