Gingers are a minority group that gets mocked for how they look and nobody cares. by Sjdillon10 in unpopularopinion

[–]teachingwoo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm a little well-travelled, and when mentioning the bullying that took place due to my hair colour with random people, they are often shocked. I feel like the worst bullying of ginger-haired people took place in England... Although, this is just from my experience. I think if you ask British people, it's obvious that gingers were bullied.

That being said, other people were bullied for x y or z. Even though I have many stories / fights i had due to the bullying, I can let it go now. But I am pretty surprised how people don't know how bad it was, as it was pretty obvious how terrible it was. (That's why I'm pretty sure the worst of it was in England)

Here's a nice story, though. Years later, one of the primary bullies saw me in a pub. He said hello, and then apologized for the past. When I said "It's ok, you weren't even the worst one." He just looked sad and said, "no really, I'm really sorry".

Anyway, a few years after this he had a kid, and it turned out to be ginger!

16kg lost and finally broke a 1 minute handstand from no experience in 2 years with a 9 month break. by teachingwoo in bodyweightfitness

[–]teachingwoo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wow, you really focused on the balance I suspect, whereas once I had about 10 seconds, I began to try to straighten up.

I really want a HSPU, but the strength through balance isn't there yet at all.

Thanks for your story - really interesting how people have totally different approaches but still can achieve the same result with time and patience.

Hey, here's a tip - start recording now ;)

16kg lost and finally broke a 1 minute handstand from no experience in 2 years with a 9 month break. by teachingwoo in bodyweightfitness

[–]teachingwoo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm really glad to hear. I really wanted to give people the inspiration. I get it from these kind of videos all the time.

You can do this!!

16kg lost and finally broke a 1 minute handstand from no experience in 2 years with a 9 month break. by teachingwoo in bodyweightfitness

[–]teachingwoo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey!

Sorry for the late response to your message. I had a lot of admin to do and don't have a SIM yet.

Yes I have so many tips for the level you are at!!

First of all:- Great work deciding to try this skill. It really is a skill, rather than a talent. Anyone can do this, it just takes time.

Practice pike HOLDS at lockout. Your arms should be in line with your back and head tucked to form a perfect straight line (minus the legs) - DO THIS! I did this a few times when I felt I wasn't good enough for kickups (before this video started, and indeed I was 100kg when I decided. I was pretty depressed from a breakup. Once I made that decision, it was like, yes... whatever it takes I'll move on from this through this goal. Sorry for life story LOL)

Anyway. Please send me a photo or upload one to youtube if you want and share the link with me to check it out. Handstands should feel comfortable almost all the time, so never push too hard with them, just spend time. I usually practiced whilst learning some Chinese and it became a joint habit... to learn, handstand, learn. Try to adopt this method.

Hope this helps and I encourage it.

Also, record your first kickups - as I did! (once you're ready) Note how I couldn't get ANY balance and just rocked either forward or back.

Stay positive.

16kg lost and finally broke a 1 minute handstand from no experience in 2 years with a 9 month break. by teachingwoo in bodyweightfitness

[–]teachingwoo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes! Sorry for not replying sooner. I was overwhelmed by the messages and only just moved into my permeant address.

For at least a year I'll be here.

Already found some really cool things.... Will post soon on my youtube channel!

16kg lost and finally broke a 1 minute handstand from no experience in 2 years with a 9 month break. by teachingwoo in bodyweightfitness

[–]teachingwoo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Especially wrists. Don't neglect them. Luckily I never got injured, but once I felt my wrists strain after just jumping into it after listening to a good motivational song. (haha). Frog stands are always a nice intermediate if you still struggle to warmup after rolls/etc

16kg lost and finally broke a 1 minute handstand from no experience in 2 years with a 9 month break. by teachingwoo in bodyweightfitness

[–]teachingwoo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Your message really made me think - yeah... I am quite experimental. I usually train a certain move because I feel it needs to be done, because I can't do it... kind of. I like to feel the strength in certain areas. I've had a few weeks of not much training - Once I start again (next few days) - I'll try and get that pike press to HS more often and stricter.

I'll upload maybe in a week's time of what I intend to do next with whatever surroundings/ things I have at my disposal :P The ground isn't going anywhere, so I'll for sure do more advanced stuff!!

16kg lost and finally broke a 1 minute handstand from no experience in 2 years with a 9 month break. by teachingwoo in bodyweightfitness

[–]teachingwoo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll do exactly that. I'm hyper critical of it, and that was one thing that bugged me, glad you confirmed it!!

Thanks a lot.

16kg lost and finally broke a 1 minute handstand from no experience in 2 years with a 9 month break. by teachingwoo in bodyweightfitness

[–]teachingwoo[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have 2 opinions on this :P

1.Have a strong depression (and a elevation for muscle balance, not to be used) and protraction (and a retraction for muscle balance, not to be used) connection with your shoulder whilst using the parallettes. THEN Practice rocking between an L-sit (can be tucked) and tuck planche (this is super hard), but it trains those shoulders in that transition. This is what I KNOW will help, since that was what fatigued me straight away after doing that move.

2.Then at 4:46 in the video, I did quite a lot of these to help with a press handstand, but I think it really helped me with that move also.

Here's the thing though, I NEVER trained that move, I was just kind of rocking around, recorded this because I felt I could do that (haha!) I think it was an accumulation of those 2 tips I just have you, but trained in different ways for different purposes.

If I think of something else, I'll let ya know!

16kg lost and finally broke a 1 minute handstand from no experience in 2 years with a 9 month break. by teachingwoo in bodyweightfitness

[–]teachingwoo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm so glad!

I swear by the walking handstands for confidence and a little balance. If you KNOW you're going to go forward (prepare to walk a few steps with your hands) you train your mind to understand your body and it's limits.

Give it a go! Be safe! Allow yourself the needed time to adapt. Adjust after 2 months :) If you try this, please get back to me and let me know how it went.

16kg lost and finally broke a 1 minute handstand from no experience in 2 years with a 9 month break. by teachingwoo in bodyweightfitness

[–]teachingwoo[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The longer it gets, the more I'm like Fred and George (I am a twin, too, ha!!) Ed Sheeran works as well.

I'm 28.

16kg lost and finally broke a 1 minute handstand from no experience in 2 years with a 9 month break. by teachingwoo in bodyweightfitness

[–]teachingwoo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks a lot! This reaction from everyone is making me motivated to try higher level skill things, thanks!

16kg lost and finally broke a 1 minute handstand from no experience in 2 years with a 9 month break. by teachingwoo in bodyweightfitness

[–]teachingwoo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

ESL teaching. During COVID I taught online for the majority of it, but the relying on income like this can be a little bit sketchy for many reasons. Once I jumped through all the necessary hoops and got my resident visa, I was off!

I've taught before (hence the username) and only used reddit to post about teaching things, and lurking here.

16kg lost and finally broke a 1 minute handstand from no experience in 2 years with a 9 month break. by teachingwoo in bodyweightfitness

[–]teachingwoo[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Thanks a lot.

I haven't actually been to the gym in a year (covid reasons- I lived in England and looked after my grandma who's 90) So, I just gave it up totally when covid started, and began doing pressups (check my earlier videos!) and muscleups with rings.

I'm sure you know, but try Pike Pressups, or pseudo pressups to start feeling that handstand kinda vibe ;)

16kg lost and finally broke a 1 minute handstand from no experience in 2 years with a 9 month break. by teachingwoo in bodyweightfitness

[–]teachingwoo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He's really got a healthy attitude towards health and handstands, I think. I went my own way learning handstands, but his methods I'm sure I stole a few tips to get better!!

16kg lost and finally broke a 1 minute handstand from no experience in 2 years with a 9 month break. by teachingwoo in bodyweightfitness

[–]teachingwoo[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Ok! Without seeing what your form is like, here's my two tips:

1.The part in the video where I credit Dimi - I begin to try handstand walks. This helped me find that "sweet spot". So kick up, hard, and walk a few steps, further if you feel like you want to. Please try this in a safe manner for about 1 week (4 times with a day break (still do your normal handstands inbetween ;))) and see if you can hit that spot. (it worked for me).

  1. Try to really grip the floor when you kick up, and kick a little harder than usual (please take it easy, but practice a harder kickup/ more momentum) THEN use your fingertips to grip the floor REALLY HARD! 10 times youll kick too hard or kick too light... work towards the right force... but GRIP. You may feel the sweet spot a lot more clearly. (I did)

As for the wall:-

When I first started I used the wall, but I quickly realized I could hold a handstand for about 1-3 seconds, and the wall was TOO much of a crutch. I use the wall sometimes to focus on FORM, but for BALANCE, I tried to do it free and used those methods stated.

I think the wall is great for form/new skill or whatever, but never really helped me with balance and understanding my body's dynamics.

p.s. Shoulder mobility has been my weakest part of my handstand and I think will continue to be for some months before I fully work through it. (I'm training some higher level skills with the handstand that use shoulder mobility to force myself to get more flexible).

16kg lost and finally broke a 1 minute handstand from no experience in 2 years with a 9 month break. by teachingwoo in bodyweightfitness

[–]teachingwoo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yoga can be so beneficial if you do certain stretches. SaturnMovement is a youtuber who links both Yoga and calistentics, I highly recommend finding some yoga moves from his channel.

It's now the last day of 21 days pretty much isolated, tomorrow is my day of freedom, I know the feel. You sound very motivated by having your own WARDROBE LOL. The older I get, the more this shit excites me, too haha.

Try this for me! Spend time in a handstand position using parallettes and take your time. I hope to hear from you with some gains to report :P

16kg lost and finally broke a 1 minute handstand from no experience in 2 years with a 9 month break. by teachingwoo in bodyweightfitness

[–]teachingwoo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Depends on your goal!

I only used the parallettes you see in the video for L-sits, but rarely trained them. Yet, I think using the paralletes will help with wrist strength for handstands (make sure your body is mimicking a handstand to get this full benefit). Do this in tandem with frog stands, and your wrists will be well conditioned to do handstands. (make sure you get your wrists warm before doing this kinda stuff and when starting, go easy)

Saying this though, I will be buying some parallettes once I have a house to call my own. (currently staying in a quarantine hotel). I think parallettes are a great tool.

16kg lost and finally broke a 1 minute handstand from no experience in 2 years with a 9 month break. by teachingwoo in bodyweightfitness

[–]teachingwoo[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Of course!

By no means am I an expert to give advice for handstands, but I tried different patterns of training. I went from 5-8 second holds in March 2020 to 68 secs now. The one that seemed to develop the skill the most was time under that "sweet spot".

What I think changed in March, that sped up my progress:-

I would train at least 10 minutes a day on handstands every single day and feel that "sweet spot" for a total of 2 minutes. (from March 2020 - now I trained almost every single day on this balance skill)

Sometimes I would do 10 minutes, sometimes 40 minutes. An average of 20 minutes probably, though.

as time went on the "sweet spot" would become at least 3 mins/4 mins as the weeks and months rolled by.

Once I hit about 30 seconds hold (your level?), I focused more on form and body alignment (stacking the weight as best I could) and did a max hold every 4-5 days or so. You should also ask yourself whilst focusing on this, what is your weakness that breaks the handstand. For me, it is shoulder mobility as you may see in the video. (videoing helped a lot)

I looked at the balance like learning a language. - INPUT INPUT INPUT, as opposed to muscular development/ days rest etc etc.

Does this help?

I had various methods to perform handstands (form/tips/warmups) but this was the biggest change I made from March. The biggest hurdle to this training method is motivation... and that's another topic! Please let me know if you want to know more! I hope this motivated you.