CALISTHENICS
MOVEMENT
HANDSTANDS


BLOGS & TUTORIALS

 
Tutorials, special interest John Donohue Tutorials, special interest John Donohue

The Most Important Acrobatic Skills - Learn Acrobatics From Scratch!

Backflips, helicopteros, 540s, corkscrews: all amazing moves, but where the heck does one start if they want to do one? It all starts with knowing the foundations: jumping, rolling, twisting, and more. In this article I lay out all the skills you need to learn and give you a bunch of progressions to to work on, so that you can set your acrobatics journey in motion.

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Tutorials John Donohue Tutorials John Donohue

How To Not Get Stuck In Your Middle Splits!

After seeing Matthew Smith guide our mutual friend Theo into performing the side split in just A SINGLE SESSION(!), I knew I had to invite him to my channel to share his knowledge with you guys, so this tutorial is all about getting down into the side split.

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Tutorials John Donohue Tutorials John Donohue

Handstand guide for Complete Beginners - 3 steps

Anyone can learn to handstand! Learning a handstand from scratch and becoming comfortable upside down by conditioning your fear of falling from a handstand; building up to the required strength; and developing awareness of your body in terms of your spine, your pelvis, your legs, and your overall stability - these are the foundational building blocks to getting started on your handstand.

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Tutorials John Donohue Tutorials John Donohue

5 Common One Arm Handstand Mistakes... and how to fix them

Beyond the obvious - building up to the required strength and balance to be able to perform the one arm handstand (OAHS) - there are certain things I think will be helpful to keep in mind for anyone training towards their one arm handstand (OAHS). In this video tutorial I will go over the 5 one arm handstand mistakes I see people making most often. I believe that, if you are able to keep these common mistakes in mind and gain control over them, your training towards the one arm handstand (OAHS) will be made more efficient and effective. OAHS mistakes mentioned in this article:

  1. You’re not strong enough to start your one arm handstand training

  2. You’re handstand is not good enough to start the OAHS journey

  3. You’re egocentric in your one arm handstand training

  4. You think the full one arm handstand is easier than the straddle

  5. You’re not using the wall in your one arm handstand training

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Tutorials John Donohue Tutorials John Donohue

One Arm Handstand - Drills and Progressions when starting out

In this beginners guide to one arm handstands we dive into some super practical and immediately applicable drills and progressions to incorporate into your One Arm Handstand training. We go over a full list of entry drills - that is, drills that work on our shift from two hands to one - and then we move on to freestanding hold drills. Throughout the piece you’ll also find super handy tips that will help you on your one arm handstand journey. By the end of the post, I’m confident you’ll walk away with at least a few things that will help you reach the OAHS.

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Tutorials John Donohue Tutorials John Donohue

One Arm Handstand - Position/Form Guidelines to Make Your Life Easier

After reading this piece you should have a clearer perspective on your approach to the One arm handstand (OAHS), as well as some practical tips you can apply to your OAHS training which will make it more effective and efficient. I’ll cover my recommended form cues regarding shoulder positioning, hip positioning, and more, as well as certain things I think you should steer clear of when approaching the One arm handstand.

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Tutorials John Donohue Tutorials John Donohue

How to Backflip - WITHOUT a gym!

Whether you’re 10 years old or 35 years old, there’s a good chance that if you see someone doing a backflip, you think to yourself, “I wanna be able to do that”. In this tutorial, myself and Theo are going to go over everyyyyything you need to learn to backflip, so that you can finally make your childhood backflip dreams come true. 

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Tutorials John Donohue Tutorials John Donohue

3 Shoulder Positions for Efficient Handstands

A handstand isn’t JUST about balancing on your hands. You need the proper head and hand positioning, shoulder positioning, hip and spine positioning, and more. In this article we cover shoulder positioning. Proper shoulder positioning will greatly help your handstand become more efficient and effective. Here we cover the three form cues that are crucial for proper shoulder positioning: shoulder elevation, shoulder flexion, and internal rotation.

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Tutorials John Donohue Tutorials John Donohue

Hip and Spine Positioning for a Straight Handstand - Handstand form 102

In this final piece to the handstand puzzle, we will go over how to achieve the correct hip and spine positioning to get your handstand form to perfection. The reason I’ve put hip and spine positioning together is because you can’t really work on one while ignoring the other, especially when upside-down in a handstand. Once you've got this and the previously-covered form cues down, you are ready to put together a perfect handstand.

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Tutorials John Donohue Tutorials John Donohue

Tuck Planche - 7 form cues and 4 adjustable exercise drills

In this Tuck Planche tutorial I will teach you practical tips on how to perform the movement, what muscles to tighten, and what to do and think about while you are doing the Tuck Planche. I will also teach you technical drills that will help you learn the Tuck Planche faster, as well as strength drills that will help you develop the relevant strength for this skill.

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Tutorials, special interest John Donohue Tutorials, special interest John Donohue

10 Tips on Managing Injuries For calisthenics & handstands

The difference between people who make it far in handstands and calisthenics and those who don’t, is how well those people manage their injuries. Cause let’s face it - everyone doing high level athletics will get injured. In this article, I’m going to give you 10 helpful tips on how to deal with injuries particularly related to calisthenics and handstands. Of course, preventing injury in the first place is ideal. But, when that is a foregone conclusion, we must learn to manage our injury.

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Tutorials John Donohue Tutorials John Donohue

How to Handstand Kick Up

In this tutorial I will simplify the handstand kick up, the must-know handstand entry for all movers. In other words, I want you to think about as few steps as possible when entering the kick-up, and still perform it as effectively as possible. We will cover the steps for entering the kick up, form cues to keep in mind, and drills for training your kick up.

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Tutorials John Donohue Tutorials John Donohue

6 set types for better progress in Calisthenics & Strength training

What kind of sets you use can make a difference in your motivation, as well your ability to break through plateaus. In this piece we are going to cover a whole bunch of them, so buckle up! While you may already be familiar with a few of the set types covered in this piece, I am confident you will pick up at least a couple new helpful ways to switch up your set/rep scheme to help you break through plateaus and force progress.

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Tutorials John Donohue Tutorials John Donohue

Prevent under balancing (falling backwards) your handstand!

We’ve already gone over how to use your fingers to avoid falling forwards over your hands. In this short but juicy article, I will teach you how to use your hand heels and avoid falling backwards/under balance. I will share the form cues you need to think about to make correcting your balance more efficient, and some practicable exercises to improve your balance while in the handstand.

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Tutorials John Donohue Tutorials John Donohue

How to do a Handstand? Learn How to Use Your Hands!!

One of the most important things when you learn to handstand is learning to really use your hands to balance! In particular, you must learn to push in with your fingers to adjust your body one way, and push in with your hand heels to adjust your body the other way. In this article I give you drills which help specifically train your ability to use your hands to balance. I truly believe that these drills in particular may produce your biggest leap in progress learning the handstand.

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Tutorials John Donohue Tutorials John Donohue

Muscle-Up in 3 steps - How to do the Slow Muscle-Up

In this tutorial I will go over how to do the slow muscle up , using a false grip.. We will attack the muscle-up by breaking it down into three parts: the pull, the push, and the transition. As well, I will go over tips on how to avoid injury while training for the muscle-up, how to use a so-called “false grip”, how to use bands to aid in your progress, and specifically what exercises to train and how to do them.

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Tutorials Sondre Berg Tutorials Sondre Berg

4 uncommon planche strategies & the best planche progression

This tutorial will NOT tell you to simply work through those same 4-5 planche progressions that many other tutorials do. Here we talk about how to create half-steps BETWEEN planche progressions and introduce planche training from different angles. We also discuss some specific exercises for building the necessary core strength to perform the planche.

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