Hangout 1: How To Do Handstand, What Fear Does To Your Balance And Why It Alters Your Mechanics, How To Engage Your Core Properly To Keep Yourself Up, How To Fall, And What To Do If You Have Wrist Pains 

Wow!! The first Hangout was SUPER fun. We had a blast AND covered a ton material.

I hope you can make it to the next one.

What surprised me the most is HOW MUCH MATERIAL you can cover over the internet compared to in-person.

What I covered in one FREE Hangout would take me about 10-15 workshops to cover at $75 each. There’s about $1200 of value in this hangout. I highly recommend you watch it.

You can watch the reply here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxnBv0aDOPc

There’s TONS of useful information you can glean from this Hangout including:

• How to do a handstand
• What fear does to your balance and why it alters your mechanics
• How to use your core properly to keep yourself up
• What to do if you have wrist pains
• How to make a 10 minute per day yoga practice extremely productive
• How to structure the ultimate self-practice on limited time
• Why you should journal about your yoga practice
• The number one question you NEED to answer if you’re scared of falling
• Techniques to overcome fear quickly
• The 2 things you need to pay attention to before you jump to handstand
• Why you need to engage your core BEFORE you jump and how do to it
• How to remove the luck element of balance
• Why engaging your core muscles are so important
• What you should FEEL when you’re doing a handstand
• 3 techniques to teach your body proper handstand mechanics in 3 minutes at a time
• The role of the forearms in handstand and how dolphin pose can help your handstand
• What to do if you hyperextend in your elbows (and knees)
• The role of your pulling muscles in hyperextension
• How you should structure a self practice to get results
• How to fall out of handstand fearlessly
• How to use a spotter to help you fall safely
• How a spotter can help you over your fear
• And much more!

Some of the key takeaways:

How to do a Handstand

Work on the hip placement.

The hip placement is everything when learning how to do a handstand.

The fundamental position of balance:

Stacking the hips over the shoulders over the wrists. Easier said than done.

Stacking the hips over the shoulders over the wrists. Easier said than done. Click To Tweet

In the hangout a few people said learning the placement of the hips of tricky.

It is.

Which is why it’s so important to practice with intention.

Kicking up until you get it is the universally believed method of learning handstand.

It doesn’t work.

It takes more careful attention than that.

Understanding how to kick up properly will get you to handstand %1000 faster. Guaranteed.

Learning handstand is more of a cerebral exercise than anything.

Yes, it DOES take physical strength and some flexibility.

But understanding how to harness the power you already have is FAR MORE important.

An Unusual Way to Learn Weight Distribution in Handstand

You need a partner for this.

If you don’t have one…

Stop practicing yoga so much and go makes friends.

Then get back to yoga. 🙂

Here’s how this works:

Do a hanstand next to a couch or a ledge that your spotter can stand on. (This is key)

Let your partner grab you by the ankles when you’re upside.

He/she is going to try and lift you completely off the floor.

Probably not going to happen. But that’s okay.

This is what you’ll feel:

Your hands (and fingers) will work with every ounce possible to keep you glued to the floor.

Only the most important parts of the hand will work.

Your goal:

Recreate that same sensation in the hands without someone pulling on your ankles.

Make sense?

How to Engage Your Core and Strengthen it 

Again find a partner.

You see a common theme here?

Having a partner/spotter/teacher/hippo (where did that come from?) spot in handstand makes it easier to learn.

You’ll learn %2000-%3000 faster with a consistent spotter and %5000 faster with a teacher keeping a close eye on you.

You’ll learn %2000-%3000 faster with a consistent spotter and %5000 faster with a teacher keeping a close eye on you. Click To Tweet

L-sit time.

Use blocks.

1…2….3…

Lift yourself up.

Haver your partner pull on your ankles. You use your core to pull your hips back.

It’s like human tug-of-war.

This not only makes your core stronger but trains your entire torso to work in the exact same way it works in handstand.

Mastering feelings in simpler poses is surefire proven way to nail handstand.

One Critical Mistake: Don’t be Held Back by the Wall

Not engaging your core before you kick up. 

Don’t leave your balance to chance.

I often hear students say:

“I did it! I got lucky and nailed it!”

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Hanstand isn’t about luck, it’s about consciously engaging the exact same muscles time and time again until it becomes emblazoned in your brain and you don’t have to think about anymore.

Hanstand isn’t about luck, it’s about consciously engaging the exact same muscles time and time again until it becomes emblazoned in your brain and you don’t have to think about anymore. Click To Tweet

Got it?

Don’t let luck be a factor in your yoga practice.

Have no doubt.

And don’t second guess yourself. Have faith in what you’re doing in right, and stick to it.

Ok?

Ok.

Why the Wall Sucks

The wall in only good for one thing.

And that’s for developing arm strength.

Once you can hold handstand at the wall for one minute while engaging your core and pushing away from the floor.

Get away from it.

The secret the wall doesn’t tell you:

It wants your attention.

And it wants it for good.

Run away like Little Red Riding Hood running from The Wolf.

Speaking of the wolf, don’t let your mind play tricks on you.

How Fear Manipulates You

Fear teams up with the wall.

Huh?

Your little brain will tell you the wall is safe. And safety is good.

Brian vs. The Brain

Your own brain tricks you.

It tells you this:

“Hi there little yogi I’m here to tell you you’re still weak, get your ass back to the wall now, don’t you DARE start thinking your strong.”

“But brain, Brian tells me I’m strong enough to do a handstand in the middle of the room.”

“And I can hold a handstand at the wall while engaging my core and pushing away for one minute.”

“Little yogi, nonsense, you’re weak and feeble, especially your arms. Get back to the wall now. NOW. You’re a weakling.”

…sighs…

“Ok…”

See what happens?

Your own brain sticks you to the wall forever.

Break free as fast as you can.

How Fear Cripples You

This fear thing sucks…

But you must conquer it.

Fear tells you your hips are high enough (and stacked) when they aren’t.

More mind games.

Sometimes yoga pits your body against your mind like two 8 year old children fighting on the playground.

It’s your job to MAKE THEM play nicely together. 

Why it Pays to Pay Attention: Why Your Core Rules

As I said learning how to engage your core properly in handstand in everything.

Without it, you have nothing. Except your puny little arms. And even that’s questionable.

Learn to engage your core in handstand by holding plank with a block between your legs.

Learn to engage your core in handstand by holding plank with a block between your legs. Click To Tweet

I talk about this in the Hangout.

Squeezing the block while in plank makes all the components of your core engage correctly.

Your Inner Thighs. Check.

Your Hips. Check.

Your Transverse Abdominis. Check

As a byproduct, you’ll drastically reduce the reliance on your shoulders in traps.

Keep working on your core, and make sure your core engages BEFORE you jump.

Why it Pays to be Patient (and consistent)

Maybe you’ve heard me say this before.

Maybe you haven’t.

Disclaimer: I’m about to say something un-yogic. So if you get offended easily skip the next bit.

Back when I started yoga, I sucked at it.

Yup.

I sucked.

And I have no problem admitting that. I couldn’t do a single pose to save my life.

“But Brian, I’ve heard you say so many times that poses don’t really matter.”

It’s true.

But here’s the scary thing:

I sucked at yoga because I sucked at paying attention. Click To Tweet

My girlfriend in college said to me once while standing in a mile long line for Free-Burrito-Day at Chipotle:

“You’re a terrible listener and you don’t pay attention to a thing I say.”

As much as I’d like to tell you she was wrong. She wasn’t.

I told myself, “Geezzz, I am a shitty listening. I need to start paying attention.”

And then I had one of those lightbulb moments:

This is why I suck at yoga.

I’M NOT EVEN PAYING ATTENTION TO MY OWN BODY.

GOD.

Every time I went to yoga class I started paying attention to what my own body, whom I alienated and shoved in the corner, was telling me.

Boy did simply paying attention make a HUGE difference.

It took a pissed off girlfriend to make me understand how important the position of my knees on my triceps was to doing crow.

LOL…..

From there it all changed.

I stopped lying to myself about my yoga practice.

I stopped pretending (in my own head) to be yoga god.

And started reading the signals my body was putting out to me. And started listening.

“Duh I don’t suck at forward folds because my teacher sucked, I suck at forward folds because my hamstrings are tight.”

Something so simple yet so profound at the same time.

By the way, for those you thinking I thought my first yoga teacher ever sucked:

My first teacher, Mike Minton, was amazing. He turned me into a yoga nut. So I credit him for everything.

My days of believing quick fixes and instant gratification was everything, ended.

I excepted the fact it could take months, or even years, and possibly decades for me to develop the yoga practice I so desperately wanted.

Consistency Is Hard If…

you don’t believe in yourself.

Simple as that.

It’s impossible to learn yoga in one day.

That’s where self-belief and determination comes in.

If you knew with %100 certainty if you did X, Y, and Z you’re yoga practice would be jaw-dropping in one year, would you do it?

Of course you would.

My goal isn’t to teach you yoga overnight. It’s give you a blueprint that works. So that you believe in yourself and stick to it.

How to Stay Consistent

Start keeping a practice notebook.

When you’re working on something new. Write down what you feel in your body.

Write down things like:

• What it feels like to enter into the pose
• What it feels like to hold yourself up
• What muscles are working to hold yourself stable
• Be detailed in your descriptions, it’s easy to forget these things
• The role of your feet in the pose
• How your joints feel
• The role of your hips
• Which direction are your hips facing
• Is your core engaged?
• Is it hard to engage your core?
• The perceived weakest link
• What the strongest parts of your body are doing
• What the weakest parts of your body are not doing

And the list goes on.

Do you get the point?

Accountability. To yourself.

Don’t Pick Mt. Kilimanjaro to Scale First

Break your practice down into digestible, bite-sized pieces.

For example, if you’ve never practiced on your own before, don’t set a goal to practice 3 hours straight.

You won’t do it. You’ll give up and convince yourself you’re a loser.

Instead…

Tell yourself you’ll practice for 10 minutes a day.

Working on something specific like:

Getting your inner things to squeeze together.

Pick 3-4 poses that’ll help you accomplish that.

Then get started.

And keep going.

and going….

and going….

until you get there.

Then pick something new.

But before you do, acknowledge what you’re accomplished and BE GRATEFUL.

Don’t become entitled to accomplishment and don’t become numb to it.

Don’t become entitled to accomplishment and don’t become numb to it. Click To Tweet

Your life will suck if you do.

Trust me.

Focusing on improving just one thing at a time.

It’s powerful.

Stop being a dreamer and become an executor.

Why Hangouts Rock

Yes, we learned TONS of tactical information to apply to our yoga practices immediately.

And yes, we discussed big abstract topics like:

• How to do a handstand
• How to stack yourself properly
• How to engage your core
• How to strengthen your core
• How to fall
• Ect. Ect.

This stuff is important but…

The most important thing?

Everyone left with a little more self-belief, with a little more know-how, zest and vigor.

Slight tweaks make HUGE DIFFERENCES.

You have 2 options now:

1) Watch the Hangout

2) Get practicing!

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