Because…

People want to learn them.

They’re a cool party trick, they’re satisfying to learn, and they make you feel young and limber when you’re doing them (if you become proficient, that is).

While there’s some debate in the functional fitness world whether handstand holds, handstand walks, and handstand push-ups should be considered functional movements, I would say it doesn’t really matter.

Because…

People want to learn them.

They’re a cool party trick, they’re satisfying to learn, and they make you feel young and limber when you’re doing them (if you become proficient, that is).

As a former national level gymnast and now fitness coach of more than a decade, I have learned the biggest challenge to learning a handstand isn’t strength. It’s not even mobility, although that’s a close second.

The biggest limiting factor to handstands is a lack of body awareness upside down. People kick up but then they freak out because they have no idea which way is up and which way is down.

Thus, gaining body awareness is the first step in being comfortable upside down.

Below are five progressive exercises to focus on to build that body awareness.

Body Awareness Step 1: Inverted Box Hold

During a box handstand holds, your feet remain on the box while you invert yourself. They’re a great starting point to getting upside down, as they will keep you a little more safe and stable than a full handstand against a wall.

When you’re in this position, spend 5-10 seconds pressing your hands into the ground to get a sense of which way is down, and then a couple more seconds getting as long as possible in your spine toward the ceiling to engrain which way is up.

Make sure your body is as inverted (vertical) as possible on these. It helps to take a video to see if your torso is vertical.

• Try 3 to 5 sets of 20 seconds where you spend 10 seconds focusing on your hands driving into the ground and 10 seconds lengthening your spine to the ceiling.

Body Awareness Step 2: Inverted Box Hold Weight Shifts

Beyond knowing the which way is up and which way is down, you also need to know your left from your right if you want to walk on your hands. And you most certainly need to be able to shift your body weight from your left side to your right side as you walk. These weight shifts are great for teaching just this.

The idea here is to shift your weight toward one side of your body and then gently lift the other hand two inches off the ground. Then shift the other direction and lift the other hand.

• Perform 3 to 5 sets of 10 weight shifts per side.

Body Awareness Step 3: Inverted Box Shoulder Taps

These are slightly more advanced than the weight shift. This time, instead of lifting your hand two inches off the ground, lift your hand and tap your shoulder. This is also a great way to build balance and control upside down.

• Try 3 to 5 sets of 10 shoulder taps per arm.

Body Awareness Step 4: Handstand Weight Shifts

Although you can do these with your back to the wall or facing the wall, I prefer them with your front facing the wall as it forces you to get into a better handstand position. So, if you can wall walk or cartwheel your way up to the wall, this is preferred.

If you’re doing them with your front facing the wall, focus on keeping just your toes and nose touching the wall. If you’re doing them with your back facing the wall, focus on being in a perfect hollow body position and lengthening your spine as much as you can.

The idea here is the same as the inverted box weight shifts, only now you’re in a full handstand position.

Check out the video for both variations: back to the wall and wall facing.

• Perform 3 to 5 sets of 10 weight shifts per side.

Body Awareness Step 5: Handstand Shoulder Taps

Same as the above: You can do these with your front facing the wall or with your back against the wall. In either case, focus on a perfect handstand position and on moving slowly with control as you shift your weight and raise your hand to tap your shoulder just like you did during the inverted box shoulder taps.

• Perform 3 to 5 sets of 10 shoulder taps per side.

Body Awareness Bonus: Freestanding Shoulder Taps

If you can do these, walking on your hands across the gym will be a breeze.

The post Build Body Awareness Upside Down appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

We often talk about the female body image. I have written about it as well as many other authors, but what about the male body image? How do today’s standards affect males and how they feel about themselves?

Many men may say, “I don’t have a problem. I’m great.” Then they go workout for five hours. Is this healthy? When we look at what images our society puts out in the movies – 300, Superman, Spartacus, and Pompeii – what do we see? Men with only five percent body fat, ripped to shreds, and representing an unsustainable way of living.

Both men and women face challenges regarding body image, and it is important to address both sides instead of just one.

Male Body Image and Statistics

The Australian Psychological Society gathered statistics on male body image, including information on the habits of those with body dysmorphic disorder.

According to Helen Fawkner, PhD, research confirms that in recent years the number of men seeking treatment for body-image dissatisfaction has increased.

Traditionally, a male’s role in society has been clearly defined. The “ideal” man offered strength through security.

Today, it seems men feel the need to display strength, security, and masculinity through physical appearance. The statistics are alarming – male body-image dissatisfaction has tripled in the last 25 years, from 15% of the population to 45%.

Here are some other statistics regarding men and the ideal male body:

• One in ten people with anorexia are male.
• 17% of men are on extreme diets.
• 3% of men binge eat.
• 4% of men purge after eating.
• 3% of adolescent boys use performance-enhancing drugs.

Males and Body Dysmorphic Disorder

One form of male body dysmorphic disorder is muscle dysmorphia, a preoccupation that the body is too small and inadequately muscular.

In reality, many of the afflicted men are muscular and large. Compulsive training in the gym is common, as is painstaking attention to diet and dietary supplements. Of particular concern, muscle dysmorphia may lead to the potentially dangerous abuse of performance-enhancing drugs.

The cause of muscle dysmorphia is still relatively unknown, and probably multifactorial, involving genetic-neurobiological, evolutionary, and psychological aspects. Other factors, such as social pressure for boys and men to be large and muscular, contribute to the development of muscle dysmorphia.

The disorder remains under-recognized and under-diagnosed because men are often reluctant to reveal their symptoms due to shame or fear of embarrassment.

Typically, men do not recognize that their beliefs about their appearance may be inaccurate or due to a psychiatric disorder.

How to Know if You Have Muscle Dysmorphia

Many males may be wondering where to draw a line in the sand. Well, those are questions that only you can answer. Some things to think about are:

• Do you go to the gym because you are overly self-conscious about your body and not for overall fitness and health?
• Do you spend several hours in the gym or workout multiple times per day?
• Do you always think you are fat, skinny, or not the “ideal” male?
• Do you have an unhealthy obsession with your diet bordering on the compulsive?
• Have you considered any “dangerous” supplementation such as hormone therapy without the care or prescription of a doctor? Are you using supplements that have been proven to be unhealthy?
• Are you taking diuretics or laxatives for a cosmetic reason?

Some of you may think this list of questions is unreasonable or see nothing wrong with any of it. But if you have all of these symptoms or thoughts, you might have a problem – and there is no shame in that. It is important that you get help if this applies to you.

The Role of Eating Disorders, Body Dissatisfaction, and Attractiveness

The Journal of American College Health investigated the relationship between the risk of eating disorders, body dissatisfaction, and perceptual attractiveness in male university students. The study used 339 males and 441 female students.

Eating disorder risk was assessed with the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT). Body dissatisfaction and perceptual attractiveness were determined with the Bodybuilder Image Grid (BIG).

In the study, 28% of male participants earned an EAT score indicating they were at risk for an eating disorder.

And, ironically, males chose a significantly more muscular and leaner body type as “ideal” than what females chose to be attractive to them. It was concluded from all of this that college age males may be at risk for eating disorders based on distortions in their perceived ideal body image, both for fat and muscle.

It’s Okay to Talk About It

Men and women both share similar concerns when it comes to body image, and it’s important to treat both sexes as equally important. Men may not come out and say they are self-conscious about their bodies, but in reality, some men truly are.

Men, it’s important for you to know what constitutes “healthy” in regards to fitness and diet and what may be extreme to downright unhealthy. If you feel you are more on the unhealthy side, talk to your physician or psychiatrist to understand what a healthy lifestyle could look like for you.

And if someone you have been working with – like a CrossFit coach, personal trainer, exercise physiologist, or nutritionist – approaches you with concerns about your health, be sure to listen.

I know men don’t like to talk about feelings or what is going on inside their heads, but if someone says something to you like, “Hey man, you are going pretty crazy with your diet,” or “Dude, you were in the gym like six times yesterday doing two hour workouts,” it could trigger questions in your mind.

If someone says these sorts of things to you, instead of taking it personally, it may help to think about it and talk to someone about it. It may change – or even save – your life.

References:

1. Mayo, C. and George, V.., “Eating Disorder Risk and Body Dissatisfaction Based on Muscularity and Body Fat in Male University Students.” Journal of American College Health (2014): ePub, accessed June 2, 2014, DOI: 10.1080/07448481.2014.917649

2. Phillips, K. and Castle, D., “Body Dysmorphic Disorder in Men.” British Medical Journal (2001): 1015-1016, accessed June 2, 2014, PMCID: PMC1121529

3. Gregor, Steven. “The Man Behind the Mask: Male Body Image Dissatisfaction.” Australian Psychological Society (2004): ePub, accessed June 2, 2014.

4. Smith, E. and Kosslyn, S., Cognitive Psychology, Mind and Brain, (Upper Saddle River, 2007), 358-360

Photo 1 300 the movie by Attribution-NonCommercial License.

Photos 2 & 3 courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post The Modern Male and Body Image: It’s Okay to Talk About It appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

You should always be making progress in your workouts, yet one of the biggest things that derails people is suffering some form of injury or pain. Getting hurt seems to come along with working out. But does it have to? I don’t think so.

For most of us, exercise is not like playing football where outside forces, another player, or the ground can inflict a big impact on your body and cause something to break. In a scenario like that, sometimes no amount of training can stop injury from occurring.

So why do injuries occur so often? And what can be done about it?

Your Body Sends You Signals

You’ve likely heard this many times before. There’s a good chance you’ve even said it yourself. “I knew I shouldn’t have done that.” I don’t think it’s just a case of hindsight being 20/20, because the knowing often comes ahead of time. So, how is it that you know?

A good friend of mine was at a gymnastics class a while back. Everyone was doing was a 360-jump drill into a punch front roll. It’s not a difficult move, and was serving as a warm-up for the more advanced drills to come later.

As my friend started doing repetitions of the drill, it wasn’t feeling good to him. But he decided he was going to give his all on his next attempt. He did – and on the landing his knee tore out completely.

His body was sending him signals. He didn’t listen, and he paid a big price for it.

You Need to Pay Attention

Not so long ago I was filming a video showing many variations of the holding at arms’ length exercise, which was popular with the old-time strongmen as a test of strength. I was using fairly heavy dumbbells, especially for some of the versions I was doing.

Since I was filming, I wasn’t paying attention to my body like I normally do. In truth, wanting to show all the variations in my video caused me to do too much weight and too much volume. I overused and injured the activated areas. My right shoulder couldn’t do certain movements for several months afterward without pain. Eventually, I rehabbed it and my shoulder is as good as new, but that set me back in my training for a while.

Normally, I listen to my body quite well. And I want give you insight on how you can do it, too.

Listening to Your Body Is a Skill

Listening to your body is a skill, and as such, it needs to be practiced and trained. Most advanced trainees can listen to their bodies to some degree, just from having trained for so long. But when you become conscious of the process behind listening, it works that much better. Training in an intuitive manner is the reason behind people being able to create great results from their workouts.

Reading this article won’t give you the skill, but putting it into practice will start to. So, let’s do an experiment together:

Go ahead and do an exercise right now. Just a rep or two of something like a bodyweight squat or push up. How does it feel? Seriously, think about it for a moment. What words would you use to describe it?

Fast, smooth, fluid, easy, good?

Slow, shaky, hard, painful, sore, rocky?

The first group of words (and any others that might be similar) indicates something that is working well for your body at this time. The second grouping tells you that your body doesn’t like the movement so well at this time.

It’s important to note that this is just an indicator for right now. Tomorrow things could be completely different.

Go ahead and try a different movement right now and compare how your first exercise felt to this one. Does one feel better than the other? In what way?

The more you pay attention to these signals the easier they become to read.

Do What Your Body Wants to Do

The first words describe a movement that you body “wants” to do at this time. Along with that “want” there is likely a far lower chance of injury than if the movement felt hard and rough. Not only that, but when something feels good and right, it means that you’ll also be able to make progress more easily.

Let me give you an example. One goal I’m currently pursuing is a one-arm chin up. This move takes tremendous strength. Training for it causes many people inflammation and injury in the elbow because of the stress put on that area. So everyday, when I’m doing my workout, I grab my bar and do a regular pull up to feel out the movement.

In a single rep I can tell whether my body is giving me a green or red light on this exercise. It either feels smooth or not. Sometimes it feels so awesome and easy I know I can easily set a personal record. Other times it’s good, but not great, and I may just do some reps to put in the work. Sometimes it feels slow and difficult, so I skip the pull ups completely that day.

Be Careful With New or Limit Movements

Listening to your body does become harder when you’re working closer to your max. Lift a heavy weight in the deadlift, and it will definitely move slower than a light weight. But ask yourself, does it feel “slow” or “fast” compared to previous experiences?

Likewise, when you try something new, it may be awkward, but still feel “good” to do. You have to sense different aspects of each movement to really tune in to your body.

Everyone has had the experience of new big personal record that somehow came easily. This might have been a case where you were listening to yourself intuitively. We’ve also all set personal records where it took everything in us to get them. But there’s a problem with that.

When you push your limits, you’re actually shutting down the signals from your body. If you shut down those signals and keep going, then that’s when injuries can and will occur.

There is a whole lot more to this subject than what has been covered here, but by starting to pay more attention to your body and its signals in the way described, you can make better progress and suffer fewer training injuries.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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