Great job everyone 👏 Drop any additional questions in the comments or tag someone who should participate in March's challenge (to be announced soon!)

Day 1 was fun, I thought that I would be able to do both exercises without a break in between and I was wrong. I did 2 minutes break to fully recover from the first one. I did a 20-second handstand hold as well so any tips would be helpful. Thx! https://youtu.be/tSug4y7x0A8 https://youtube.com/shorts/cwJ3mQB_uiM?feature=share

This video of Yuri popped in my head tonight and thought it could stir up some interesting conversation. Such a great summary of his perspective and I think explains the big reason why this community exists. Couple related thoughts I've been thinking about as I'm personally headed into the physical therapy profession: 1. As adults, going to the the gym can become another to-do box to check off and we forget that we can reach some of those same fitness goals by going for skills that have many other additional benefits. (Neuroplasticity, connecting with others, practicing mindfulness) 2. In an Ozempic world where you can lose weight with a pill, and in an AI world where technology starts to build a future with more leisure time, looking at physical skills as a means to get that personal satisfaction looks like a likely trend! 3. Yuri calls the handstand in particular the skill that is the great equalizer. I think theres some points in here that make it clear why he says that. What do you think? Are you guys solely focused on the handstand or are there other fitness goals you are going after too?

I grew up uncoordinated and the last to be chosen when playing team sports at school. But I was a natural tree climber, and my parents enrolled me in gymnastics as occupational therapy. I still got chosen last, but I had good running endurance, and I could do 20 pullups on the Presidential fitness test easily. I enjoyed gymnastics and did it until I was old enough that kids my age at the gym needed to go the competitive track or quit. I wasn't good enough on floor/vault/pommel, so I quit. In high school, I finally found a team sport that I was decent in, ultimate frisbee. After enough sprained ankles from poor-quality fields and my inability to throttle how hard I wanted to play, I gave it up. In university, I got into climbing, especially climbing long routes in the mountains. I stopped climbing when we started a family, not necessarily from the danger, but rather from the amount of time it required, even just driving to the mountains and back. I then took up longer distance road cycling, as a way to explore around where I live, where I could start exercising as soon as I left my front door. I enjoyed it for a while, as a supplement to bicycle commuting to work and back, but it felt one-dimensional, and I was getting tired of close calls with angry people driving cars. When the pandemic hit and remote work was mandated, I discovered calisthenics / gymnastics strength training (I had heard of Crossfit from back in the days of Mark Twight / Gym Jones, but preferred self practice and quality over quantity). I liked it because it was multi-dimensional and kept with the theme of exploration, just inward rather than outward. I could be mindful, keep it non-competitive, and enjoy the progress of the journey. My first foray was via GymnasticBodies , which was needlessly rigid, but for fundamentals, comprehensive. I got some good "beginner gains" but then hit a plateau. I remained a remote worker after the pandemic subsided and transformed my home office into a gym. A friend connected me with Paul Tracogna (whom Yuri knows from circus), and Paul has been coaching me since. I'm now an intermediate with handstands (having fun with shapes, a few inches away from a straddle press) and have become much stronger, especially in my weak areas like overhead pressing. Flexibility is coming along too, with the primary challenge being the demanding desk job.

Very Happy to be apart of the group. Ruby has been learning handstands as part of her programing and I haven't done this type of balancing work since I was in art school another life time ago.