Bar-Barians UK Seminar Video 2

The Sunday was the “Advanced Techniques” day, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit anxious about it. I wasn’t sure I’d gain much from it, given that all the skills they’d be focussing on – handstands, handstand push-ups, V-sits, front and back levers and of course the muscle up – seemed completely out of my grasp. And not only mine – a search of YouTube shows how few women out there can perform these moves – I’ve only come across one clip of a girl doing a muscle up on the bars (as opposed to on the rings, which is much more common), and only a few of women doing handstand push-ups.

Of course I was wrong, and the guys started on the absolute fundamentals for learning each move – how to position your hands and shoulders for a handstand, and how you can start with negatives to build up to doing a full handstand push-up. Even the seemingly impossible levers have progressions that we were all able to do – getting your body used to the motion by doing “skin the cat”, moving onto tucked holds, then straddle, then finally bringing the legs together to start working on the full lever. We were also taught ways to start building the explosive power needed for a muscle up – pull-ups to chest height and also a jumping variation, done over a low bar, to learn the C-shaped movement needed to get your body over it.

All in all the weekend was a lot of fun, although utterly exhausting, and we all left full of advice and inspiration to take our training forward. So, ladies, next time you get the opportunity to train with these guys, or ever feel demotivated about some of the bodyweight routines in your Crossfit workouts, come along and join a Bar-baric seminar!

Part 1 

Tweet