One of my loves (and something I’ve been spending a lot of my free time on this last year) is the art of hand balancing. Ever since I was first introduced to the circus arts, I’ve been totally inspired by the acts I’ve seen. It is a beautiful art and requires an insane amount of control and flexibility. I thought I’d share some of my favorite acts here on the blog (at least the ones that are on Youtube). I hope you find these as inspiring as I do.

Anatoly Zalievsky – Amazing act. His style is so graceful. Just beautiful to watch.

Jarek and Derek – Hand to Hand. I saw these guys when Cirque de la Symphonie came through town. The rest of the show was a little underwhelming, but these guys blew me away. Even better in real life.

Dima Bulkin – Umm, wow. That spine!

Andrey Katkov – Cheesy act, but his skills are incredible and his form is just perfect.

Artur – The opposite of above. Imperfect form, amazing act.

Ricardo Sosa – Another cheesy act, but he is one of the masters.

Marco and Paulo Lorador - Another Hand to Hand act. It’s a little old and slightly dated at this point, but these guys are amazing. Muscles anyone?

One of the things that I love about both yoga and acrobatics is that they call on ever new forms of strength and flexibility. In order to progress, you need to work in new ways that involve very specific muscles and muscle combinations that you probably have not used much before (at least not in that specific way). You build on what you have done previously, but there is always new work to be done. (This applies to the mental aspects of exercise as well, but I’m sticking with the physical for now)

The latest challenge for me is press handstands. I’ve done so many handstands over the last year or so and have developed a fair amount of strength and stability there, but am no closer to a press handstand than I was a year ago. I love that. There is always something new. I get excited to explore a new thing and it helps to keep my exercise from getting stale. For me, I’ve found that this is really key to keeping me committed to a workout program. My motivation usually stems from that moment when something first clicks, when something physically challenging all at once becomes accessible. Other people have different ways of being motivated and I think it’s important to know what those are. Without knowing where that motivation comes from in you, exercise is just something that we feel a sense of obligation to do. Where is the fun in that?

Update – So, miraculously, all of a sudden, today I can do a press handstand! This morning I’m writing about it being my latest challenge and today, it just clicked into place. I can only think that somehow, placing conscious attention on it was all that was needed. I wonder what else I should be bringing conscious attention to