12 Secrets to Handstand Like Lamonte Tales Goode: A Skeptics Guide to True Flight, The Cyber Yoga Revolution (And How to do an Airbaby)

Ever wonder if you’re missing out?

After all, you have so many options for choosing where you learn yoga from, you could easily overlook a killer tactic.

But chasing the latest Guru or “Fitness Expert” can be a distraction, and that’s the time you’re not spending learning what actually works.

And sometimes you don’t need clever new tactics. Some of the best teachers and resources have been out there for years – you’ve simply neglected them.

We’ve all been there.

Stuck.

In a desperate attempt to solve the problem you spend hours trying to type in the perfect keywords into Google like:

“how to do a handstand fast”

“why does my balance suck”

“why I can’t do the splits today”

Or you scour Youtube for the latest Yogalebrity to show you the light.

But eventually, you just give up and go back to eating pizza and drinking beer. After all, it’s a whole lot easier than learning some stupid arm balance.

And you tell yourself, “Thank God I don’t have to watch those idiots on Instagram do things I’ll never be able to do again…another deep dish please.”

Let me be the first to tell you:

If you take this same crappy attitude you’ll never learn anything.

Sometimes *truly* inspiring people can annoy you.

Rather than being grateful for all amazing things you could learn.

You instead get jealous, angry, and annoyed because you secretly wish you were them.

Asana Academy readers listen up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eA9Dhl7r6Q

Meet Lamonte Tales Goode.

He’s a yogi, dancer turned yogi, that’ll make your jaw drop.

Now settle down.

One of the tips in the video interview I did with him could just be the tip you need to push your practice over the edge.

C.Y.B.E.R Yoga

There’s a reason he calls his yoga this.

Here’s why:

One thing particularly interesting is his movement background is diverse and it leads to an acronym:

C. Calisthenics

Y. Yoga

B. Bboy/Breakdance

E. Equilibre

R. Revolution

Cool huh?

So listen close, then read the summary:

Here’s the 12 Key Takeaways to Becoming a Master-Cyber (kinda like a black belt) Hand-Balancer.

1. Humility goes a long way – lower your initial expectations.

Don’t expect everything to come easy.

Lamonte doesn’t.

And neither should you.

Valuable things are with waiting for.

And in this case no, not material things unfortunately, those things are useless. I’m talking mind-blowing things you can do with your body.

If you aren’t willing to wait, quit. It’s simple.

Go play Angry Birds or Connect Four. This isn’t for you.

2. Ignore the destination. It doesn’t matter. Focus on the dirt you walk on now.

And it’s so true. The destination isn’t important, seriously.

Focus on the ground you’re walking and ENJOY it.

Hear that?

ENJOY IT.

Otherwise you’ll be miserable.

Achievement without acknowledgement is useless. You’ll still be miserable if you don’t learn to appreciate what’s in front of you.

3. Fall 20,000 times (Fall 500 times REALLY hard)

Here’s a one of the paradox’s of our world:

You can work so hard at something that people will think you DIDN’T work for it.

Sometimes, you can get so good at something, people dismiss it as magic.

Falling is critical to the learning process. It helps to fine tune your proprioception.

4. Hit the bullseye by identifying your weaknesses

Work on things you’re not good at.

Let your ego take a seat on the bench.

Your only as strong as your weakest link.

Student’s think working on the strongest points of their practice makes them better.

Not true.

Working on the WEAKEST points of your practice will rocket you to the stratosphere. 

5. Consistent Practice with a clear head

Again, work on appreciation of your own body.

Don’t focus on what you can’t. Focus on what you can.

Use ALL the tools you have at your disposal.

6. Cross pollenate – Learn from as many disciplines as you can

Here’s how a yoga class can cripple your development:

Being confined to your yoga mat is dangerous.

This is what many yogis do and they only learn to move in one way.

I encourage my students to explore movements that take your body off your mat.

7. Do crazy things to do insane things (and ignore the people who think you’re crazy)

A standout point from the interview:

Lamont used to try to balance on chairs in front of his friends.

His friends used to think he was crazy.

Until they saw him bust out an Airbaby 2 years later.

The point is, outside-the-box thinking rules.

If people DON’T think you’re crazy, you’re probably doing something wrong.

8. Do the Hardest Thing First (like a Figa as pictured below)

It’s something you hear me preach. Set long term goals but don’t fixate on them.

Instead, analyze what needs to be done to improve.

For example:

If you’re working on handstand, don’t just practice it mindlessly, practice to understand what needs work.

If your arms feel like they’re giving out on you, work on other poses to make your arms stronger.

If your back hurts when you jump up. Work on stretching your hamstrings. Do this especially if you have a hard time with a pike.

9. Feel Yourself Move

Focus on what you’re feeling in your muscles instead of what you see.

Don’t get pose oriented. It really slows your progress.

What to do instead:

Zero in on what muscles are doing when you attempt a pose. You learn far more from ATTEMPTING a pose than actually doing it.

Active vs. Passive Flexibility

Let’s use a press-handstand as an example.

The way you engage your hamstrings in a press-handstand is similar to how you engage then in the splits.

Lost? Fear not.

Yes, the splits (hanumanasana) is a nice pose.

But here’s the important thing:

The act of doing the splits makes your hamstrings stretch. This is called Passive Flexibility.

Now think back to that press-handstand of yours.

Want the secret, how to do a press-handstand?

Engage your hamstrings just like you did in the splits. That’s Active Flexibility.

Now were you paying attention to what yours splits look like or what you were feeling in your hamstrings?

10. One-handed handstand starts with the foundation (and endurance)

Too many people rush into one-handed handstand.

Instead, do these things with your handstand to build the proper foundation:

• Focus on pushing yourself away from the ground
• Work on your endurance 
• Work on leg movements
• Get SUPER solid
• Get comfortable shifting the weight

We’ll cover this in more detail at some point.

11. Don’t neglect flexibility

This is a tough one for students to grasp. Becoming good at handstand entails more than just working on strength.

If you neglect flexibility, it’ll alter your mechanics.

Advancing your yoga practice requires PROPER mechanics.

Here’s how:

Think about poses like Warrior 1, Warrior 2, and Triangle.

You can get away with doing them wrong (and in some cases horribly wrong) and you’ll still be able to resemble the pose.

However, with more advanced posses starting with Headstand, you mechanics MUST be right. Or you’ll get no where.

This is what advanced practitioners understand, so they invest TONS of time learning proper mechanics.

Although ALWAYS necessary, strength and flexibility only take you so far. Mechanics rule.

Keep this in the back of your mind when you practice:

Strength and Flexibility yield consistent progress but even a slight tweak in your mechanics has HUGE potential to yield an enormous improvement spike.

12. Keep Learning and Dump The Ego

Lamonte learns from everyone. That’s why he’s obsessive about studying multiple disciplines. That’s how he got into yoga in the first place!

Get over the ego that comes with improvement.

This is what happens:

You start to learn a couple of tricks.

Then all of a sudden you’re TOO GOOD to listen to anyone.

You think you know best.

…DUMB…DUMB…DUMB…..DUMB….DUMB…..here that?

Ok.

Don’t do that.

My Secret Weapon

Ready for this?

Teaching.

Teaching students yoga.

There’s no better way to discover new things in YOUR OWN BODY than by teaching others.

The questions that students ask (especially new students) are critical for your own development and it continually forces me to see old concepts from new angles.

Make Love with Discipline and Give Birth to an Airbaby (How To Do an Airbaby)

There’s one thing I’ll share Lamonte and I discussed “off-air” that’ll be of interest to you.

How to do an Airbaby – The Skeptics Guide to True Flight

(Ps. If you could only see what was going on in the background of this picture…the golf marshall was ready to throw me outta there, haha)

Lamonte and I had a geek-out arm balance talk after the interview and WE LEARNED SO MUCH FROM IT I HAVE TO SHARE IT WITH YOU.

I’ll compile a full guide on this at some point but here are the basics to get you going:

Don’t think about Airbaby as Eka Pada Bakasana on one arm. The hand placement is different.

How to place your hand:

Use your stronger arm (in my case the right arm) and rotate it to the right 90 degrees. If it’s your left rotate your hand to the left.

This is crucial.

Here’s why:

Spinning your hand out at 90 degrees counters rotation.

This is the fundamental difference between balancing on one hand versus two.

Any balancing on one hand requires you to contend with circular rotation.

You can fall at any point on that 360 degree circle. Difficult right?

Versus on two hands, you can fall in pretty much two directions, forward or back. You’t have to worry about stabilizing any forces from the side.

Don’t put the knee too High Up on the Elbow:

• Place your knee closer to your elbow (take note in the pictures)
• Don’t rest your knee on your tricep
• It’ll wiggle around and slide off

Work on Opening Up the Top Hip:

• Open your top hip just like half moon
• Imagine trying to compact your pelvis
• Your leg and torso will be in a straight line

A couple of other pointers to get you going:

• Curl the hamstring in your bottom leg just like you would curl your bicep (it helps to get weight forward)
• You’re never as far forward as you think
• Stretch the top hand as far forward as you can
• You are essentially balancing weight at every point on that circle

Now get out there and go do it!

Where you Can Find Cyber-Yogi Lamonte

Website:

Lamonte Tales Goode – Cyber Yoga

Instagram:

Cyber Yoga Instagram

Have questions for Lamonte or I? Leave a comment below and either us will respond!

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