How Long Did The One Arm Handstand Take?! | Road To OAHS Finale 

For reference, I train both sides but the best hold I've had with the left is 5s. I also had a subluxation of my left shoulder doing meathooks in November 2020 which has affected it.

I'm an opera singer and this is kind of what it's like to practice extremely challenging arias-somewhat ridiculous years-long daily practice for what is essentially a party trick, but very satisfying when you finally get it. :-)

The reaction shots of randos in the background is always appealing.

Hey Tom! Im a pole dancer from Greece. Your follow alongs have been a gamechanger for my flexibility! Admire you and your determination ☺️

I just started calisthenics a few months ago. It's really good to hear how long it takes to master some of these advanced skills. It puts things in perspective for sure.

Not going to lie, I thought I had clicked onto a "Browney" video after hearing the intro music

Congratulations man! You really stuck to it. And wow 10-20 hours per week... really put things into perspective. Thank You for sharing and good luck with the next skills!

I have to get wrist surgery and Doc says I won't be able to do a push-up for at least 6 months. I've been training bodyweight exercises for a year now and this is going to be a huge hit to my progress. A month or two ago I came across your channel and saw how much emphasis you put on flexibility/mobility on top of your bodyweight exercises. I may have forgone training all together if I hadn't discovered your channel and can't thank you enough for showing me I have other options while I'm recovering.

This reminds me of one of the reasons why I got into calisthenics: I was on vacation at the beach nearly a decade ago and saw a guy do a handstand-to-L-sit and back again. I was amazed and told myself I wanted to do that. I still can't do a freestanding handstand, but I can do an L-sit to frog stand (and back again), so at least I've had a little progress.

I feel a lot better about my progress now. I think I started hand-balancing about 4.5 years ago. My first real focus on one arm was 2 years ago now. I can do 3 seconds on either arm almost every time, but I've never quite hit 10. That being said, I've also never put in more than 4 hours per week. Depending on my training cycle I'd do anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours. That point about building time really does seem key. It's probably not worth it for most people to put in the kind of time you did/do, but it's so much fun and I hope to continue this practice for the rest of my life regardless of what milestones I may or may not reach.

I started Calisthenics and following you toward the beginning of this Road to OAHS series (June of 2018). I just have to say that it's been super motivational for me to watch you grind away and achieve your goal with nothing but hard work. It also inspired me to give myself a goal I didn't really allow myself to believe I can achieve. Maybe in 3 years from now, someone will be commenting something like this at the end of my journey, but I just wanted to say thanks for the motivation 👍💪.

It's great to see the progress over the years and motivation to see the consistency. Keep it up man.

We gotta fill our time with something until we die, and handstands are a wonderful way to do it." So sad but yet so true

I can tell from the intro that this is gonna be good

Hey Tom, any chance you can show us how many exercises/sets we should do, along with the exercises we should do in a upper/lower/upper split? Like what skills to include on the day, along with compounds and accessory exercises?

so impressive! Your commitment is insane. You should be proud

What a journey bro!! Consistency pays off ;) put in the time and you will achieve anything

There is no other youtuber ,can produce series in terms of this quality. Thanks for the grind Tom! Keep this up!

Road to 90° hspu? Feel like youd be pretty close to straddle planche 10 second hold so might be a short series, excited to find out what the new series will be anyway, and thanks for documenting the one arm, I will always rewatch the series, very inspirational and informative, this video nearly broke my heart to begin with but I'm choosing to one day learn the one arm because of how hard it is and the grind, the things I choose to do in life are normally based on the sense of achievement I'll get rather than being able to say I've done it, live for the grind so one arm dream is still alive, thanks alot Tom!

Been a very long journey. Respect Tom!

Well done! Brilliant filmmaking expertise as well 👍

i hope i will be like you someday, I can do handstand and handstand pushups, but never tried 1 arm style. you inspired me , Thx a lot , Tom

Very good video thank’s from france for this motivation

Road to planche incoming 👀👀👀

Good job man ...I hope that I can achieve this just like you some day

Puppy dogs made the video beautiful ,amazing many handstand video can’t wait to be able to perform mine

wow dude, bravo on your dedication

best calisthenics channel on the platform right here 😁

i get my one arm with 1 year of training! from 0 to one arm literally. I can old on blocks on my left arm for 10 to 15 seconds. Is very challenging i will keep training!

Nice vid Tom. I would like you to tell us at which point of your progression do you consider Optimus to start trying OAHS? I mean if you consider any useful test to help you decide when to start?

The song at the beginning, every fitness RU-vidr has used it but it never gets old idk why...

I really want to back him up on this: handstandfactory is incredible!

0:40 you've got her heart ;)

Extremely impressive, especially at your height my guy!!!!

Yes I have been doignm them for about 9 or so months and I have never actually balanced one. Although I have not done finger practice, I only did attempts, which is not the best way to train it ofc lol. I am starting with fingers soon. The bonus though, my handstand has gotten wayyyyy better from just kicking up and balancing to get into one arm position.

Bro insane determination Just a Q I am facing a wrist injury could you make a video on dealing with wrist injuries and maintaining progress?

Love from Azerbaijan 👍

Well, my journey just started Hope I'll be training it in 3 years xD

I can't believe it's been three years already. It must be very rewarding to achieve OHS, but yeah, 10-15 hours a week sound like a bit of an overkill. Nonetheless, amazing feat of balance and strenght.

Hey Tom is the next one “road to remodeling and destroying my whole house” lol jk 😂 love both the demo and fitness updates

Jesus Christ here I am training calisthenics skills, basics, legs, mobility and two arm hs for a total of 6 times a week and then trying to sprinkle 2 oahs session for an hour each on top, thinking that it will be enough. Man I was so wrong. Glad I found this video so early in my oahs journey. I'm thinking about putting it on the backburner for now. Not willing to cut away time from my other goals to reach the required 10-15h for 5x a week oahs time. Dammit

You are fantastic!

0:18 Did you play with your dog after the session when it brought you a toy while you were doing the OAHS? ))

This was a great video thank you.

Perhaps do a video on your groinnstrain recovery ?

The way I see it, handstand is just a form of meditation

Did you only practice on your right arm? Or both but picked one for this edit?

Liked for drone shots

WoW Amazing!!!! Clap Calp!!!!!!!

So inspirational

Awesome video as always tom, I was wondering if you ever considered training brazilian jiu jitsu, it seems like an awesome fit to you considering your flexibility and strenght to weight ratio/isometric strenght. cheers from Brazil

Thank you for this

Woow this is amazing 👏😍

Hooooowww do you do this without wrist straps 😱

How about the matthewismith handstand program ? Is it legit ? Because the graphs inside looks incredible

Why 15 hours per week for one arm vs 4 hours per week with two arm? What does that training breakdown look like? 3 hours sessions?

Ty

Amazing!!!

I can remember people saying it would take 2 yrs to achieve planche. I achieved it in 9 months. I believe The planche is way harder to execute then a one arm handstand.

The part of your brain involved in balance is the same part of the brain involved in learning new skills. Some schools get the kids to do balance exercises for this reason. It is said once you master the one finger stand then there is nothing you can't learn.

I started doing one arm handstand yesterday. It took a couple of minutes but now I can hold 30 seconds. .

There must be something for which this balance training is useful.

Very true, one arm handstand is definitely not for everyone. The most frustrating skill to achieve.. is it worth it? Well if you wanna be one of the few % in the world able to do the skill then yeah 😏

Thanks from Russia!

I learned it in one month, so you have to take advice from me on it😂😂

I feel like you can probably get away with a lot less time than 10-15h hours per week by focusing on getting brutally strong first, and practicing it later in your lifting journey.

I did my First under 90 days!!

Inspired

Wtf I just doing handstand casually and I accidently doing one arm handstand for 13 second.

When you realize after 6 years that you have to train for the other arm 💀😂

Hey, when I do any sort of straddle work (off the ground) I get almost immediate cramp in what feels like my glute med, anyone can help?

Why not praticing more on the left?

Dedication sir

It doesn't take that long for OAHS. Break dancers get it easily. Also they do 1 arm hand hops and 1 arm airflares.

Damn, 3.5 years. This looks like training to achieve super sayan 3: consumes all your power, but looks very nice. Minus the lack of eyebrows

2 40 Tom Merrick does backflip 😀

When can we get a tutorial?

💪💪

Road to planche maybe?

wow

training frequency?

can you associate a video with simonster

Lean the flare tom

road to planche

Does this time period count for other arm as well? Haha or double the time, double the pride;D

What about the other side?

Next goal: one arm HSPU 🤣

Only a D rated skill in Women's gymnastics

It's pretty cool, however I'd rather fight tyranny and this totalitarianism all nations are facing