Push Harder
Push Harder

Advanced Handbalancing Intensive

Finally – Handstand Factory training intensives are back! Taught by Emmet Louis and Mikael Kristiansen, the Push Harder intensive is suited for Advanced Handbalancing practitioners. They are a great way of deepening your handstand practice, meeting  your fellow Handstand Factory students (and us) in person, and spending a week immersed in full training in sunny Turkey.

The Push Harder
Intensive at a Glance

$1,950Read more

  • TWO TEACHERS FOR HANDSTANDS AND FLEXIBILITY
    Mikael Kristiansen and Emmet Louis

  • 7 FULL DAYS OF TRAINING
    October 25-31, 2022

  • ALL INCLUSIVE
    Transfers from and to the airport, food and accommodation, excursions

  • SCENIC LOCATION
    Nova Soul Retreat Centre, Turkey

$1,950Read more

This 7 day handbalancing and flexibility training intensive in Turkey is based on the Push Harder, Press and Bend online programs by Handstand Factory. Prior experience with one or more of these training programs is beneficial, but not a must.

In line with the Push Harder programs level, the focus of the training intensive will be on advanced practitioners in their handbalance training. The week will be centred around training for, achieving, or progressing your straddle one arm handstand. If you have a solid straddle one arm, there will be time and space to work on progressing to other one-arm forms, and switching smoothly between them. Additionally, we will work on achieving or refining your Stalder press skills, as well as the Mexican Handstand shapes.  Along with the handbalance training, we will be spending a lot of time on learning about flexibility to aid you in your handbalancing practice. 

If you would like to join us on this very special event, we would ask you to register as soon as you know you can make it as numbers are super limited! All details about the training intensive can be found below, along with details on how to register.

Level Advanced
Goals Progress your one-arm training and flexibility practice
Duration 7 days in Turkey
Included Food, location, shuttle

“I think it’s going to take more than this week to really understand what you’ve actually learned here.”

“I think it’s going to take more than this week to really understand what you’ve actually learned here.”

FERNANDO, MUNICH

Entry Requirements

In order to get the most out of this intensive, you should have a comfortable 45 – 60 second handstand, as well as feeling very comfortable with all different shapes on two arms (tuck, straddle, etc) and moving between them. Being able to do a straddle press would be advantageous as well. If you are unsure about your level or whether the Beginner/Intermediate intensive might be a better fit, please get in touch here.

Entry Requirements

In order to get the most out of this intensive, you should have a comfortable 45 – 60 second handstand, as well as feeling very comfortable with all different shapes on two arms (tuck, straddle, etc) and moving between them. Being able to do a straddle press would be advantageous as well. If you are unsure about your level or whether the Beginner/Intermediate intensive might be a better fit, please get in touch here.

Concepts and Skills Covered

  • Going deeper into the material of the four sections of the Push Harder program: head-in, flagging, block walking and the actual one-arm handstand, as well as covering the Stalder press to handstand and Mexican handstand training.
  • Going into depth on the flexibility section of the programs, mainly working on side splits but also covering the main principles of the flexibility training we use to gain any flexibility position such as front splits, bridge and deeper backbending, strengthening for mexican handstands as well as pancake, going from base levels of flexibility all the way to working on oversplits and overpancake.
  • Adding layers of progression to the above sections, and getting a better understanding of what you personally need to work on
  • Active prehab, rehab and recovery, mainly for shoulders, wrists and elbows
  • Daily Q&A’s on the day’s material to fully grasp and integrate it in your future training
  • One big lecture at the end on programming, smart training with a final Q&A

Logistics & Schedule

The Push Harder Intensive will be taking place in Turkey from the 25th to the 31st of October 2022, set amidst the beautiful Turkish countryside in Nova Soul Retreat Centre.

There will be two training sessions each day, led by Emmet and Mikael, along with some free training time. Overall, you can expect five to six hours of training a day. On one of the days, we’ll do only one session and do an excursion to the surrounding sights in the afternoon! A full schedule will be sent to participants closer to date.

The Location

Nova Soul is a beautifully crafted retreat centre in the southwest of Turkey.  A safe, beautiful and calm environment for you to concentrate on what our focus for the week is. Located in the mountains, the views from our bungalows and training space are magnificent. Accommodation is offered in bungalows which sleep two to three people.

The gorgeous studio space is open 24 hours, and there is a wonderful pool and many comfortable nooks for relaxation.

Food and Transit

This training intensive is fully catered with 3 meals a day plus snacks. You will have the option to choose between a vegan, vegetarian and a meat including menu, as well as specifying any intolerances or dietary needs. Meals will be served buffet-style.

While you will need to arrange your own flights to Dalaman airport, transfers between Dalaman airport and the venue  will be organised for you, and are included in the ticket. You will just need to make sure to let us know your arrival and departure details. Once you have signed up with the deposit, we will prompt you to send us all the information necessary through a form. When booking your flights, keep in mind that the transfer to our retreat centre takes one hour and forty-five minutes. We will be grouping participants of the intensives for the transfers, depending on arrival times.

Excursions

One afternoon trip to the beautiful local areas will be factored into the schedule for the week. We will be making our way to a waterfall and have a picnic there, after which we’ll stop by the sea for a quick swim, followed by dinner.

Excursions

One afternoon trip to the beautiful local areas will be factored into the schedule for the week. We will be making our way to a waterfall and have a picnic there, after which we’ll stop by the sea for a quick swim, followed by dinner.

“I will take a lot of knowledge about how to progress for myself, but as well for my students and for my clients.”

“I will take a lot of knowledge about how to progress for myself, but as well for my students and for my clients.”

MARGARET, WARSAW

PUSH HARDER

Pricing

$1,950Read more

$1,950Read more

The price for this Handstand Factory training intensive is $1,950 total. This includes transfers from and to the venue, accommodation, food, and all excursions and training. The spaces are very limited, and are given on a first come first served basis. You can either pay the full amount in one go, opt for paying half of the price now and half at a later date, or sign up with a deposit and then use a payment plan by paying 3 further installments.

To register, please click the button above!

We cannot wait to be back teaching in person again!

– Emmet, Mikael + the Handstand Factory team

Terms and Conditions Regarding COVID-19

With international travel restrictions changing rapidly, we understand it is difficult to plan ahead. To shed some light on our terms regarding COVID-19, please read our following measures to ensure a safe and fair handling of the global situation. Planning travel amidst COVID-19 is full of questions, and we will do our best to handle all coming changes in restrictions, travel and health advice as fair as possible.

First of all, we ask everyone planning to attend to check with your travel insurance beforehand, in which cases you would be able to claim a refund of the intensive fee, as well as your travel costs. In regards to our own policy, we will refund the full course fee if A) you are unable to travel due to travel restrictions. This does NOT include a possible quarantine upon return to your home country – please factor this in to your travel plans.  or B) due to medical conditions (such as COVID). For this, we will ask for proof of the restrictions in place/a letter from your doctor or similar, as well as a letter from your insurance if they do not refund the intensive fee.  We cannot offer any refunds on travel costs. If you cannot attend the intensive due to a cancelled flight, we ask you to rebook your travel (your travel insurance should cover this), as we will not be able to refund your course fee because of this.

In case we have to cancel due to restrictions regarding Turkey, all course fees will of course be refunded. For this reason, we also ask you not to book your travel until closer to date, when we send out full confirmation of the events.  At the intensive itself, we will have all health and safety regulations in place, as well as a maximum of 3 people per room. We will also ask everyone attending to take as much care as possible before the intensive, to ensure a safe and fun environment. We will be sending out further information on the measures we are taking onsite to all those attending.

Reviews of the Push Harder Intensive

PUSH HARDER INTENSIVE

Margaret
Poland

I’m coming from Poland and um, I’ve been into gymnastics and handbalancing for a while now. This is my fifth event with Motion Impulse right now, I think it’s been going so well because of that.

Because of their coaching, because of their approach and because of the amazing team they have with them. So it’s been four days of the push harder retreat and we are really sore, every one of us. I think we love it so much, but basically it hurts.

I’m thinking that it’s supposed to hurt though, so we are right on track. The attitude here, the community here, the amazing souls, the amazing people here make everything a little bit easier, and the support we’re having from the teachers and from other members of the retreat is amazing, just amazing.

So this week, I’m proud of a few things because I came here thinking I’m going to be like one of the weakest links here because I’m just starting with the push harder program and I thought I’m not going to be ready, but because of good coaching and just the right suggestions, just for me, for example, I’ve been able to do better flagging, I’ve been able to do pike press, which I’ve never been able to do pike press, and I’m super happy about that.

TADAH as a place, is a gathering of beautiful souls, simply, it’s just fantastic. The food, the house, the garden, the pool, the studio, everything is amazing! Everything is fantastic.

From this week, I will take a lot of knowledge about how to progress, how to build up my own workouts, how to build up my own training, but as well for my students, for my clients that I work with, I will have a bunch of ready to go and ready to test elements, exercises, approaches, that are really going to make a difference for them.

PUSH HARDER INTENSIVE

Fernando
Munich

I’m Fernando, I’m 25, I’m from Munich and I’ve been doing handstands for like 8 years maybe and I was introduced to it through yoga but it really quickly took another path.

So the training here reminds me a little of a camp, like a training camp.

2 sessions a day, a lot of space in between but good food, enough sleep. It’s not too early, so it’s not draining in that sense but I think it’s really at the right amount of training.

You could say that it’s a bit too much and at home I would change it up with different stuff but for a training camp, or for a week that’s solely focused on handstands, it’s a really sweet spot.

Also, the stuff where you need to be fresh and focused, the handstands are in the morning, but actually it’s more like midday, so not too early. So your body is somewhat loose, but you’re not unfocused.

There is a lot of time to do more, or to ask more questions, apart from the classes. Maybe you could implement more time where you could just talk about stuff and ask questions, as there are two teachers here and they know a lot and you can, like, all the information you get through the classes is really a lot. I think it’s going to take more than this week to really understand what you’ve actually learned here.

When I was starting here, I actually was not so prepared like I could have been, I was not training one arm stuff so much, like I could have. The information that I’ve got and the way I got back into training was in 3 days, I got to a higher level than I was before, like the high level was today: I was on the canes, I tried the canes for the first time and was not thinking about too much, but I was really giving it a go and letting it happen, like they are saying “letting it happen” putting the weight, going through the steps and it just happened. I did not do more, the whole room was focused around the one try, the random try, everyone is doing handstands around but everybody knew this was a good attempt and Mikael screamed “Stay like this! Stay like this!” and I did, and I dropped back to the middle and it was a solid 3 second hold on that side and it was crazy.

Favourite thing about this place for me is really that the environment totally supports what you’re trying to do here, the studio is somewhat neutral, so you could dance here, or juggle, or you could do handstands, like it’s actually perfect for handstands, you have the mirror, you have loads of space and its bright. You get the light in and I like that. The food is crazy, it’s always enough and it’s really good and everything, every little detail is really good.

What I’m taking home from this, is a lot of information that I have to process and but really, it’s a lot of information but on the other hand, it’s pretty simple. For me, until today I got a few tips that are simple but are really going to carry me along for a long time. I’ve never seen so many people try handstands, or try one arm handstands. You talk about the information, you see it in other people and you try for yourself. So you, make a leap that you would not get close to in your home environment. So I think this is like the perfect way to really understand the material, to get better yourself, to understand it and to, for me personally, to maybe teach people better. So it’s an experience, you grow with it and when you get back home, you’re probably changed a little.

PUSH & PUSH HARDER INTENSIVES

Kai
Germany

Hello, my name is Kai, I’m from Germany, I did gymnastics as a kid and I went to martial arts for a long long time and I found yoga for me and of course in yoga the most impressive asana is the handstand. So I found handstanding for me and since 2015, I’m on this journey and I like it.

So, I’m in a really lucky situation because I did first the push and the push harder retreat now and so far it’s amazing. In both groups there were amazing people so far and we had a super time!

I’m super proud to be here, to have made it, to get past all these ideas of that I’m not good enough for it through and to just went here and met creative people and do the things we love to do: stand on the hands and enjoy the journey, don’t think about “after the two weeks my one arm will be there, because I paid for it” now it’s just about having a good time, having new ideas for your program for the next 6 months, 6 years, who knows?

So I really like to be here at TADAH, because it’s more like a family place, like a circus place. Where it’s more about the humans and not so much the other stuff.

So from this retreat I take home, the reminder that life is too short and it’s not about getting all the stuff, it’s about enjoying the journey, have a good time, yeah… Surround yourself with a good community and that’s it! That’s what it’s all about!

PUSH & PUSH HARDER INTENSIVES

Sara
Colorado, USA

I have been doing handstands for almost four years, and I have been doing both the retreats so far (push and push harder) , almost through the second one and I’m from the US.

I have been loving the training here every day! Two classes a day plus eating and learning all the things and getting bendy and I’m much better at handstands.

What am I most proud of in training so far? Um… oooh.. Being able to not get mad at myself, for the times that I fail. I have not really been that frustrated with myself when I’m here, but when I do get frustrated I get the whole “it’s okay”, so that’s been nice.

My favourite thing about TADAH and their surroundings? Mm.. probably the people. I really like the people here and being around the nature and all the upcycling and everything and the chicken, even though his voice is just terrible. I still like him (laughter) he’s cool.

What am I going to take back from this retreat in training? Self confidence and self love (laughter), and uh, a lot more like things to work on and understanding where people are and how to communicate these things. So yeah…

Join us for the 2022
Push Harder Intensive

$1,950Read more

PUSH HARDER

Join us for the 2022
Push Harder Intensive

$1,950Read more