There’s always that one person at the gym. The guy who bench presses three times your bodyweight – and they don’t even have to be big, just strong – or squats
the equivalent of a small car. But then there are people like Ibrahim Alshaeri who go above and beyond and perform feats none of us could ever have deemed possible.
In a video posted to his Instagram account (which has since picked up by Barstool Sports) Ibrahim – who is a “passionate calisthenics master” from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – can be seen one-arm handstands that wouldn’t look out of place in the Cirque du Soleil. Rather than just perform conventional handstands on the floor, Ibrahim pushes himself up from holding onto a barbell, which itself is carefully balanced on two raised dip bars.
Check out Ibrahim’s ridiculously difficult handstand in the video below.
The sheer amount of core strength a movement like this requires, not to mention the need to have a huge pair of cojones, is beyond belief.
It’s not just us who are incredibly impressed with Ibrahim’s feat, but a scroll through the comments reveals several others are simply taken aback by his talents. Comments range from “this is not needed but still insanely impressive and props to him,” to “the most amazing part of these videos is the amount of practice these people go through to get to this point. Like how many times has this dude smacked his teeth before getting to this point?”
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There are even numerous users who challenge their friends to try and perform the same exercise next time they’re in the gym. We shouldn’t need to say this, but we strongly recommend you don’t try this yourself…unless you’re a calisthenics pro, of course.
So, what exactly is calisthenics? Essentially, it’s performing resistance training using just your bodyweight, as opposed to weight training which uses weights to provide the resistance in order to build strength.
Some basic examples of calisthenics exercises include push-ups, pull-ups, squats and lunges. The majority of calisthenics exercises can be classed as compound exercises too, meaning they use multiple muscle groups at once. This brings several benefits, including helping you to lose body fat weight quickly and improve muscle definition. So if you’re on a quest to get yourself a six-pack, you don’t necessarily need to be hitting the weights in the gym.
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If you’ve yet to try calisthenics, or if you’ve never even heard of the term before, it offers a great entry-point into the world of keeping fit and getting your body moving (it even poses fewer injury risks than weightlifting).
You never know, with a few years of training, you could reach Ibrahaim’s skill level too…
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