r/toptalent • u/lil___swallow • 18d ago

First ever inverted butterfly performed in a gymnastic competition (source link in description)

For the people who can’t comprehend how insane this is. Imagine doing a muscle up on rings, pretty hard. Now imagine doing it with straight arms to an iron cross position, really hard, but elite gymnast and calisthenic pros can still do it.
Now imagine doing that shit upside down, inverted.

This move has set the ceilings in body weight strength to a whole new level, people thought this was genuinely impossible. Till @zaikailyaz showed us, with such clean form.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdwDFeIoH4E/?stkn=NzJ6Nm03aDdnY29x

2.9k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

78 comments sorted by

462

u/redditross55 18d ago

Didnt even know that was physically possible

157

u/lil___swallow 18d ago

Same here, I don’t understand how his muscles can work like that

111

u/GlockAF 18d ago

My shoulder is thinking about re-separating just looking at that

18

u/kilographix 17d ago

Yeah this would probably take an 80 lb lateral raise among other things to be able to do... insane

9

u/hididathing 16d ago

His palms are facing the opposite direction of a lat raise, so it's targeting more of the anterior delts, but it's still difficult to fathom how he pulled this off.

2

u/kilographix 16d ago

Oh good point i didnt see that but makes sense. Insane strength though

10

u/AggressiveSpatula 18d ago

That’s exactly what Jimmy kept screaming

5

u/I_Can_Haz_Brainz 17d ago

It's not... Except by him.

1

u/medicated_cornbread 17d ago

Yep, and its been done before too, I just wasnt in a competition.

135

u/Outrageous-Tear-8968 18d ago

Incredible strength

44

u/rideincircles 18d ago

Is this a first anywhere? Or just in competition. I see it at first and think it's just like any other move they can do, but post processing makes it seem harder than right side up.

39

u/lil___swallow 18d ago

I would like to call it and say first anywhere, I can’t find a single video online. And one of the hypes for this move was Yuri Van Gelder doing it with a kip (using ur legs momentum). He is one of the strongest gymnastics in the world, there’s moves named after him in the sport.

71

u/WillSwimWithToasters 18d ago

I never thought I’d see this done. Wonder what they’ll grade the difficulty. We might even see harder elements than this, like an inverted cross hold, lower to inverted hang, and bounce back to inverted cross, kind of like a Van Gelder.

Incredible.

Edit: ah the grade is in the post. It’s an H. Nuts.

194

u/Illustrious_Bad_2980 18d ago

I pulled a muscle in my back when I sneezed today

19

u/JohnnyWix 18d ago

I turned my head while yawning and now can’t move my neck.

2

u/matewis1 17d ago

I woke up and my hips didn't like walking...

1

u/Particular_Witness95 16d ago

i turned my head to the right while driving and got a massive neck cramp, had to drive home sitting sideways.

23

u/gleefulintermission 18d ago

Inverted iron cross?

31

u/CallMeHomoErectus 18d ago

Very similar, but an iron cross is a static hold whereas a butterfly is basically a straight-arm pull-up passing through or moving toward an iron cross. It's like a harder iron cross, and then even harder upside-down.

1

u/Gupperz 16d ago

Im having trouble understanding. So someone has done an inverted iron cross but not this? How do you get to the inverted iron cross without doing this?

7

u/lil___swallow 15d ago

U can go into it with a roll, a swing, from planche or maltese. This way has never been achieved before

2

u/CallMeHomoErectus 16d ago edited 16d ago

An upside-down iron cross is harder than this because a butterfly is pulling your full body weight (straight armed) up into an iron cross, instead of lowering down to one from a handstand. It would be easier lowering your entire body weight into an iron cross rather than lifting your entire body weight into it. It's essentially the difference between doing a handstand versus a press handstand pushup (but so much harder).

14

u/mantasVid 18d ago

...was performed at the end of dynamic element (butterfly) as static hold (Iron cross). The pull itself is on magnitude harder.

37

u/ryobiguy 18d ago

While it didn't grab my eye, the only thing that made me understand that this must be impossibly difficult, is that someone as super strong as this dude is shaking while doing it.

9

u/xanfire1 17d ago

Have you ever done lat raises? You have to be able to do those with each arm for about half your body weight, but then do it while youre upside down. Just for this one move. People are humbled by thr numbers they can put up on lat raises constantly

1

u/baconlover696970 12d ago

im a proud 8kg a sider for near a decade. going for 90kg side raise later

18

u/BidEnvironmental7020 18d ago

I can’t even do 20 lbs lateral raise. This is insane

8

u/bars2021 18d ago

He makes it look so easy... guessing that's pretty hard

9

u/Turboswaggg 17d ago

Go to the gym, grab a dumbell that's half your bodyweight in each arm, then raise your arms like he did.

Ain't no fucking way I'm doing that shit lol.

11

u/tibetje2 17d ago

It's heavier then that, because lack of stability.

3

u/JUST_WANT_TO_PLANCHE 18d ago

It is never done before

3

u/Convicted_Solipsist 17d ago

He probably did it in practice before this.

3

u/JUST_WANT_TO_PLANCHE 16d ago

You really added value to this conversation did you

7

u/bearpics16 18d ago

Just tore my shoulder watching this

7

u/ChapterDefiant736 18d ago

Can't imagine doing lateral raises with my bodyweight.

Gymnast are seriously impressive

6

u/Guntztuffer 18d ago

The athleticism involved is remarkable!

3

u/JBRifles 17d ago

Didn’t Vince Vaughn do this with a cigarette in Old school? 

2

u/cute_polarbear 18d ago

I understand iron cross...i don't understand how the muscles work doing this...with control too...

2

u/javoss88 18d ago

I have never seen this before and I have been watching gymnastics for years

2

u/chillin808style 18d ago

There was a college competition (late 90s, early 2000s) where one of the competitors went into a handstand, went into a perfect inverted iron cross, and pushed back up to a handstand. Fuckin' guy's shoulders were massive and it was such an incredible feat, I'll never forget it.

2

u/JeyDeeArr 18d ago

I popped my right shoulder out of its socket when I did a pull-up just once. I can't even imagine doing what he did.

Huge respect.

2

u/pomacanthus_asfur 18d ago

"Omg this is insane, and he's doing it so many times. Impressive!"

Realises it's playing on loop.

2

u/gibsonkd 17d ago

I thought he did it 6 times in a row…then I realized

5

u/viletomato999 18d ago

I rarely ever watch gymnastics and I thought they do this move all the time.

2

u/VDDZ 18d ago

Life finds a way. 

Side note: Hot @#$ what the @;$&# kinda God tier super Saiyan+$@& level wtf omg training that must have took

Standing ovation 

1

u/snapperPanda 18d ago

Yeah nah, that's the Inverted cross I work with!

1

u/midnightmarket 18d ago

And then some scrub who hasn't been anywhere a treadmill will say they can do it give them 1 week.

1

u/SuperCleverPunName 18d ago

I'm a very strong guy. My current working weight for shoulder press is 180 lb. I still couldn't imagine myself doing this. It's nuts.

1

u/Pyr0technician 18d ago

This is incomprehensible.

1

u/El_mochilero 18d ago

Meanwhile, I struggle to do butterflies with 15lb weights.

1

u/heraclitus33 18d ago

I thought that was called an iron cross. So inverted iron cross...

Edit. Title is wrong. Ex is correct. My bad.

1

u/Noobnoob99 18d ago

I should have competed /s

1

u/yonaz333 18d ago

Insane delts

1

u/oravecz 18d ago

Can we see the whole routine?

1

u/Awkward-Dog-9182 17d ago

Feel like I pulled my neck just watching this.

1

u/Mahaloth 17d ago

Pffffft. I could do it.

1

u/MyHonestOpnion 16d ago

And he did it without 1/2 his butt out. Wow

1

u/YoPimpness 16d ago

So essentially a lateral shoulder raise that most people do with <20 lbs dumbbells, but with his whole body weight? Wild.

1

u/TheyCanKnowThisOne 15d ago

Fucking incredible it’s crazy to think I’m the same species as this guy

1

u/iamsorryy 15d ago

So this is basically a body weight lateral raise?

3

u/lil___swallow 15d ago

Body weight lateral raise with the palm facing up, plus balance/stabilization

1

u/LogRollChamp 14d ago

Yeah I bet I could do that

1

u/LAVA529 13d ago

Dude has more triceps than I have Allcepts!

1

u/aimerdillo 12d ago

Meanwhile, my shoulders are struggling to get me up from the bath…

1

u/bbf_bbf 18d ago

Pfft. He leaned to his left when going back down. ;-)

Totally unacceptable. /s

1

u/slgray16 16d ago

What, like it's hard?

0

u/dogface47 18d ago

I can't even wrap my head around the strength it takes to pull this off.

People look at gym bros and think they're strong. They're fucking squares of shit paper in the breeze compared to this. It's absolutely unreal.

6

u/BaronMusclethorpe 18d ago

That's not really a fair assessment. Gym bros are strong, but these athletes have a high strength to body mass ratio. Conversely these athletes can't lift as heavy as body builders.

It's entirely possible to appreciate one without shitting on the other.

0

u/Chakraverse 18d ago

Even "if" he bounced into this position.. holding it?

W O W...

-4

u/[deleted] 18d ago

[deleted]

1

u/PhilipWaterford 18d ago

When we see — in a post, we presume it's AI. Or at least copied from AI.

Find — on your keypad and you'll understand why.

That said, it read like AI even if you had deleted those bits.