This will prove rather difficult at first. Get on to the bar, as in Fig. 8, and preserving your balance, bring the hanging leg with a rapid movement over the bar into a sitting position. To effect this you must leave go of the bar with the right hand, resuming your grasp directly the leg has passed under your hand. You will now be in position as in Fig. 11.
This exercise really consists of balancing, and in your first attempts you will find a tendency to roll over backwards directly the leg reaches the level of the bar. Should you do so, however, you can quickly recover your position by the method described in ‘getting on to the bar.’
There is another way of getting into the sitting position. Hang on as in Fig. 2, and doubling up, pass the legs through the arms (Fig. 14), straighten the body, as in Fig. 15, and draw yourself up until the posterior is a little above the bar. You will then, with a slight bend of the body, roll over into position. You must keep the head well back, and pull hard with the arms.
A good exercise for the muscles of the back is to drop through when in position as in Fig. 14, to position as in Fig. 16, and back again to Fig. 2. Be careful to keep the legs _straight_ while doing it. It is easy enough to effect with legs bent.
Having accomplished ‘sitting,’ accustom yourself to remaining in that position without holding the bar with the hands, balancing yourself with the bar under different parts of the leg.
which is not unlike the leg swing, but very much more difficult, as greater strength is required, in consequence of the whole weight being thrown upon the arms.
Sitting on the bar as in Fig. 11, stiffen the arms, and launch yourself backwards with a good swing, holding the bar firmly with both hands, and go right round the bar with the impetus you have given yourself, resuming the position from which you started. As in the leg swing, you must judge the swing correctly, or else you will go round half a turn too much, or fail to give sufficient swing to come up at all. This will very likely be the case in your first few attempts, for you can hardly expect to accomplish the feat at once.
In attempting this exercise it is as well to have some one standing in front of the bar ready to catch you in the event of your not having given swing enough to balance yourself, in which case you will fall forward.