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WOD 2-7-06 PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 07 February 2006
 

Dedicated skills practice- Handstands

APK Warmup

Workout :

Set aside 20 solid minutes following the warmup. During this time, work extensively on handstand skills, attempting to stay inverted for as much time as possible. There are a few great drills that are worth using, and it would be best to mix them all up randomly throughout the time period:

The beginning skill would be the Headstand . This will help those who haven't gotten comfortable being inverted. Most of the following drills can be applied to both the headstand and the handstand against a wall for a more gentle progression to the free-standing balancing skill.

Basic Handstand Press (If this press is easy, you can try the straight-leg/straight-arm press.) Another press-like exercise that is quite advanced is the Handstand to Elbow-Lever .

Handstand Lowering- From a controlled handstand position (whether free-standing, against a wall, or with a spotter) begin to lower your feet towards the ground, attempting to control your descent as much as possible the entire way down. These work great in sets of 5 or so and are a gateway skill to improve your planche.

Basic Handstand Hold - Pretty self-explanitory. Shoot for a totally static handstand. 

Controlled Hand Walking- This is a great shoulder-girdle strength exercise. Allow your center of gravity to get ahead of your hands a bit and walk your hands for distance. If you get out of control, you can always roll out (so only attempt this in an open area!) 

Mix these up as needed throughout the time period. Post drill-choices and results to comments.  Compare to 1-11-06



Users' Comments  RSS feed comment
 

Display 10 of 10 comments

1. 02-07-2006 11:31

I love how handstands will work all these small muscles to keep your balance. Really good workout after 20 mins.
Cloud

2. 02-07-2006 12:20

Had a lot of problems with the beastskills basic handstand press, ended up on my head a couple of times. Probably 'cause of the pushup workout yesterday which got me quite sore :)
Bubblemaker

3. 02-07-2006 16:26

i actually did handstand lowering last night when i worked my shoulders, and im always doing the hold and walking when im bored.
silentrushman1357

4. 02-07-2006 17:43

I love handstands, it amazes me that it is so difficult and i really enjoy wokring on them. I recently go the valdez to handstand down so i can get it almost everytime, i even did it for a cop who wanted to arrest us. Yay for me.
Frosti

5. 02-07-2006 18:28

i tried the handstand to elbow lever for the first time and almost got it down. with a little more practice, i think i will be there.
demon

6. 02-07-2006 18:55

Awesome Demon. I have had the lowering down for a while but haven't been able to even come close to pressing back up...it seems damn near impossible! I hope Jim comes back to some more jams for inspiration soon!
gearsighted

7. 02-07-2006 19:47

hahahahahahahhahahaha 
no way. 
 
Did a bunch of handstands tonight, not 20 minutes straight, had to stretch wrists, couldn't even attempt elbow lever. arms/ upper chest still sore form pushups (and ring dips)last night
m2.

8. 02-07-2006 22:23

My arms and chest were still feeling the effect of the pushup workout from yesterday :p So these were interesting. 
 
I nailed out some nice long controlled handstands, and did the slow leg-lowering which felt goooood. Due to the fatigue in my arms and chest from yesterday, attempting the Handstands into Elbow-Lever resulted in EXTREME disaster around my apartment :p
akh

9. 02-07-2006 22:49

The top of my head hurts. The ball of my right foot hurts. My chest is wobbly. 
 
I'm not as hardcore as y'all, but you've just been stuck with a n00b. Hope you don't mind. 
 
For day 1, I took the warmup pretty slow, swapped the pullups for twice as many wide stance pushups to still hit the lats. I've never done any gymnastics before, so the headstand was quite an experience, but I think I managed to hold a perfect one for maybe a second. The rest of the time, I was doing inadvertent somersaults or hanging out in the tripod. 
 
Thanks for a great workout, hope you guys don't mind me tagging along and looking pathetic. Till tomorrow...
MartialIX

10. 02-08-2006 04:29

AHAHAAAAA!!!!!!! I think I can finally challenge Akh to a handstand duel and win! 
 
This was fun =D
leonn

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