Handstand Wall Runs

First off - I'm new to the forum and have been 'following' the WODs for about a week. I've been crossfitting for about 1-1/2 years and thought I was in good shape :oops: Needless to say the WODs are very challenging and I love it!

To quote Coach from BtGB... "In my opinion, handstands are quite simply the most effective of all of the static strength exercises, with a tremendous carryover to other athletic endeavors."

I've done a little Wall HS work over the past 1-1/2 years but am severely lacking when doing wall cast walks [i can get 3x, then 1x or 2x to complete the set of 10]. The HS Wall Runs are escaping me at the moment. In fact, I've never tried a wall facing HS, it's always been with my back to the wall. I can hold the HS for 5x1min with 1min rest between sets.

So, here's my question...

How much HS training is too much...if I WOD in the am, should I work on HS every night [4x week]? - Maybe strive for 10 minutes in the HS with as little break as possible? Can someone give me some guidance on how to train?

Thanks a million to Coach and to the moderators. This is an amazing site!

Good read. I think it's pretty important to start light and SLOWLY add to what you are doing. At first, start off with a single 40-60s handstand hold as long as that isn't close to your max. Do that every WOD for a while, until you no longer feel like it is even a challenge. That will take a while, because you will notice that at first your work sets on pressing WODs will be a bit tougher. Wait until that goes away AND you start making good progress with the WOD itself. You'll be getting stronger the whole time, but it may not show in the WOD right away. Give it time. Then you can start adding one rep of an exercise, like HeSPU or cast wall walk or something. Then you do the same thing, you wait for it to A) get easy and B) allow you to see gains within the WODs themselves steadily for a little while before you try and elevate the hands at all. And so on. In a year or two you could end up the way Ido described, doing work that would have absolutely crushed you today and never resulted in progress but two years from now may just be another day in your life, nothing special, and lead to steady gains.

I love this exercise! Granted, I only do it once a week (and have a little trouble keeping the arch out of my back for the whole time...), but since I got to university I've climbed to five 2 minute sets! The only real huge problem I have with it is the same one I have with jogging; you start to obsess over time. I find playing music really helps keep that away.

I aim for getting through a Blink 182 song, then Foo Fighters, then Rush...if anyone can get through all of Freebird in a HS Wall Run, well...good lord. :shock:

Long time reader, first time posting

Quick question about the HS wall runs,(might be obviouse but no ones said anything) will it increase my overhead press strength? I do CF, but i love gymnastics so if theres a GB exercise i can do instead of doing say press/push jerk.(I know HSPU's, but i cant do them yet)

Also will it help me to finally do HSPU's?

Thanks,

All by itself, probably not. Within the WOD matrix, absolutely. As far as lifting is concerned it will help your jerk more than anything since you're doing extended arm supports which is basically a jerk, at least as far as the arms are concerned. Your end range of motion strength will be enhanced in general, for sure, if you're doing them right. To get HeSPUs you need to have training time dedicated to them, but the wall runs absolutely work in synergy with them.

You will be surprised how little you need to do to maintain and improve what you do for your CF WOD performance if you get involved with the GB WODs.

As far as a BW push press is concerned, you could look into Ido Portal's "gatherings" exercise.

I can now start walking on my hands due to this... it works it freaks me out I've done it 3 times so far in the past 2 months. :shock:

slizzardman said:

All by itself, probably not. Within the WOD matrix, absolutely. As far as lifting is concerned it will help your jerk more than anything since you're doing extended arm supports which is basically a jerk, at least as far as the arms are concerned. Your end range of motion strength will be enhanced in general, for sure, if you're doing them right. To get HeSPUs you need to have training time dedicated to them, but the wall runs absolutely work in synergy with them.

You will be surprised how little you need to do to maintain and improve what you do for your CF WOD performance if you get involved with the GB WODs.

As far as a BW push press is concerned, you could look into Ido Portal's "gatherings" exercise.

slizzardman speaks the truth I've stopped CF WODs 3 months ago and started GB WODs.. and I've done the CF WOD "Filthy Fifty" a week ago...and suprisingly I PR'ed... :shock: I was not intending to do a great time.

Scary...

So I was planning on implementing these on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but for instance, today the WOD is a HS WOD. Should I always move the HS wall runs to a day we aren't doing the HS WOD or stick to the plan and do them after todays workout anyways?

Eddie said:

So I was planning on implementing these on Tuesdays and Thursdays....

Twice a week would be ambitious...

I think you are right, I will start with once a week for awhile until this is easy and then go to twice a week.

I can't view the video example so am relying on the written exercise description.

When doing these runs, should the body remain stiff and the feet swing side-to-side as weight is transferred?

I find that I either end up bending sideways at the midsection or my feet slide back and forth across the wall. Am I doing something wrong?

Hi,

I read a reply that Coach Sommer wrote in a different part of the forum about shoulder stability, and he said that walking on your hands was a good way to improve shoulder stability. I'm wondering, are HS wall runs just as good for shoulder stability, or is it only freestanding HS walking that will help with this?

Coach Sommer wrote in a different part of the forum about shoulder stability, and he said that walking on your hands was a good way to improve shoulder stability. I'm wondering, are HS wall runs just as good for shoulder stability?

Both are acceptable. In addition XR HS, performed correctly, are also outstanding for improving shoulder stability.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Thanks Coach!

If you can lift your hand off the groundfor a moment, but can´t keep it off long enough to get it to your shoulders, is that a reasonable way to start?...a sort of wall shuffle instead of wall runs? Or would it be better to keep building handstand time and HePUs untill you can do it propperly like in the video?

Assuming that your handstand is reasonable, you can hold a 60 second HS stomach to the wall a few times then gradually easing into the wall runs isn't a problem. The hand lift is a fine way to start and gradually begin to lift the hand closer to your shoulders over time. If you feel you are weak in this you want to be careful as it's easy to slam the hand onto the floor too hard which can have repercussions for the elbow or wrist.

Once we reach a solid 10 minute block of time, should we start increasing frequency, or go for longer?

Congratulations on reaching 10 min, Erik. There is no substantial benefit in extending past 10 minutes. I have had my athletes train these 2-4 days a week with great success.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Erik Sjolin said:

Once we reach a solid 10 minute block of time, should we start increasing frequency, or go for longer?

Congratulations for reaching 10 minutes! Impressive! I´m sure there is only a handful of people on this board that have reached 10 minutes.

I'll have to start doing them twice a week. I've only been doing them once a week since I started them, so that'll be a fun little jump in intensity.

I might add that Erik has very impressive wall run technique. We did an excellent video of it at the seminar, and I'm sure it'll pop up or be showcased one of these days.

That is awesome! Erik had really good handstands before, very interested to see how he is progressing now!

Joshua Naterman said:

That is awesome! Erik had really good handstands before, very interested to see how he is progressing now!

Mostly focusing on opening the shoulders (and hopefully ring HS) this year. Anyone who saw me trying to lift my arms up into a handstand position at the seminar knows just how badly I need to address that. :oops:

Wow Erik, 10 minutes straight? That's insane! Congratulations!

How did you progress until that? Doing several 1min sets and increasing hold time each week until 10minutes?