Handstand improvement during H1

Mark Collins said:

Nice posture in the low back. Try releasing the anterior delts and biceps.

how would you recommend doing that? I've been doing HBP iM11, 13 & 15. would those suffice?

Those stretches are great. You could try self massage of the delts and biceps if they have knots. Otherwise keep on doing what you are doing as you are improving well.

thought this would take longer, fought for those last couple of inches and I think I'm there. thoughts?

green band came in handy for loosening up my pecs enough for this, along with constant form checking. i'd like to give a quick shout out to all those F2-3 pec stretches, especially HBP iM7 with a band who made this possible and my buddy Thor(literally his name. BA, right?) for loosening up a huge knot i had on my pec minor. 

time to start accumulating time and upping the weight.

weight: 2.5lbs. calling it mastery with 5lbs, to go on the safe side

Nice work. And I like the lumbar posture

thanks, Mark.  

can just about get the shoulder extension at shoulder width and height with 5lbs, im going to be changing to a 3x/week F1 and going to see if i can do 4x/H1 or just leave it at 3x as well. will keep a journal and im glad to be done focusing on solely mobility work. 

time to get back into gear. sensing a possible bottleneck at PE4, due to HF mobility. let's see how that goes, one step at a time though. 

starting to see the progress in iM2 carrying over to overgrip and undergrip dislocates.

actually, this is the FIRST time i've been able to undergrip dislocate at that weight and width.

hahahaha i know! i dont know what to do with myself while filming sometimes...staring into the lens is just too intimate for me, right now.

Hahaha, the face on the second one is like: "omg, am I doing this? am I doing this? o_O_o!" Great Kei

bumping up the weight from 5lbs has taken a bit of getting used to(losing ROM in last sets) but i think im about there. tested a few forearm headstands earlier this week and a few again today and they were surprisingly differently taxing than headstands. feel it more in the trapz for sure. I can see testing for mastery on the first go with that PE, PE4 would be a technical on the Hip Flexor mobility. need to work on getting those last couple of inches to be able to lay on the floor, it feels like it's a fascial adhesion somewhere, since it's so fastidious.maybe it's about time i do another round with the foam roller and re-test mobility...since im on a roll. #hardeehar 

today's H1 session was pretty sweet. felt pretty good after PE2 mastery and i was feeling confident that i could also hammer out PE3. by the end of it my trapz were fried. let's see how Wednesday goes. (doing H1 twice a week.)

question, for those who've gone through PE4, how did you go about warming up to get the straight body line? 

Keilani Gutierrez said:

question, for those who've gone through PE4, how did you go about warming up to get the straight body line? 

For me, it was some hip internal rotation stretch (usually just a 90-90 passive stretch with a body position similar to SAC4 in F4, but body pulling toward the foot instead of the knee as most people do), followed by a rectus femoris stretch (kit's ultimate quadriceps from the book), and last a psoas stretch (kit, standing lunge version). Probably overkill but I am a bit of a zombie.

I think perhaps it will be different for various people, depending on strengths and weaknesses. Even now, I do not begin with handstand training SE's until the I do those 3 hip stretches. Coach has said last year that PE4 is designed to force an increase in shoulder flexion while in a straight body position. But, for me, the problem was not shoulder flexion but the hip girdle. So guess it depends on where you are weak is where you will need to warm up the most.

thanks a lot for that, Biren. definitely still a hip girdle issue for me. started moving forward on the SLS progressions, so we'll see how that sorts out as time moves forward.

i'll pm you so you can explain what you mean by the iM

Well this is my HS improvement since I bought HS1. 

Left pic is from June 27th 2013, right is few days ago; more than a year. I don't train Specific Elements on HS1 yet, I'm still on Preparatory and beginning with dislocates and bodyline drills, so I'm satisfied at this moment with the results, above all for the "minimum" fixing on the lower back area and that ass sticking out; is still sticking out but not so much than before. 

What I feel a lot is my shoulders are more open (but not fully) and I've more control of my PPT. I've to work on a lot of things yet, but slowly. First thing first, as Coach always said.

It would be nice read your comments about it.

Adriano,

I'm not expert enough to comment, only thing I can say is that I looked at your picture, tried to replicate the same body line and for the first time ever I felt I foud the balance in a freestanding handstand.....this should mean something!

thanks!

yeah, that second line looks beautiful. i'm still chipping away at the mobility and glute strength and it's coming along. definitely stoked to see you enjoying it and seeing the subtlety of those two lines. gracias por el update  

Adriano Augusto said:

Well this is my HS improvement since I bought HS1. 

 

Left pic is from June 27th 2013, right is few days ago; more than a year. I don't train Specific Elements on HS1 yet, I'm still on Preparatory and beginning with dislocates and bodyline drills, so I'm satisfied at this moment with the results, above all for the "minimum" fixing on the lower back area and that ass sticking out; is still sticking out but not so much than before. 

 

What I feel a lot is my shoulders are more open (but not fully) and I've more control of my PPT. I've to work on a lot of things yet, but slowly. First thing first, as Coach always said.

 

 

 

It would be nice read your comments about it.

Great work Adriano. I noticed that you've been using wrist support. Won't that weaken your wrists as you progress with HS work?

I think it was due to an injury. 

in other news, mastered HS/PE4 with 3lbs. stoked on that. next session, gonna start on dislocates and prone flex holds. yay.  

I could probably do a few sets right now...

Yeah Nash, as Kei has said was an injury and IS a injury.

- I injured my left wrist one year ago doing HS in the street without proper warm up. I didn't have any wrist conditioning so bum, injury.

- It healed with rehab, H1 wrist sequence and taking care of it. Of course, reducing the amount of pressure on my wrist in F1 (sPL, HBP).

- I injured again at the beginning of this year, right wrist, trying max planche leans without any warmup. Same area. Same stone. Different wrist, but same stupid thing.

- I healed (or at least I thought that) doing the same thing. No pressure, ice water, a lot of rehab, etc.

- I injured AGAIN 3 months ago in the country with 3 falls in a row over my right wrist. Three! Not just one, three.

But I think that if I wouldn't do all the H1 work probably I would had my wrist broken appart with one of the falls.

So, right know I'm healing slowly again. Same protocol.

In all the healing process during all this injuries I used the wrist pad, but I don't get to the point to GET USED TO it, because it weakens the wrist so much (I did it the first time).

I don't do any specific HS training so I don't have the wrist all the time, just fot F1 (sPL/HBP) and I keep doing all the rehab from H1 work doing the exercises slowly and coming back to the wall with most PE1.

The key message of this is: WARM UP ALWAYS. At least some movements with the wrist.

I know that despite of I have huge wrist I don't have the proper conditoning on them and of course I know that they are my weakest link so I'm working on it. Slowly, with patience, left the ego behind me but is healing again and now that I've had both wrist injured, I suppose they'll come stronger!

second time doing Prone shoulder flexion holds. bumped it down to 5x10sec holds to really focus on dislocate mobility. I'm gonna take it nice and slow on this PE/iM combo, its doing some awesome things to my chest and upper back. #thumbsup 

going to bump up dislocates from 3lb to 5lb. the extra 2lb helps me know for sure that im maintaining the arc of the rear portion of the dislocate. oh the cramps. the course doesn't lie! 

now time to start bumping up weight. still need to do mastery on PE5 though, ever since hitting this PE and iM combo Handstand sessions are starting to get intense....

i can be mistaken but that looks much wider than shoudler with + one hand on each side. beside that i think you are arching way too much. 

Keilani, if I'm not mistaken it looks like you've lost a holy crapton of fat. Nice recomp, bigger delts too...

on the flipside, your ribs are flaring a bit during the dislocate

If the head reaches too far forwards, does that mean your hands in HS/PE2>iM:Shoulder Extension are too close?

alan tseng said:

If the head reaches too far forwards, does that mean your hands in HS/PE2>iM:Shoulder Extension are too close?

Maybe, it could be a bad habit to help reduce the difficulty. I would probably try to pack the neck in during the exercise and see if it goes back to alignment. If I can't pack it in properly, then probably hands are too close for the current mobility.