How often do you train HS

As in the title how frequent, what days, for how long and with foundation or seperately.

At the moment I always feel like it's just a tag on to F1 and feel this is hampering the effort I put into it.

I do a modified version of the 2xF1+4xHS1 integrated schedule:

H1 on tue, thu, fri and sat.

FL/sPL/HBP/RC on wed and SL/MN/SLS/H1 on fri

Full F1 on sun.

So H1 is a total of 4 times.

It depends on what you are doing. for example i'm doing HS 3 days a week, BUT on 2 days i'm doing HBP variation of F4 that includes the handstand hold at the top. So ideally i'm doing HS 5 times a week.

I train H1 twice a week as a separate session than my 3 foundation workouts.  And I probably spend 10 minutes every day playing around with handstands in the living room with my kids.

I've been doing the 4 day HS schedule. I have progressed such an incredible amount from this workload (from PE1 to SE 5x60 handstand since release) but I am so overworked right now and only recently have I realized I really need to take it down a few notches. I have the classic symptoms of over-training and pushing too hard! Like they say, when in doubt do less! DO LESS! When I am done recovering I'm going down to the 2 day schedule.

Micawberian said:

I've been doing the 4 day HS schedule. I have progressed such an incredible amount from this workload (from PE1 to SE 5x60 handstand since release) but I am so overworked right now and only recently have I realized I really need to take it down a few notches. I have the classic symptoms of over-training and pushing too hard! Like they say, when in doubt do less! DO LESS! When I am done recovering I'm going down to the 2 day schedule.

How long did it take you to go from PE1 to 5x60 seconds freestanding handstand?

Micawberian said:

I've been doing the 4 day HS schedule. I have progressed such an incredible amount from this workload (from PE1 to SE 5x60 handstand since release) but I am so overworked right now and only recently have I realized I really need to take it down a few notches. I have the classic symptoms of over-training and pushing too hard! Like they say, when in doubt do less! DO LESS! When I am done recovering I'm going down to the 2 day schedule.

What are the classical overstraining symptoms? I train handstand practically everyday in addition to H1 workout. and I do about 5-10 freestanding holds. could that lead to over training?  I know that handstand training is skill development so should be done as often as possible unlike strength training which is the opposite.  

I train HS nearly every day, but only for about 15 minutes. when i was on earlier elements of H1 I only did it 3 days/week, but now I'm on SE4, so it's minimal exertion. I include it before every workout. trying to get the balance thing down. slow progress... It's nice to do after warmup and before strength training. gets the wrists and shoulders good before doing planchework, HSPU's, etc.

athleticandrey said:

What are the classical overstraining symptoms? I train handstand practically everyday in addition to H1 workout. and I do about 5-10 freestanding holds. could that lead to over training?  I know that handstand training is skill development so should be done as often as possible unlike strength training which is the opposite.  

Overtraining Symptoms: Declining performance, injury, sleep problems, fatigue, dreading workouts, moodiness, high heart rate, etc.

The first exercises in the series have a strong strength component as you're building the shoulder strength and mobility to get to the point where you can work on skill.  I know my shoulders are fried by the end of my 5x18s PE7.  I'm looking forward to getting to MT Nordic's point of the SE's being "minimal exertion" so I can train the skill work every day.

Luzian said:

How long did it take you to go from PE1 to 5x60 seconds freestanding handstand?

Hi, I got H1 at release, which I think was march 2013? I guess that makes it 19 months! The PE1-6 is really the longest part of the course.

athleticandrey said:

What are the classical overstraining symptoms? I train handstand practically everyday in addition to H1 workout. and I do about 5-10 freestanding holds. could that lead to over training?  I know that handstand training is skill development so should be done as often as possible unlike strength training which is the opposite.  

Tex answered the symptoms pretty well. The symptoms will sneak up on you if you're not careful enough. So here is the thing, everyone says you gotta train handstand every day because its a skill. What most people forget to say is you have to build up to that kind of work capacity. I did not build up to that work capacity and jumped right in. As a result, progress was fantastic and fast, but it came at a cost. I would say back off the extra training and just stick to the H1 work. I think you will have to accept that as a beginner your progress is going to be slower because your body simply can't handle that much training.

What I did was work on handstands for long periods of time outside of H1. Constantly stretching my body parts (and stretching hard), doing a few handstands in the evening just to play around, only to have it turn into an hour workout. Things like that. The students at the kiev circus school spend something like 21 hrs a week on handstand training, but they definitely had to build up to that over time.

For the record, I did feel that training every day was really important for getting the balance down. If I took even one day off, the next day balance would be really hard to find. Same with kicking up. Consistency and practice every day helped a lot, to the point now where I have close to 100% success rate. Again, as a beginner, we just have to accept the slower progress. Check the ego, and realize you've got years and years to do this stuff. No rush! I know people like Yuval Ayalon say at their seminars that daily practise is the most important thing. Honestly, I don't think that applies to beginners like us.

tex0413 said:

Overtraining Symptoms: Declining performance, injury, sleep problems, fatigue, dreading workouts, moodiness, high heart rate, etc.

Yep, those symptoms are spot on. Especially the moodiness. People have been asking me why I'm so different lately. Just a couple of days ago my roommate says, "You're not the chill peace stress-free guy anymore. Why are you so annoyed and pissed off all the time?". Lower back/QL & lower traps are also in a constant dull ache, from working h1 & h2 mobility too hard.