This could just be me, but I'm having a really hard time seeing progress on Handstand One aside from the handstand progressions themselves. Most of the PE1 exercises are way too easy, but PE2 is way too hard. I feel aimless and I am not seeing any noticeable progress after 4 weeks. (After week one I've been doing an incline against the wall that's about half way between PE1 and PE2.) I can feel my forearms working during the sets, but not noticing any increased strength or endurance.
This forum is archived information and is no longer active.
Handstand One Lack of Progress
Started by Derek Colvin, July 20, 2016 · 4 Replies · 217 Views
It just feels like I'm really not getting any return on my hour per week that I'm investing in the handstand series. I'd love to learn a proper handstand, but at this rate it feels as though I'll never get there. The lack of progress combined with how boring the wrist elements are is killing my motivation to continue. (And I'm normally a pretty upbeat guy!)
Hey Derek. 4 weeks is not long at all in terms of physical training; I recommend looking forward months or years instead of weeks. Consistency over long periods of time is your greatest GST weapon, especially when it comes to skill work like handstands. Did you fully master PE1? Post a form check and we can look for issues with it that may be preventing you from smoothly transitioning to PE2. That's a good place to start.
For a different perspective and some inspiration to think further out, I have a 69 year old student who began training GST 4 months ago. Before his first HS session with me, he said he hadn't been upside down since he was a young kid. He worked diligently on his PE1 and the shoulder flexion iM, never missing a class, for 12 weeks. His abilities and confidence were limited and his progress seemed slow for 10 weeks, until it finally clicked and he mastered the movements. Since then, he has moved much quicker through the subsequent progressions. He just needed to put lots of time into the very basics and now it is all transferring forward.
That's a good idea for the form checks.
Where do I post those?
I have some hypermobility in my fingers that makes me concerned about the fingertip pushup progressions, so that would be great to get the form checks on and the wrist pushup progressions don't really feel right (they're either super easy or mildly uncomfortable as I move down the wall)