WOD - 100914

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Perform:

1x10 Cast Wall Walks

1x5 Pike Box Press HS

1x10 Straddle Box Press HS

10 minutes of HS Wall Runs

Finish with 2x10 Wrist Pushups

notes:

1) Rest 1-2 minutes between Press HS sets.

2) If Cast Wall Walks are insufficiently challenging, you may perform PL Wall Walks instead. The key difference between these two variations is that the hands will remain behind the shoulders at all times during the descent and ascent of the PL Walks, whereas in the Cast Wall Walks the hands are directly under the shoulders.

3) Remember to adjust the height as necessary during the Box Press HS variations to ensure that the presses are sufficiently challenging.

4) If you cannot press to HS, then press to HeS.

5) If you are strong enough, replace the Box Press HS variations with Press HS from an L-sit on parallets or PBs.

6) If you exceptionally strong, perform the Press HS variations on the XR.

7) Rest 3-5 minutes

8 ) Spend 10 minutes performing HS Wall runs. Time spent resting does not count toward the 10 minute total. Strive to perform the 10 minutes of HS Wall Runs in as few sets as possible.

9) Rest as necessary, but strive to keep rest periods to an absolute minimum. Unless you are already extremely well conditioned gymnastically, this should be a very challenging workout.

10) You may increase the intensity of the HS Wall Runs by lifting a straight arm up to the hips during each step rather than merely touching the shoulder.

Challenging workout this one. I haven't been training my arms much so just eased into this one.

Completed

1 x 7 Cast Wall Walks

1 x 5 Pike Press HeS

1 x 7 Straddle Press HeS

1 min HS holds done in 15s holds

I'll do more with these once my upper body work has increased.

I have been struggling with this workout everytime it comes around and ultimately not getting everything out of it that I should. I can complete 8-10 Pike Press HeS in a row no problem; however, when I tried to move to the box HS presses, I got nothing! So, I moved to the wall. I can now do 1-2 reps of a tucked press to HS with shoulders pressed against the wall, hands 10-12 inches from the wall. I then tried to move back to the box and the only way I would be able to do this is with a very high box, something like 5-6 ft. (Never tried it though, couldn't set something up that high but I will if yall think this is correct.)

-This seems wrong to me. Am I doing something wrong or should I be spending more time somewhere else?

-I thought the box presses would be easier, but I can't even do one! GRRR! Frustrated.

Anyone have a video of the boxpress HS?

I will try to make a video of my wod later. However I don't know if it will be well executed presses lol.

Today's WOD:

cast walks: 6,4 (really worked on doing these correctly, small steps to/from the floor)

pike press HeS - head on 4" block 5, 5, 5, 5

straddle press HeS - head on 4"block x 10; head on 6" block x 5; pike press HeS, using 6" block x 3

HS wall runs 10 x 40 seconds with 60 sec rest intervals, my god these are brutal...

wrist pushups: straddle stance x 10, regular straight body wrist pushups x 10

Eddie, I'm in the same boat as you. I'm just trying to be patient, keep improving just a bit at a time. For instance, increasing the height of the block my head is on (increasing the distance of the arc my legs are moving to/from the floor). Its frustrating because when I attempt a box press HS, I just can't get my feet to budge either!

I've been training presses for quite some time, I don't have them mastered yet, but there's some tips that might help.

First is that you should not see a press to handstand as a pure brutal strength exercise, like a HSPU. It is a complex movement that demands from a lot of parts of the body, as well as a good technique. In fact, it's the technique part that should be the main concern.

You need to lean a bit forward, unless you have uber flexibility to a "vertical pancake straddle". I think this is the ultimate press to HS form, but that's not my case, so I need to lean a bit forward, this demands a bit from the wrists, you can do them on PBars to make it easier. But you can't lean too much forward or you will make it way harder, in a position that is suposed to be for planches. So, leaning forward just enough to bring your feet near the line of your hands, and your hips as high as possible, you should think about holding the shouders, not just letting them go forward, or you will fall. Bring the feet and at the same time hold down the shoulders in place, thinking of pressing them down and back. This is the key moment, where you need to start focusing on balancing yourself, you're already in a handstand. You can start lifting your feet just when your hips are above your chest, or, as close as you can get. That's when you will bring the shoulders fully back to 90º with the floor.

Now you can make it easier doing them with feet elevated, but I find that it only makes a little bit easier. Doing negatives with the back to the wall is one option, assisted by a partner is another option.

When doing the box press, I find that putting the feet very high is not really what makes it easier, but arranging yourself so your hips are already in place, then the motion is just balancing with the shoulders and bringing the feet up.

But you really need to know where are you lacking. If it's wrists, do on pbars.

If it's straddle flexibility, work it, but in the meantime I guess if you're very stiff you're stuck to press to HeS. In that case you can keep working the motion doing presses to HeS, while putting a good effort to improve your flexibility. The more flexibility, the easier the press will become, and more shoulder focused your training can get. Because you can put your hips very high before starting to lift the feet.

It may be that you have flexibility, but you're not contracting the hip flexors and abs, it's a similar contraction that we do in Straddle L. If you're not contracting them there's no way you will lift your feet. This is just getting used to.

Finally there's the shoulder strength you need, but I don't think it's the hardest part at all. If you have everything that you need to the press, but you lack shoulder strenght, then I guess these wall runs will help wih that, in time.

WU:

500m Row

10 Shoulder Dislocate

15s Samson Stretch

30s Handstand Hold

FSP:

2 x 1 Straddle L (PB Low; 20s, 20s)

2 x 1 Front Lever (Tuck; 20s, 20s)

2 x 1 Planche (Adv. Frog; 10s, 10s)

2 x 1 Manna (PB Bent; 20s, 15s)

2 x 1 Back Lever (Full; 5, 5)

2 x 1 L-Sit (Floor; 5, 5)

WOD:

Preform:

1 x 10 Cast Wall Walks; rest 3 mins.

1 x 5 Pike Floor Press HeS; rest 3 mins

1 x 10 Straddle Floor Press HeS; rest 3mins

5 Minutes of Wall Runs (1 min then 30s intervals afterwards; 20s rest between; oh wow my shoulders and arms after! :shock: )

Finished with 2 x 10 Wrist Pushups & Side Rotator Cuff (2#). Stretch.

Did a 3mi run, stretched for 10min.

Did PL Wall Walks, and 2x10 HeS leg lifts + 5 RLL wall HS negatives

10min HS wall runs as Rx'd...tried them touching my hips/side of thigh though. I used to think touching my shoulders was bad, but touching the side of my leg definitely tickled a little bit more! Wound up doing 10x1min, and at around 45 seconds would switch to shoulder touches.

Thanks for the workout coach!

This was my 2nd WOD today...did yesterdays leg WOD as well earlier in the day, but all in all felt good...I believe all the Ninja Warrior I've been watching helped me out .

1x10 Cast Wall Walks(7,3- Taking only a couple of steps with each hand, then back)

1x5 Pike Press HeS

1x10 Straddle Press HeS (These headstand presses feel so much nicer on the neck with a towel in the grass )

HS Wall Runs: 30s on/1min. off...repeated 10 times for a 5min. total.

5 minute break

then repeated 10x again with only handstands against the wall, focusing on body tension, for the remaining 5 min.

The 2x10 Wrist Pushups felt glorious after this .

Had some lower back discomfort in the first round of wall runs, but it was probably due to the leg WOD I did earlier in the day. Regardless, it dissipated for the second round...all the discomfort moving to my shoulders and wrists .

Warm Up:

• [*:3w3w3u6m]500m row @ 1:45/500m
  [*:3w3w3u6m]1 x 10 XR Dips
  [*:3w3w3u6m]1 x 10 Pull Ups
  [*:3w3w3u6m]1 x 20 Russian KB Swings - 24kg
  [*:3w3w3u6m]1 x 16 straight arm raises/1 x 12 cuban press - 7.5lbs dumbbells
  [*:3w3w3u6m]Superset 3 x 20sec German Hang/3 x 30 headstand - very little use of wall for balance
  [*:3w3w3u6m]Superset 4 x 15sec Adv Tuck FL/4 x 10 Low straight L-sit
  [*:3w3w3u6m]Superset 4 x 15 Tuck BL/4 x 10 Bent knee MSH

GB WOD:

• [*:3w3w3u6m]2 x 5 Cast Wall Walks
  [*:3w3w3u6m]1 x 5 Pike Press to Headstand - 17in box
  [*:3w3w3u6m]2 x 5 Straddle Press to Headstand - from ground
  [*:3w3w3u6m]Wall Runs - 5min total work time

Thoughts:

• [*:3w3w3u6m]Lots of shoulder stretching during warm up. This one had me a little worried, thankfully shoulder felt fine throughout.
  [*:3w3w3u6m]FL felt a little weaker than normal today. BL felt a lot better today. Was also able to pull back out of the German hangs, a new feat for me. Did FL negatives to come down from each BL and GH.
  [*:3w3w3u6m]Wall walks are harder than they look. I thought I would be able to do all 10 at once.
  [*:3w3w3u6m]Press HeS are also harder than they look. Still have to do them back to wall because I have no upside down balance. I can do the straddle without the wall, but I fall over as soon as I get vertical...
  [*:3w3w3u6m]Wall Runs destroyed me. I never imagined they would be so hard. I had to stop after about 5min of work or it would have taken me half the night to finish the second half. I think I may do these every once in a while when I am trying to stay awake at work. They are awesome.
  [*:3w3w3u6m]Neck is pretty sore from all the headstand. Guess I have a weak neck...

ah interesting workout today

for some reason the wall walks were a bit more taxing than normal I did 5 sets of two of them.

-question on these are you supposed to count them as lower to floor then raise back up as one, or do you count walk into handstand then back down as one. I use the former as my counting method, so this makes them significantly harder.

I did 2x5 pike press headstands. they ended up being single repetitions with controlled negatives, but I couldn't seem to go the last few inches without "plopping"

1x10 straddle press headstands great improvement on these since the last time this workout showed up I was able to get 5 in a row without stopping =)

then 1x5 straddle press headstands

finally the wall runs. this is actually a funny story I always thought the form was back to wall... so I could get maybe 2 steps max on a great day... today I watched the video again a bit determined and I felt like a dunce when I realized it's a stomach to wall exercise. first attempt I was able to do 50 full seconds and was laughing the entire time from my stupidity haha. I did 5 minutes total work today because I quickly got very tired and couldn't really press on yet

2x10 wrist pushups from knees and I'm a happy kid now =)

WOD:

1 x 10 Cast Wall Walks (last 3 were rough but got all ten)

Rest 2 min

1 x 5 HS Straddle Press Negatives

Rest 2 min

2 x 5 Wall HS Straddle Press

Rest 5 min

10 min HS wall runs; first set for 2 min then last 8 more 1 min sets; 9 total sets; hands were 8-12" from wall

Rested 1 min bet. each set

2 x 10 Wrist Pushups with ft elevated on box

WU:

2x15s Adv Frog Stand

2x15s L sits

2x15s FL Adv Tuck

2x15s BL Adv Tuck

WOD:

10 Cast wall walks

5 Pike press to HeS

10 Straddle Press to HeS (I tried to do both of these to HS but no luck yet)

2x5 HS Shuttle Walks. (This is my progression to Wall runs, I use two objects against the wall and walk from one to the other (1 rep). Ideally when I can approach 25 of these without having to come down I will move to Wall Runs)

3x5 Shoulder Flys on rings. (Lower down as far as you can and then raise back up)

1 min HS against wall. ( I was doing this to see if I can stay up there, the whole time but wasn't able too. I am sure the workout tired my shoulders but that is hardly an excuse after all its only one minute.)

Notes:

I don't know what stops me from the presses yet. I can't seem to mentally recruit all the muscles that require stabilization at a given time. I will attempt negatives next time and see if that could help a little bit. All in all this still was a good workout. I think I threw in the appropriate substitutes to make this a good workout.

Another thing is my mental block with HS work. When there is time involved I begin to panic (my breathing becomes a wheeze almost), not sure why this is, but I definitely feel it is a mental block. That is the reason behind my progression for Wall Runs, I needed something to do to get my mind off the time factor.

I did it,

I did the 10 cast walks, but I took 10 sec break between the sets from like 6-10. (Is that bad?)

And I was confused about how to do the box pushups, so I looked in the book and could only find one thing like that so I put my feet onto object mid stomach height and did the hspu there.

And I did the wall runs for only about 8 mins.

I think i did these badly

Kiyoshi said:

I did it,

I did the 10 cast walks, but I took 10 sec break between the sets from like 6-10. (Is that bad?)

And I was confused about how to do the box pushups, so I looked in the book and could only find one thing like that so I put my feet onto object mid stomach height and did the hspu there.

And I did the wall runs for only about 8 mins.

I think i did these badly

These aren't HSPUs or HeSPUs. They are press to handstand or press to headstand. If you are unable to do them with your feet on the ground, you use a box to elevate your feet so they travel less distance. This is a pretty decent tutorial I found on youtude for the Press Handstand:

Zfpf6SoBMO8

Warmup:

Starjumps

FSP warmup:

None (see notes and 100913 log)

WOD:

2x4 Cast Wall Walks

1x5 Pike Press HeS

2x5 Straddle Press HeS

<5 minutes of HS and HS Wall Runs (in 15 mins)

2x10 Wrist Pushups

Notes:

• [*:2c37pfkl]I did two WODs today (Thursday). This workout (Tuesday's) was done at 8pm after doing Monday's workout at midday. I did my usual wrist series and warmup FSPs at noon and decided to skip them in the evening.
  [*:2c37pfkl]I didn't have a box for the Press HeS work, so I elevated my head slightly and cheated by bending my legs significantly while pressing. Also, the rest between Press sets was probably quite a bit more than 2 minutes. Urgh.
  [*:2c37pfkl]The 15 mins HS/HS Wall Run work was mostly rest - I doubt even 5 mins was actually spent in HS. It was really awkward doing these today due to location. The Wall Runs started with raising my hands an inch off the ground each time, but I was just leaning from side to side later.

Nick_EOD said:

Kiyoshi said:

I did it,

I did the 10 cast walks, but I took 10 sec break between the sets from like 6-10. (Is that bad?)

And I was confused about how to do the box pushups, so I looked in the book and could only find one thing like that so I put my feet onto object mid stomach height and did the hspu there.

And I did the wall runs for only about 8 mins.

I think i did these badly

These aren't HSPUs or HeSPUs. They are press to handstand or press to headstand. If you are unable to do them with your feet on the ground, you use a box to elevate your feet so they travel less distance. This is a pretty decent tutorial I found on youtude for the Press Handstand:

Zfpf6SoBMO8

Wait, the arms are never supposed to bend in an actual press to handstand? So the same would apply for a box press to handstand?

RandomHavoc said:

Wait, the arms are never supposed to bend in an actual press to handstand? So the same would apply for a box press to handstand?

As far as I know, this is correct. Of course, I am no gymnast, so until someone who knows more comes along and says differently. I did notice there was very little in the way of negative comments on youtube as there so often are, if that says anything.

For those of you (like me) who have been stuck at press HeS for some time, one thing I can say is -- build some parallettes! This morning I built a pair out of PVC pipe (instructions from drillsandskills.com). I used 1.25" diameter PVC pipe, total cost for pipe, elbows, end caps, and T's was $21. So, I played around with them this morning and low and behold was actually able to do a few partial ROM straddle press HS's. I was nearly able to bring my feet down to hand-height (my parallettes raise about 10 inches off the floor) and press back up. Was very (very) tough, but doable. At least for me, there's much more stability in gripping the parallettes vs. just palms on floor. Obviously, eventually I want to be able to press to HS from the floor, but using the parallettes really gave me the opportunity to concentrate on pressing the shoulders back and contracting my abs/hip flexors in maintaining my hips directly above my chest. Oh, and I should note that these were all WALL straddle press HS's.

Anyway, that's my two cents.