Handstands in Routines

If you practice freestanding handstands for 10 minutes a day for 5-6 days a week will your recovery times over-lap? I don't know about yall, but after doing planche/manna/fl/bl work and 10 minutes of handstands my shoulders are killing me. My worry is that by doing handstands 5-6 times week my muscles wouldn't fully recover.

Could i do like...

Planche/manna/fl/bl days do wall runs and wall hs + free standing hs

Then on days when I'm not doing planche/manna/fl/bl stuff just do free standing?

There is almost no way for someone to answer that question for you over an internet forum. You have to figure out if it is too much for you. If it is then do less. Prioritize your training to your current recovery capabilities.

Remember handstand is a skill, so you

1. you should practice it often

2. you should practice it when you are fresh

3. if you practice them properly, recover time shouldn't really be an issue for handstands

Personally I practice handstands for at least an hour, 6 days a week with the seventh day usually involving ring handstands. Also I almost always add in another training session later in the day. Of course i had to work up to it, but handstands by themselves really shouldn't mess with your recovery.

The key is to increase your work capacity to handle high training volume

Thanks guys. For handstands are you not using the same muscles that you use for planche/manna/bl/fl?

I also practice handstand every day for at least an hour but it is incredibly taxing on me. I believe that it is because I am new to this type of training though. I had to drastically reduce my strength work to accommodate and am just now feeling my recovery is going to allow me to start back up with more strength work. I also think that when you are new to the position and building flexibility it will obviously be alot harder.

I don't really know enough about those other positions to answer very well. But if you have the work capacity I don't think the positions conflict too much.

Kolacz said:

Thanks guys. For handstands are you not using the same muscles that you use for planche/manna/bl/fl?

yes, but in a different manner. Basically, the better your handstand position is, the less taxing it will be to hold it(physically; it will take somemental concentration holding the proper position at first).

However, the HS is different in that you are being held up by your bone structure rather than muscle and tendon.

yuri said:

However, the HS is different in that you are being held up by your bone structure rather than muscle and tendon.

From my own experience it takes a while before your muscles and tendons release enough to allow you to properly "stack" your bones so you are not relying so much on sheer strength to keep you aloft in handstands. Even after a year I am still working on getting my arms close to my ears. There are moments though when I can feel things move into alignment and it's true that it gets much easier to stay up. There are nice collateral strength gains obvious: my handstand pushup has come along nicely even though my range of motion is still limited there.