Weighted German Hangs-when to move onto?

[Steven Andrews]

I'm at the point where doing 3 sets of 50 seconds of german hangs with palms down on a straight bar has me not feeling much in the shoulder/chest area (I feel a pump in the forearms and my grip giving out at the end though). I can do more but am worrying about progressing too fast. When I reach 3 sets of 60 seconds should I begin to add weight or should I proceed with bodyweight to point of 3 sets of 90 seconds? I can perform a full palms down back lever for several seconds without much difficulty but can only hold an advanced front lever tuck for about 20 seconds. I can get 30 seconds on the L-sit(straight legs) on the floor with flat palms but cannot get a tuck planche with my feet off the floor. Obviously I have some strength imbalances.

[Joshua Naterman]

That's cool, you're not doing badly at all. If you have a 60s advanced tuck BL with a 3-5s full lay then you clearly need to be training straddle for your work sets.

As far as the FL goes, you are right n the cusp of whether it is ok to train advanced tuck or not. That's a reasonable place to start out FL training.

You should probably work on planche starting with the frogstand. How is your frog and advanced frog, have you achieved 60s in both of those yet?

[Cole Dano]

There is no need to add weight or time to the German hang. Its good like that, in fact you can drop it to 1x60 sec.

[Steven Andrews]

I haven't done any planche-like training in a few months. I got up to about 50 seconds on the straight-arm frog and that's the reason I was discouraged about not being able to get my feet off the ground for a ball planche. I've been concentrating on handstand work and it has worked well with me being able to kick into a freestanding handstand for 70 seconds. I also do about 5 sets of wall hanstands at 2.5 inches from the wall holding the handstands for 35 seconds each. I went too hard with the free standing handstands by bringing my front knee up to my chest and then sort of diving into the handstand. I now have wrist pain in my right wrist so I realize it was a big mistake to neglect doing the wrist conditioning series. Now, I'm going to start working on finger handstands as it will put less stress on my wrist.

[Coach Sommer]

... I now have wrist pain in my right wrist so I realize it was a big mistake to neglect doing the wrist conditioning series. Now, I'm going to start working on finger handstands as it will put less stress on my wrist ...

The wrist series is essential.

I would also recommend that you only train the finger HS with low to moderate intensity; the last thing that you need is a finger injury to go along with your wrist injury.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Joshua Naterman]

Yes. The muscles that connect to your fingers all cross the wrist. You may be doing a lot of damage by trying to do finger handstands before you have recovered fully from the wrist injury. The wrist series, done on a wall at first, is something you really need to get started on. You may not NEED to be on the wall, but it's probably a good idea for a month just to be safe. Whatever you do, do not work so hard that you create pain. Some discomfort is ok, but keep it at a 4-5 on the 1-10 pain scale. If you don't know what that is, it's better to do slightly less than more!

Since you had a specific acute injury there is a good chance that you will benefit greatly from active release and scar tissue removal in the area, as the both re-tone the muscle and directly alter connective tissue composition. The scar tissue removal stuff also stimulates proper collagen formation, so it actually directly improves healing. This has been instrumental in my elbow recovery.