Can someone explain why Handstands are "Skill Work"?

In lots of templates around these parts use handstands as "skill work", typically done before a workout. I don't understand this, because handstands seem to be fairly fatiguing...

I mean, I can hold a 2min+ handstand currently, and maybe 10-12s freestanding, but doing "5-10 minutes of handstand work" is going to tire me out before my main workout. Even worse if it's a HSPU day....

Can someone explain this to me?

That doesn't add up to me Phrak. If you are at a 2 minute wall HS and manage at least some freestanding, 5-10 minutes of HS skill work shouldn't be that tiring. What are you doing for those 5-10 minutes?

Mr Brady said:

That doesn't add up to me Phrak. If you are at a 2 minute wall HS and manage at least some freestanding, 5-10 minutes of HS skill work shouldn't be that tiring. What are you doing for those 5-10 minutes?

Ok, then maybe I'm not doing "skill work" then. What should I be doing? Typically I will alternate stomach-to-wall and kick-up handstands, holding for a few seconds, and then tapping off until I start to feel a bit tired, or I fall. Then I rest for a bit and repeat

Depending on your level of strength and how much time you are actually on your hands during the skill work, it could definitely be strength. I started a swimming class and even though we would work laps down the pool as skill work, it would still be tiring because of the class format. To make it more about skill, try taking a bit more rest and less work similar to how the FSP is done for most people. 50 percent I believe.

So you could work a couple kick ups, rest, a couple more, then rest then some stomach to wall HS and come down BEFORE you start feeling a burn or fatigue starting to accumulate.

The other side would be to build your strength and work capacity for the HS. So get strong enough that holding a HS isn't so much work. Once you are more effiecent at it, it becomes more of a skill and less of a strength building activity. I have used both options in my own practice with good results.

Sounds like you think 5-10 minutes of handstand work means 5-10 minutes on your hands. That's not the case. 5-10 minutes of handstand work simply means to spend 5-10 minutes on doing various handstand drills. Counting stuff like getting ready to do another attempt, you will realise that much less time is spent in the actual handstand.

Svend said:

Sounds like you think 5-10 minutes of handstand work means 5-10 minutes on your hands. That's not the case. 5-10 minutes of handstand work simply means to spend 5-10 minutes on doing various handstand drills. Counting stuff like getting ready to do another attempt, you will realise that much less time is spent in the actual handstand.

After the advice I've gotten here, I came to a similar conclusion. Yesterday, I pretty much kept each handstand attempt to about 20-30s, and I felt fine afterwards. In the past, I always aborted when I started to feel fatigue

phrak said:

Svend said:

Sounds like you think 5-10 minutes of handstand work means 5-10 minutes on your hands. That's not the case. 5-10 minutes of handstand work simply means to spend 5-10 minutes on doing various handstand drills. Counting stuff like getting ready to do another attempt, you will realise that much less time is spent in the actual handstand.

After the advice I've gotten here, I came to a similar conclusion. Yesterday, I pretty much kept each handstand attempt to about 20-30s, and I felt fine afterwards. In the past, I always aborted when I started to feel fatigue

Yes you don't need to hold each successful handstand forever. If I'm training various ways to kick up, for instance, then I come back to my feet as soon as I know I've found a comfortable balance point.

I'll then do some endurance work later in the workout if I wish, but not while I'm still training the "skill" side of it.

I gotta say that I have never thought of the HS as a skill work and trained it as such, and I started to do so when I saw this thread, with 10-15 min skill work each workout. Lots of sets and a lot of rest. And about a month ago I could probably hold a freestanding HS for maybe 2-3 sec max and I was never able to catch my balance from a kick-up, and now today I could easily catch my balance on almost every kick-up and I was able to hold my HS for about 5-10 sec. On other words I have gotten huge improvements in my HS by doing it like this.

Thanks a lot you guys for explaining how it should be done.