HeSPUs hit a Plateua.......I wanna Quit

[chingyvang]

2 months of headstand pushups stuck at 7 reps on the 1st set, then 3-4 reps on the last 2 set. Leg rested against wall and head touches floor full ROM. i've tried everything from wide grip to narrow, 45-60 seconds rest between sets. I've tried morning, noon and evening. I've tried working out 2 days in a row to 5 days straight, which seems to help a little but after the weekend rest, the plateau begins again. I'm seriously losing all hope and motivation and thinking of quitting headstand pushups all together

[Philip Chubb]

Long story short, sometimes when you can't increase the intensity anymore, try increasing the volume. Once the volume is a bit higher, increase the intensity. Do that back and forth. It is so simple but no one pays attention to it.

[chingyvang]

so you're saying for me to do more headstand pushups? Or should I add weights?

[Philip Chubb]

Intensity would be adding weights (this is only one way to do it) and volume would be to do more.

There's a lot of different methods you could use. I don't know your training history, so I can't say which is the best, but I will give you some ideas.

One for you that I would do is to slightly pike the feet to make the HeSPU a bit easier. Then you will be able to do more. As your work capacity increases, you will be able to gain more strength when you go back to doing them straight. Another might be to add more sets and even them out with more rest. So you can do 7 then stop and your reps drop to 3-4. How about doing 5 and doing 6 sets of that with 3-5 minutes in between sets. Instead of ending up with around 15 HeSPUs, you get 30. Do you see where I am going with this?

[chingyvang]

sure I'll try the more sets more rest approach. a guy on another forum suggested i go nose to ground for a few weeks and then go back to my regular head to ground to see if it helped improve my strength.....good idea also?

[Philip Chubb]

Possibly if it doesn't change your form too much. I would rather see you keep the same form and get some small blocks to place your hands on. That will increase your ROM too. Keep your body guessing a bit more and you'll get results.

[chingyvang]

Possibly if it doesn't change your form too much. I would rather see you keep the same form and get some small blocks to place your hands on. That will increase your ROM too. Keep your body guessing a bit more and you'll get results.

ok thanks alot phil, ill take your advice

[Philip Chubb]

No problem! Tell me how it works!

[Aaron Griffin]

I'm seriously losing all hope and motivation and thinking of quitting headstand pushups all together

Then quit. Stop everything and forget about ever working towards any goal because you hit a little snag. If this is the attitude you're going to bring to the table, you WILL fail.

Success is about learning to get back up again after your fall, not preventing the fall in the first place.

[Mikael Kristiansen]

Going beyond the simple thinking of adding more reps will solve your problem. You said you do with feet touching the wall and head goes to the floor. You can do a consistent first set of 7. The two things you should focus on is learning to do it freestanding(which is quite different) as well as full ROM HSPU (hands on something elevated so you can descend further). Working properly on both of these will not only increase the reps of the variation you now do, but also leave it obsolete. Once you can do hspu freestanding there is little reason to work against a wall. Same goes for full ROM HSPU. Increasing complexity of the movement you do is to bodyweight training what another 10kg plate is to weightlifting.

Also, exercise patience with training. Many months can pass, even for the best before they manage to see significant strength gains. The key is not getting too focused on the numbers and enjoying what you do.

[Ian Legrow]

in all honesty its going to take time. I know that probably not what you want to hear, but its true. have you tried doing a SSC for 12 weeks with added volume? I am certain at the end of the 12 weeks, or hell even 8 or 10 weeks, you will be able to do a lot more, you know? Sometimes doing ther SSC sucks because you are doing the exact. Same. Thing. Over and over. For 2 or three months. But it definitly helps prevent injury, and gets you stronger for increasing reps and intesity in the future. Hope this helps

[Falcon]

If your not doing OACs or some heavy weight stuff, then its pretty useless to do FBEs in SSC.

My $0.2.

[Vincent Stoyas]

If your not doing OACs or some heavy weight stuff, then its pretty useless to do FBEs in SSC.

My $0.2.

How would you design a SSC without FBEs?

[Blairbob]

so 7r is your max?

if you are maxing out in your first set, that is why your subsequent sets are dismal.

either do 3 sets at 80-85% or 5 that increase ratio per set

also see about adding some low intense reps doing graduated HeSPU. So set it up somehow to go beyond the ROM of HeSPU. An inch or two or three, get me?

You could possibly use TexasMethod programming and implement it for the HeSPU.

In short, vary your programming and do some low rep high intensity work.

[Vagabond]

... Why don't you take more rest between your sets? Seriously. Your max is 7. You're still working strength. Why don't you wait you're fresher before doing your other sets? Like, why don't you do 3x6? You save one rep, which probably have a bad form anyways, you rest a bit more, then you move on to the next set feeling fresher and being able to keep going. Then, once 3x6 is easy, you do 7,6,6, then 7,7,6, etc.

Cause seriously, what's the point to wait only 45-60 seconds for a strength set? You're not a bodybuilder, you're not trying to get pumped without caring for your performances, you're an aspiring gymnast, or you use gymnastics techniques to train.

Here's an example: I'm training a bodybuilder. He's big. But he's not strong. Why? Everything he did, he did it to tire himself out and get pumped. He might weight more than 50 pounds more than me, I'm still the one who lift heavier weights, even if I haven't trained weights for a very long time. Simply cause I focused on what I was doing. Waited until I felt I could do it without failure before doing it. Of course, my trainings last more time than a bodybuilder's. But there's tricks for that. Per example, training 2 or 3 times a day with a few hours of rest between each session, and good food to recover, like the Bulgarian weightlifters. Anyways. You're doing a bit the same thing as my bodybuilder was doing. But you do less sets. Just try to increase the quality.

[Falcon]

If your not doing OACs or some heavy weight stuff, then its pretty useless to do FBEs in SSC.

My $0.2.

How would you design a SSC without FBEs?

SSC is made exclusively for one thing, and that is static work, the only reason we use SSC on most of our statics, is because of the connective tissue, and that is not limiting factor in dynamic movements, unless as I said you're using heavy weight (pulls,dips), or OAC, or similiar work. So after some time, it's productive to set a SSC for dynamic exercises, but doing for example 4 pullups for 8 weeks is just nonsense, it will become easy the third time you do it (or maybe it's just me). Everyone has to find what works for him.

[Ian Legrow]

If your not doing OACs or some heavy weight stuff, then its pretty useless to do FBEs in SSC.

My $0.2.

How would you design a SSC without FBEs?

SSC is made exclusively for one thing, and that is static work, the only reason we use SSC on most of our statics, is because of the connective tissue, and that is not limiting factor in dynamic movements, unless as I said you're using heavy weight (pulls,dips), or OAC, or similiar work. So after some time, it's productive to set a SSC for dynamic exercises, but doing for example 4 pullups for 8 weeks is just nonsense, it will become easy the third time you do it (or maybe it's just me). Everyone has to find what works for him.

Im Not being rude, but this is entirly untrue. SSC is meant for both FSP and FBE. I have asked this many times jsut to make sure. Per your example 4 pull ups fro 8 weeks, i don't believe is nonsense, i believe that if that is all yopur body can handle (ie 3x3 pull ups fro 8-12 weeks) then that is all your body can handle. After the 8-12 weeks of doing the 3x3 sets of pull ups or in this persons case his HeSPU, his body will get used to doing 3x3 and therefore be stronger for when he ups the reps, say 3x5. And you start the cycle again. The Steady State Cycle is for everyone and for both static and body weight exercises to not only prevent injury but to also make it impossible for one to over-train them self.

[MH87]

You could try some GTG or do some work outs where you literally do 50 sets of very low reps...

50 times 3 = 150 reps.

Sounds like a lot right? Sure but remember stuff like 10 x 10 is also 100 reps and at a higher intensity.

If your maximum is 7 reps then 3 reps is below 50% of your 1-rep maximum.

Rest as you need, take as long time as you need.. Even if it takes you allllll dayyy... High volume, low intensity... 1 session. Make sure you do A LOT of reps. Then leave HePUs alone for a week and come back when you feel fresh and you can test your new max.

Stuff like this can work.

[chingyvang]

Vagabound - actually I'm only resting 45-60s because I am training for hypertrophy. Yes I want to add some size to my flat shoulders. And thank you all, I will try more sets less reps

[MH87]

If you want to train for hypertrophy then strength training is key. And with strength training you may benefit from longer rest periods.

[Vagabond]

Well, I think that's why you're blocked there. You don't want to rest more - but you need it. Plus, what you're doing right now isn't really enough for significant hypertrophy, unless you're doing much more set of other exercises. And because your numbers doesn't increase, you don't really "shock" your muscles. So, why don't you give a try to more rest? When your numbers improve again, you can simply decrease that rest time you take. Then when you're getting close to plateau again, change something else to break it. At the point you are, you should be seeking more performance than hypertrophy, and if you want some extra hypertrophy, just increase the number of sets.

And GTG and be a good method, but I think that 50 sets is a bit much in one day... If he takes 10 hours to do it, it makes one set every 12 minutes... For 10 hours. That's a bit much, no?

[MH87]

Haha. Yeah I admit that would be pretty crazy I guess.

[Vagabond]

Ha ha, yeah. Should always make some calculations to see if something's doable. Like, 2 sets per hour, for a 10 hours period, would be more appropriate for a GTG approach. So, it would be more like 20x3 (and 10 hours is still a lot, I'd probably try do do one set out of every 20 minutes, so it would take a bit less than 7 hours instead of 10).

I'm still convinced that his problem is his rest time, tho. Cause to me, these 3 sets sound more like a single set wit forced reps, lol.

[MH87]

Hehe yeah. Still 100 reps in 1 hour should be doable. I agree with you tho

[Vagabond]

Of course it is! But not for everyone. Depend how strong they are.