Is It Ok To Do Hs Work Every Day ?

Hi !

Been wondering if its not overtraining to do HS work ( HS against the wall ) every day.

And if it is ok - The intensity should be like on the training days or lighter ? ( I do 5 sets of about 40 - 60 sec)

I would post the next question at the mobility channel but maybe you can answer it here aswell.

If im going to do HS work everyday ( Until i find out is it ok or not)  Should i Do mobility work aswell? 

( Like Wrist pushups, scapula pushups, shoulder work etc. )

Thank you !

You should do both, but not to exhaustion. For the handstands, the number of sets and time you spend in them is not relevant because it depends what your maximum is. But even if you did 5 times your maximum everyday, it's unlikely that you would be overtraining.

As Vagabond mentioned above, don't work to exhaustion.  Instead, concentrate on perfect form rather than max time held.  The volume will accumulate quickly enough if you're practicing everyday.

Wrist conditioning can be a limiting factor for a lot of people so definitely work on your wrist pushups and the wrist pre-hab series.

I started to training HS daily for 30/45 minutes, two months ago. Now I can manage 2 sessions on a single day of 1h each one.

It's easy when you know what you have to do. It's not simply "doing handstands"; it's improve form with so many exercises (face to wall, back to wall), conditioning (wall runs, cast HS wall walks), stretching and prehab, etc. There are a lot of things to do in this subject without work to exhaustion. 

HS it's a skill, remember, so training as such; volume volume and more volume, but slow and steady.

The more you train HS the better you will get, just remember to focus on the quality.  The numbers you put in will be very important. 

Prehab and mobility should basically be done all the time, as we all have way too many issues with either strength or mobility or structural balance to leave anything alone for too long. 

The more you train HS the better you will get, just remember to focus on the quality.

Can you clarify what you mean by this? Are you proposing that the more HS training you do right now, the faster you will progress. So, more sessions, for longer, more volume, working "harder", etc. ----> faster gains? While focussing on quality, of course.

If so, then what would you say to someone who feels that in this and all other training there is a point of diminishing, and then negative, returns - and furthermore that that point is very easily reached by many people?

It's a skill, and without constant practice it plateaus, or worsens.

Like anything in life too much can be negative, but Yuri probably figured he didn't need to state the obvious.

At least that's my interpretation.

stefanhinote said:

It's a skill, and without constant practice it plateaus, or worsens.

Define "constant" ? Platitudes like that rarely convey much technical meaning, don't you think?

Like anything in life too much can be negative, but Yuri probably figured he didn't need to state the obvious.

Perhaps, but it's then a strange thing to say to a forum of mostly beginners who will not yet know what things are "obviously" untrue but said anyway for motivation and so forth. We'll await Yuri's clarification rather than guess at what he may have meant. Perhaps he did mean it literally - he is, after all, a remarkable specimen and his journey in handbalancing has not been that of the average man.

Here is what we are running into.  I was told by many when i first started doing HS a year and three months ago, that it was an idiot move to train them every day.  I realized yes it is...if you are stupid.  If you dont do wrist prep and go outside your limitations every damn time then yes.  My coach tells me you should definitely incorperate either weight lifting or gymnastic work WITH HS work so your dont over work your shoulders.  But hell i train HS 2 hours a day 6 days a week.  If i hurt myself becasue of something unrelated, i dont train them.  I rest. Not lsitening to yuor body is veyr dumb and we can all attest to that.  So rather then asking if its ok, i think you should, and listen to your body while you are and if its telling you to stop (becasue trust me you will know when it is) you need to stop and rest for the rest of that day or maybe even the rest of that day and the next.

-ian Legrow

emos said:

Can you clarify what you mean by this? Are you proposing that the more HS training you do right now, the faster you will progress. So, more sessions, for longer, more volume, working "harder", etc. ----> faster gains? While focussing on quality, of course.

 

If so, then what would you say to someone who feels that in this and all other training there is a point of diminishing, and then negative, returns - and furthermore that that point is very easily reached by many people?

Like any skill it is a numbers game.  Technique and all that are very important but more than anything you have to put in the hours.  Of course this places new stress on the body so acclimation is very important.  I talk about this a lot, you have to get comfortable in the position before moving on.  To make something that is uncomfortable easy, you have to put in a lot of time. 

Like Ian said, know your body.  In the beginning the training session should be short and not go even near the point of fatigue. 

Especially if you are training every day it is important to know when to stop, and that should be well before you get tired and form starts to wain.  At a higher level, you will do endurance work past the point of fatigue and naturally you will lose form. 

To reiterate, you will not make substantial gains by training a skill 2 or 3 times a week.  You have to immerse yourself in it and practice all the time.  That's how anyone gets good at anything. 

In my personal experience, anytime I got a really profound piece of advice, it took about 6 months of training daily with that in mind before I could really understand and be able to implement it. 

However, nothing is ever worth an injury.  I tell the kids I coach that I have only one rule, never get hurt. 

There will be times where you have to shut down your ego and back off training. 

Like any skill it is a numbers game. Technique and all that are very important but more than anything you have to put in the hours. Of course this places new stress on the body so acclimation is very important. I talk about this a lot, you have to get comfortable in the position before moving on. To make something that is uncomfortable easy, you have to put in a lot of time. Like Ian said, know your body. In the beginning the training session should be short and not go even near the point of fatigue. Especially if you are training every day it is important to know when to stop, and that should be well before you get tired and form starts to wain. At a higher level, you will do endurance work past the point of fatigue and naturally you will lose form.

The more you train HS the better you will get

I can't agree more with this. I usually practice everyday too, for between an hour and two hours, plus an other two hours of strength stuff. This week, I decided to rest to let the inflammation in my wrists go away, and to let my muscles relax a bit (I trained two months in a row without deloading). Not only it will help me to train better and become stronger, but I'll avoid injuries and also my one arm handstands will be easier to control with wrists that aren't too sore (when they're very sore, it prevents me from being able to push with the heel of my hand, which makes it easy to lose the weight from the fingers). At some point, I'll even take several months off to shave my carpal bosses and recover from the operation, like Cory Tabino did. The long run is always the most important.

emos said:

While I'm sure we all agree with this, I'm not certain that it obviously follows from the original proposition, which to me has nearly the opposite meaning: I'm just concerned that people shouldn't make the same mistakes I did - and things like that are what prompted them.

You are taking the statement like it's a logical proposition. It's not. It's a general guideline that doesn't capture the nuances of the subject. As a general rule, more is better if you don't get hurt.