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Bodyweight progressions to hspu

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kb02

kb02

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Are there any progressions to doing first hspu? If its in any book I'm not aware ( I have a copy of most from Pavel) not really a goal to do regular but just to have the skills to do is a goal as I use mostly kbs. But I practice pistols and oaolpu.I can't do more than one rep of each but just practicing each movement just incase I have no equipment. These are not part of my programming again not even gtg but just practice. Any tips or suggestions to work for first hspu, like box pistols etc?
 
I started out with some basic hand balancing against a wall. Some people suggest balancing on your head against a wall first but I never saw the point of that. Practice kicking yourself up to the wall and holding that inverted position & and focus on keeping your arms locked or you'll come crashing down on your head.

When you can hold a handstand for 20-30 secs you'll be primed to start adding reps of HSPU's with reduced range of movement - ie you start at the top position and only go down as far you can and still push yourself all the way back up. I never did more than 5 reps, I just kept adding depth to keep progressing.

Then you gradually increase the ROM (over several weeks or even months) until you can push yourself back up from the bottom position with your head on the floor. I could do one full rep from the outset but I went to reduced ROM reps so I could get more than one rep in each time I practiced. As I said I aimed for about 5 quality reps each set and when it became easy I added more depth to each rep.

I found it helpful to do a few full range negatives done very slowly and focusing on generating as much tension as possible each time I practiced too and I always did a slow full range negative at the end of each set. The HSPU is like many other gymnastic moves, it's not just a simple push, it really needs a lot of tension to be successful.
 
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When I was able to press 1/2 bw in the one-arm kettlebell military press, I got wall-supported hspu's the first time I tried them. I'm not there now but hoping to work my way back to both of these things over the next year or so.

-S-
 
I've been wondering if you could program both handstands and overhead pressing? Like, practice handstands to get used to being in that position and build some static strength and then overhead presses to build strength through the full range of motion.
 
I practiced holds against the wall and crow stands after S&S for ten or so minutes daily a few times per week.

One day I put a pillow under my head and did a full range hspu. This was also around the time I achieved simple.

I would start with holds against the wall and crow stands using your fingers to balance. Max Shank has some good videos on progressing.
 
are you referring to a wall-supported or freestanding hspu?

for wall-supported, I stacked weight plates and would let my head touch the plates then press back up..

once I could do 5 reps, I would remove a plate and repeat the cycle..

I did this GTG style.
 
There are two popular methods. As Tarzan described, cutting ROM and using negatives is used often.

I personally like a different method, using the pike push-up. Essentially, you place your feet on an object about hip high, and while keeping a 90 degree at the hips (straight legs) you push up and down (your upper body will be inverted). This has the advantage of working the entire HeSPU ROM, up and down. If you can get a set of parallettes (or stacks of books I suppose), you could really go all the way down until the hands are by the shoulders. This will come in handy when working up to the full HSPU.

You can increase/decrease the difficulty by changing the foot elevation. But if you can hit around 10 solid reps with feet around hip height, I think you'd most likely be able to get the corresponding HeSPU on the wall.

As Tarzan mentioned, do practice a bit of Handstand holds agaisnt the wall as supplementary work. A big barrier of the HeSPU is a mental one (being scared), so being in that position will come a long way as well.
 
Update : After reading the great advice from you guys , I thought I'd crawl up the wall into position and see where I was at. Feeling a bit unsure after holding the position , I forced tension and knocked off two solid reps. I guess this is a wth effect for the the snatch and press protocol which I've just finished . Thank you guys!
 
I find my performance on the HSPU & HeSPU varies more than any other exercise. Most other exercises I can almost plot a course for my expected progression and follow it as expected. With these, some days I can do 5 or 6 reps with the HeSPU and other days 4 reps is an all out effort.

Today I tried to do true HSPU on kettlebells and only managed one rep where I squeezed out two last week which was the first time I'd attempted them on the kettlebells. So I just opted for some slow negatives to get the extra reps in.

The two bottles of red wine I drank last night could have played a role in the reduced performance too.o_O
 
As I said I am just practicing my movements . At what point will practice interfere with my program currently I am following a KB strength / hypertrophy routine with progressive ladders 3 days a week. Will a couple sets of singles in bodyweight just for skill mastery on rest days ruin my program and progress ?
 
A few years ago I worked up to wall supported handstand pushups (no idea if I can still do them; haven't tried in ages). My progression was to just work from normal pushups and keep elevating my feet using boxes, desks, etc. until I could do it with my feet against the wall (and my hands at the bottom of said wall in the handstand). It's worth noting that at this point I was facing the wall, so I then proceeded to build strength from this position and then build the confidence to face away from the wall, and then by this point I had a strength foundation which allowed me to rep out 5-7 while facing away from the wall.

I did this before actually discovering any StrongFirst/RKC material, just training the move maybe 4 days per week for something like 5x5 (honestly can't remember the exact set/rep scheme I used - 5x5 is bound to work fairly well though). I made surprisingly quick progress. In about 2 months I went from doing my pushups with my feet on a foot-high box to the wall supported HSPUs.

This was just my experience however so take it with a pinch of salt. The replies so far all sound great and might be a more efficient way to get there! Good luck! :)
 
the hansenator said:
I've been wondering if you could program both handstands and overhead pressing? Like, practice handstands to get used to being in that position and build some static strength and then overhead presses to build strength through the full range of motion.
Click to expand...

Sure you can.
 
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