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Hello, all! You're just in time for the latest update to my weekly handstands challenge. Folks who have been regularly following this website know that "Handstands - A Personal Challenge" is a series devoted to handstanding strength training. Each week I write about my progress in the exercise. I've got more to tell, so I'm going to get started right now.

Handstands - Monday 13 June 2011

The workout was good. I devoted the entire workout to handstands and crossovers. The challenge for the week 13 Monday - 17 Friday was to monitor my breathing throughout the handstands exercise. It went well. The cardio/leg training actually helped me to maintain regular, deep breaths which directly carried over to handstanding. The exercise is also becoming much easier - I maintained my balance for an average of fifty-seven seconds before returning my feet to the floor. I also maintained a six second handstand without support of the wall. I must work on this one.

Handstands -  Wednesday 15 June 2011

I set aside the first ten minutes to practice handstands. Since I had already beaten my challenge I spent my time working on practicing supported and unsupported handstands. As far as unsupported handstands go, I was only able to keep my balance for an average of four seconds. Two problems keep coming up: falling forward or falling backward. It's got to be my alignment. I'm not maintaining a good vertical position, this allows gravity to pull me down. My progress is stalled until I get past this.

After finishing up handstands practice, I spent the rest of the workout deadlifting. I was surprised at how tired I was. I trained light: completing 35 reps at 64 % of my one rep max. 

Wednesday's workout was below my abilities and I'm sorry for it.

Handstands - 18 Friday 2011

Things will get better. My unsupported handstands balance average was five seconds. All I can do is keep working on it. My performance takes a nosedive when I get frustrated. I kept kicking off the floor, holding for a short time then coming back down to the floor. Again and again. After ten minutes of this I decided to do something else.

The rest of my workout which was devoted to dumbbell squats ( 50 reps at 200 pounds) and lateral pulldowns (one set at 190 pounds, then 3 sets at 220 pounds which was the most I had ever pulled on this exercise). I had fun doing what I wanted. I liked lifting weights without thinking too much about it. Fun.

Lessons Learned and the Personal Challenge for Next Week   

When I make a game of exercise I get pumped up and I excel. When I put myself into a role, I did much better with my handstands. This past week, was no good because it became a chore again. I want to become better at handstands and the only way to do that is to keep practicing. But blogging about it has actually made it more work than fun. So I'm going to put the handstands weekly challenge on hold. But don't worry, I'm still going to keep up the challenge and write everything down in my notebook.

Next week, I'll write about another exercise and a new challenge. What exercise will that be? You'll find out soon enough.

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"Handstands - A Personal Challenge Week 10" copyright 2011 Living Fit, Healthy and Happy. All Rights Reserved.

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