HS - Blocks vs floor

[Oldrich Polreich]

Hello

 

I finally got myself pair of blocks to do handstands on. How much time should i spend on blocks work vs floor work? On floor, i can do 60s freestanding handstand easily, I'm focusing on OAHS preparation (flexibility, flags, weight shifting etc.) and i hope that blocks will help me with that. 

 

 

[Mikael Kristiansen]

Depends what level you are at and what you like best, but make sure to use both for your 1 arm training as they provide variation. Work on your pike press(preferably from L) and pike hs to make sure they are flawless as this will benefit you a lot for 1 arms.

 

Blocks walks are great but also very technical. Do not spend more time on them than you are capable of doing with good form(meaning correct hip/leg movement and shoulder shrug when shifting weight) First step is walking down from 2 blocks to the floor and then learning back up again. 

[Oldrich Polreich]

Thanks a lot Handbalancer! It is an honor to receive advice from person which got me into handbalancing in first place.

 

Pike handstand means tuck hs with straight legs?

Walks are unfortunately out of reach for me as my left side is slacking behind. I don't know the reason, i train them evenly but one arm with 5 finger support on my left arm seems just much harder:( I feel that i can't "push" left shoulder enough. Should i train my left side more?

[Mikael Kristiansen]

Yes, just like the tuck, but with legs straight. Preferably you should be able to look at your toes in that position with legs at 90 degrees with minimal/no shoulder lean and with an as straight back as possible.

 

You need to get your left going if you want to practice walks. Its just a matter of doing more work on it and not rushing ahead because your right is better. Of course progress on your right, but make an effort to keep up with your left.  It is like this for most people. One of the arms will be better and progressively get more and more time under tension than the other. The difference between my arms is very big as well. I can perform maybe 60% of the difficulty on the left and the strength is about 2 years behind my right I think, even though I always do 1 set on the left for every 1 on the right.