Training Week of 6/15

6/15
HSPU Mini Course Practice A. Continuing to progress in lifting each knees further from my elbow in headstand. I think I'll switch to the Strongfirst HSPU progression in my Practice A sessions. The reason is Strongfirst progression has a clear roadmap for progressing from headstand to wall handstand, while the mini course does not have one. The mini course asks you to work on headstand/crow pose in Practice A, then work on progressing from wall handstand to freestanding handstand in Advanced Practice A, with no clear path between.

HSPU Mini Course Play - 8 pike push up singles. No issues with the shoulders. In Play we explore our capabilities, first working towards achieving a Bent Arm Stand, then exploring what we can do in the Bent Arm Stand.

Static But Deadly Circuit B - I chose to do circuit B because this circuit includes a hold that works on overhead pressing, and do circuit A on 6/16, so I could take a break on 6/16 from doing overhead pressing. The hope is that Static But Deadly training will improve support strength around the joints. Hopefully this will be some extra insurance against possible injury doing pike pushups and more difficult movements. Also, when I do get back to kettlebell training, I'll have less issues with shoulders and elbows. I was able to do most of the circuit B holds to full duration, with the exception being the side plank.

6/16
HSPU Mini Course Practice B

Static But Deadly Circuit A - I was able to do the holds for the duration, except for chin up hang. I could have held a weight in an isometric curl instead but I figured chin up hang was actually less risky for my elbows than isometric curl.
Chest expander workout:

Overhand Vertical Pullapart - 1 set - 5 springs

Overhand Vertical Pullapart - backoff set - 4 springs

Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 1 set - 4 springs

Underhand Vertical Pullapart - backoff set - 3 springs

Horizontal Pullapart - 1 set - 2 springs

Mechancial drop set of Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 2 springs

Horizontal Pullapart - back off set - 1 spring

I dropped the tricep isolation exercises from the chest expander routine because Static But Deadly works the triceps a lot already.

6/17
Static But Deadly Circuit B - Completed most holds except side plank again. When I couldn't hold it anymore, I was able to transition to a regressed version with a knee on the floor and hold that until the timer beeped. For the single-leg hold I went a little deeper into the position, yet was still able to hold for the duration.

Hamstring mobilty circuit:

1. Good morning - 8 reps
2. Elephant walk - 8 reps
3. Straddle side bend w/ 4kg plate on stack of 8 puzzle mat tiles - 5 reps

6/18
HSPU Mini Course Practice A - I was able to extend each leg so that the thigh was higher than parallel to the floor, while working in headstand.

HSPU Mini Course Push - 4 sets of 8 parallette pike push ups, 3 sets of 5 chin ups. Some DOMS in the shoulders afterwards. I didn't feel any shoulder soreness before this day's training so the cause is most likely the pike push ups.

Cooldown - Straddle sit on stack of 6 puzzle mat tiles for 1 min. Next progression for my straddle side bend is to elevate my butt a little less so I thought I'd try straddle sit on 6 tiles instead of 8.

6/19
Skipped HSPU Mini Course Practice B - somehow failed to set my alarm clock which forced me to shorten my overall training session.

GMB Static But Deadly Circuit A - 2 rounds
Chest expander workout:

Overhand Vertical Pullapart - 1 set - 5 springs

Overhand Vertical Pullapart - backoff set - 4 springs

Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 1 set - 4 springs

Underhand Vertical Pullapart - backoff set - 3 springs

Horizontal Pullapart - 1 set - 2 springs

Mechancial drop set of Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 2 springs

Horizontal Pullapart - back off set - 1 spring

Training Week starting 6/8

6/8
HSPU Mini Course Practice A. Continuing to progress in lifting each knees further from my elbow in headstand.

HSPU Mini Course Play - 7 pike push up singles. No issues with the shoulders.

Chest expander workout:

Overhand Vertical Pullapart - 1 set - 5 springs

Overhand Vertical Pullapart - backoff set - 4 springs

Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 1 set - 4 springs

Underhand Vertical Pullapart - backoff set - 3 springs

Horizontal Pullapart - 1 set - 2 springs

Mechancial drop set of Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 2 springs

Horizontal Pullapart - back off set - 1 spring

Sideway (Tricep) Extension - 1 set - 4 springs

Sideway (Tricep) Extension - backoff set - 3 springs

Overhead Tricep Extension - 1 set - 2 springs

Bicep Curl - 1 set - 3 springs - Left side was fine. Right side there was irritation on the thumb side of the elbow and also the pinky side. So I'll replace the bicep curl with chin ups for the time being.

6/9
HSPU Mini Course Practice B

6/10
Took off from training due to persistent soreness in the rear delts/rotator cuff from chest expander work.

6/11
HSPU Mini Course Practice A. When I raise a leg in headstand, I feel an increase in load on my hands. Fell to the side once while lifting a leg higher than my hands could support. Continuing to progress otherwise.

HSPU Mini Course Push - 4 sets of 7 parallette pike push ups, 2 sets of 4 chin ups, and 1 set of 6 chin ups. Some DOMS in the shoulders afterwards. Not sure if the cause was the pike push ups or lingering DOMS from chest expander work.

6/12
HSPU Mini Course Practice B

Chest expander workout:

Overhand Vertical Pullapart - 1 set - 5 springs - Failed first couple of reps, then tried stretching the springs to the sticking point, then eased back a bit, then explosively pulled past the sticking point for first successful rep. Did 7 reps.

Overhand Vertical Pullapart - backoff set - 4 springs

Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 1 set - 4 springs - Had to do same technique - pull to sticking point, ease back a bit, then pull explosively to blow past sticking point. Did 6 reps.

Underhand Vertical Pullapart - backoff set - 3 springs

Horizontal Pullapart - 1 set - 2 springs

Mechancial drop set of Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 2 springs

Horizontal Pullapart - back off set - 1 spring

Sideway (Tricep) Extension - 1 set - 4 springs - 13 reps so may try moving up to 5 springs next time

Sideway (Tricep) Extension - backoff set - 3 springs

Overhead Tricep Extension - 1 set - 2 springs

GMB Static But Deadly Circuit A - 2 rounds - I bought Static But Deadly a couple of years ago on Black Friday sale, watched some of the videos, and forgot about it until this week when GMB announced it being on sale again. I tried the A circuit.

Training this week

6/1
Monday workout

6/2
HSPU Mini Course Practice B

Tried exercises from one of GMB's earliest core exercise videos. For obliques I still prefer this Red Delta Project micro workout. For abs, I prefer hollow body holds.

6/3
Overhand Vertical Pullapart - 1 set - 4 springs - Did 14 reps so will try moving up to 5 springs next time

Overhand Vertical Pullapart - backoff set - 3 springs

Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 1 set - 3 springs

Underhand Vertical Pullapart - backoff set - 2 springs

Horizontal Pullapart - 1 set - 2 springs

Mechancial drop set of Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 2 springs

Horizontal Pullapart - back off set - 1 spring

Sideway (Tricep) Extension - 1 set - 3 springs - did 12 reps, so might try 4 springs next time

Sideway (Tricep) Extension - 1 set - 2 springs

Overhead Tricep Extension - 1 set - 2 springs

Bicep Curl - 1 set - 3 springs

Bicep Curl - 1 set - 2 springs

Lateral Raise (scapular plane/Y raise) - 1 set - 1 spring - I decided to drop this from the chest expander routine for now. The shoulder irritation that preveents me from doing back press pain-free might be aggravated by this lateral raise. When the shoulder recovers enough to let me do back presses again, I'll add the lateral raise back too.

Wide-stance good morning - 8 reps with 10-sec. hold last rep
Jefferson curl with 16kg kettlebell - 5 reps

Squat-to-pike - 8 reps
Elephant walk - 8 reps/side
Jefferson curl with 16kg kettlebell - 5 reps

There was no change in Jefferson curl performance after the switch from 12kg KB to 16kg KB. I read somewhere that 25% bodyweight was the heaviest weight that woudld be safe to use for Jefferson curl. Straddle side bend has been more effective for improving my hamstring flexibility anyway.

6/4
HSPU Mini Course Practice A - On one of my attempts to transition out of headstand into crow pose, I finally succeeded in transferring all my weight to my hands and lifting my head into crow pose. I was able to hold crow pose for an instant, before I fell back onto my feet, but this is a sign of progress. Funnily enough, after this session I saw a Youtube video by a calisthenics influencer arguing that practicing crow pose (aka frog stand), the featured exercise in Practice A, is a waste of time if your goal is to achieve planche. One of the arguments in favor of training crow pose is the training strengthens and conditions the wrists for supporting your bodyweight. That YT influencer does not propose a reasonable alternative to the crow pose for this wrist conditioning. He seems to like handstands and planche holds, but those hand balancing skills are quite a bit more difficult than the crow pose. Maybe he is right about crow pose not being useful for planche training but if you look closely at the motion of a handstand push up, the motion goes through the bent-arm stand - which is close to a crow pose - and the bottom of the movement shares similarities with headstand and crow pose.

HSPU Mini Course Push - 4 sets of 6 parallette pike pushups and 3 sets of 4 chin ups. In this video, Eduardo recommends resting 3-5 minutes between sets of pike push ups... or resting 2 min. after a set of pike pushups, then doing a set of chin ups, then resting 2 min, then doing another set of pike push ups, and so on. This reminds me of the antagonistic pair concept. For my pike push up starting position, I had my arms at 90 degress to the parallettes. I was able to do 6 reps with moderate effort. Per Eduardo's video I'll use this starting position for a couple of weeks. After the week I do 8-rep sets, then I'll change the starting position to a very slight forward lean of the arms to increase the difficulty. I did the chin ups in sets of 4. I just chose 4 reps/set because that felt like a good number to do while keeping the effort level easy. The chin ups in this context are just antagonistic movements for recovering between pike push up sets. I'm not trying to improve chin up performance in particular here.

Cooldown - 1 min. horse stance then 1 min. relaxing upside down on the FeetUp device. Even though I'm now able to get into tripod headstand on the floor, I love using the FeetUp to cool down from a headstand session, letting the head hang and decompress the neck.

6/5
HSPU Mini Course Practice B

3 assisted pistol squats per leg

Overhand Vertical Pullapart - 1 set - 5 springs - First time I did any of the pullaparts with 5 springs.

Overhand Vertical Pullapart - backoff set - 4 springs

Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 1 set - 3 springs - Tried with 4 springs but didn't feel up to it. Did 15 reps with 3 springs, so will try with 4 springs again next time.

Underhand Vertical Pullapart - backoff set - 2 springs

Horizontal Pullapart - 1 set - 2 springs

Mechancial drop set of Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 2 springs

Horizontal Pullapart - back off set - 1 spring

Sideway (Tricep) Extension - 1 set - 4 springs - Was able to do 10 reps right away, beating my previous PR of 5 reps, which was set in August 2024. Back then I could barely press a 20kg kettlebell. By March 2026 my 20kg KB clean+press rep max was around 5. So today's sideway tricep extension PR might be a sign of carryover from improvement in KB pressing strength.

Sideway (Tricep) Extension - backoff set - 3 springs

Overhead Tricep Extension - 1 set - 2 springs

Bicep Curl - 1 set - 3 springs

Bicep Curl - 1 set - 2 springs

Cooldown - 1 min. horse stance

HSPU Mini Course Monday workout

This was the first workout in the handstand push up mini course. By working towards the Handstand Push Up, we work on our overhead pressing strength. I hope there will be some carryover to overhead pressing with kettlebells.

The Prep session is actually different compared to the Planche mini course. It make sense because you would prepare your body in certain ways for planche-focused activities, and prepare a different way - eg. more mobilization of the hamstrings - for pike push ups and other HSPU related work. I added a 30-sec. reverse plank hold, just to keep up the practice and continue working on shoulder extension.

Practice A was typical for me. In headstand position, I managed to shift enough weight to my hands to be able to move my head a tiny bit.

Play session was 6 pike push up singles. I didn't want to aggravate my shoulders to I was conservative with how much load I put on them. I focused more on just getting re-acquainted with the movement. I managed to touch my forehead to the floor a couple of inches in front of my hands.

I finished the workout with a chest expander workout. The plan is to do 3 chest expander workouts a week, in hopes of improving shoulder stability for all pressing movements, not just overhead pressing. The workout also incorporates tricep and bicep exercises. I don't have high hopes for building strength and size for the triceps and biceps with this workout but I enjoy the movements. This was the workout:

Overhand Vertical Pullapart - 1 set - 4 springs

Overhand Vertical Pullapart - backoff set - 3 springs

Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 1 set - 3 springs

Underhand Vertical Pullapart - backoff set - 2 springs

Horizontal Pullapart - 1 set - 2 springs

Mechancial drop set of Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 2 springs

Horizontal Pullapart - back off set - 1 spring

Back Press - 4 springs - I attempted a rep, but my left shoulder wasn't having it. Odd, because the shoulder felt fine for all the other movements, but I knew better than to force it.

Sideway (Tricep) Extension - 1 set - 3 springs

Sideway (Tricep) Extension - 1 set - 2 springs

Overhead Tricep Extension - 1 set - 2 springs

Bicep Curl - 1 set - 3 springs

Bicep Curl - 1 set - 2 springs

Lateral Raise (scapular plane/Y raise) - 1 set - 1 spring - tried 2 springs but couldn't raise the handle past shoulder height.