Thursday 05.02.13

5 RFT:
5 Handstand pushups
5 Deadlifts at body weight plus 20 lbs per round (so that your fifth round will be BW +100 lbs)

So a 180# person would lift 200, 220, 240, 260, 280.

Post time to comments.  And let us know what form of pushups you elected to do.


Coach's Notes. 
A quick one today, changing plates will probably take as much time as anything else.

The prescribed movment here is handstand pushups.  Technically a handstand pushup has your head travelling below your hands, i.e. you are using parallettes or plates stacked on the deck.  If your hands are on the deck then it could technically be called a headstand pushup.  Subtle difference in the two movement standards.  Handstand PUs require more strength due to the depth but either is a fine movement to practice.  Most of the CF community does not distinguish between the two.

Scaling can be accomplished in the following ways:
  • Be less than pure vertical on the wall...such as inclined at a 60 deg angle facing the wall
  • Piking on a box...place your feet on a box, legs straight and pike at the waist so your hands are below your shoulders
  • Using two bands off a pullup bar and run one thru your shoulders for assistance
  • Negative pushups...go down until your head is on the deck then stand up.  Repeat only doing the downward motion of each rep but not pushing out of the bottom position. 
Do not scale the range of motion.  Go all the way down and all the way up (except for negatives).  Use whatever form of scaling you need that allows you to still do full range of motion for all 25 reps.  Avoid overextension of the back and of course keep a tight belly and a tight butt.


Training Videos.
  • The Pocket Gymnast advocates chest facing the wall.  See why in this video.
  • And a great link to a free CFJ video by Laura Galassi on handstand basics and how to build capacity in HSPUs.