How much should you train?
Handstands aren’t easy, and you probably figured out by now that training once a week won’t be enough.
But is this true?
What is the ideal training frequency to maximise progress?
How long should your training sessions be?
Are you resting enough to allow your nervous system to digest it all?
Let’s start with the different periods of your handstand journey.
Just like any other skill, there is an incompressible amount of reps you have to do first before you experience your first breakthrough.
Think of it as a plane taking-off first to reach altitude. Wouldn’t be a good idea to stop the engines half way up.
Similarily, the answer to the question “how much should I train” is going to depend on where you are at on that journey.
3 - 5 sessions per week are indeed ideal for beginners and improvers.
You get plenty of exposure to being upside down, which allows you to consolidate what you learn day by day.
You have to recognise that this practice is still very new to you. You can’t turn off the engine and expect to hover . You have to give your brain a lot of good quality stimulus to start figuring out what happens when you invert.
You’re like a toddler learning to walk at that stage.
You don’t want to try that once a week and chill in the crib for the remaining 6 weeks.
You need good reps.
You need to make mistakes.
And you need to learn from your mistakes.
2 sessions or less, and we get into maintenance mode for most people. Which is good news: sometimes life gets in the way, and your hardly earned skills won’t go anywhere, especially if you ensure you water those seeds once a week. You won’t make spectacular, lighting-speed progress. But you won’t forget it all.
On the other side of the spectrum, we have people who practice every single day. At that stage, handstands may have become addictive, all-consuming, and that addiction can be either healthy or not depending on what you do with your training.