November Thoughts - 2025
Five years ago, I decided to work on the handstand as my primary focus. As this process comes to a close, it creates opportunities to pursue new goals, but also induces fear about losing what I’ve spent so much time creating. How do I decide what comes next? Can I maintain what I’ve built? And do I honestly want to push myself anymore or just genuinely focus on my health as top priority?
At this stage of my life, health is the ultimate priority. This doesn’t mean I can’t challenge myself, but it does mean I need to be practical and structured in this process. There is only so much energy for training and recovery, and these biological realities must be respected. Allocating sufficient time to train my legs to avoid lower back problems that are unfortunately chronic if not managed pre-emptively - thanks CrossFit - and increasing my flexibility globally so I can be more comfortable in handstands are both paramount. The only thing I plan to challenge myself with is pulling strength.
It has been a long time goal of mine to do a one arm pull-up, and if you have seen my front lever work on youtube, you know that this process has not been linear or smooth. Focusing my pulling specifically around supporting the progression of the one arm pull-up will be a fun process that will last several years and allow me to learn new progressions, invent new exercise variations and program structure, and also build new tendon and muscle strength that can sustain me later in life as I get older and eventually reduce training intensity.
Handstands will still be present -n rest days, knocking out a few, or at the end of training sessions when I’m fully warmed up. They will simply be 20 minutes 2x per week instead of 3 hours 6 xper week like I’ve been doing. This much volume has proven to be challenging and unsustainable. My flexibility, while vastly improved over the past 5 years, is not in a place that can be comfortable in handstand training, and my body pays the price. So, with the interest of health in mind, it makes the most sense to build my body up in a way that will permit movements like handstands to happen in a more mechanically efficient manner.
In terms of flexibility, it may look like I am extremely flexible on the internet, but I have created pathways that pertain specifically to doing a press to handstand and holding a one arm handstand. Twisting, side bending, and shoulder extension are a few examples of patterns of movement that I have intentionally neglected in the interest of saving time and prioritizing the main pursuit. Solving these limitations will be a fun process that also helps to reduce some of the not-so-serious, but nagging and annoying, issues that I have been able to safely ignore for the past few years.
So the structure looks like this:
Legs/lower back health is the top priority. Fortunately, this is low intensity and involves basic patterns like squat, lunge, and deadlift for consistency, rather than new boundaries, so while it will take time, it won’t overload my ability to recover.
Next is improving overall flexibility with an emphasis on the neglected areas that weren’t directly involved in my handstand journey. Connecting my body in new ways, so I can explore movement more freely, feel athletic, and resolve long term nagging issues.
Finally, having a bit of challenge and frontier blazing work with pulling will round out my training - Chasing a skill that will force me to grow both physically and mentally in my capacity to handle training and understand mechanics as well as provide meaningful growth to the structure of my body that will last for decades into the future. This will satisfy my desire to explore and simply enjoy the feeling of working hard.
In 5 more years, I will be 46 years old. Do I want to show off the highest possible performance, or do I want to feel good in my own movement? The answer for me is loud and clear. What goes into ego training and attention-seeking behavior is self-destructive. It comes with injuries and sacrifices that I am not willing to make. Training for the heaviest lifts or progressively extreme ranges of motion or neglecting the whole for an isolated and hyper-specific point of performance, don’t mean what they have to me in the past.
Rather than trying to duplicate the next phase of my life and training, I think it’s important to grow and evolve forward, layering on top of what has been created and using that as a framework to expand and integrate into a greater whole. Hopefully the process I am continuing to evolve through can serve as a reminder about the power of prioritization, consistency, and patience. While inspiration can strike in a moment, the results of the process come over months and years.
Analyze your priorities. Are you competing, or are you living a well rounded life? Choose your training accordingly.