Alignment · At the wall

Chest-to-wall toe taps

The chest-to-wall hold, with a game added. Only your toes touch the wall, and you switch which one does: one foot comes off, the other stays, then they trade places. Between two taps there's a brief moment where nothing is holding you, and that's the moment this drill tries to stretch out.

It comes after toe pulls. Since one foot always stays close to the wall, you can chain attempts without coming down.

Family

Alignment

Equipment

A wall

Type

Hold

Train this exercise in the app

How to do it

1. Walk up until your chest faces the wall. Only your toes touch it.
2. Stack your hips over your shoulders and push tall through your shoulders.
3. Slowly lift one toe off and feel the balance.
4. Put it back and lift the other. To keep from drifting too far from the wall, press hard through your fingers.
5. With each attempt, let a little more time pass between one toe leaving and the other coming back.

Two mistakes to avoid

Resting on the wall. If one foot keeps pressing its full weight into the wall while the other moves, the wall is balancing for you. Your toes brush the wall, they don't carry anything. When you feel yourself drifting away from it, pressing through your fingertips is what brings you back.

Arching your back on every tap. The foot that comes off drags your hips with it, and your lower back arches to compensate. Think hollow body, ribs in, and settle for a smaller foot movement.

Related exercises

Wall split-leg alternating tapsWith your back to the wall and your legs split, you tap one foot, then the other, and balance on your own in between.BalanceHoldToe pullsFacing the wall, you lift your toes off by pressing into your fingers: your first real balance.BalanceRepsSplit handstandThe handstand without a wall, one leg forward and one back, like scissors.BalanceHold

All exercises: the catalog