The frog stand is commonly used as a progression exercise when working towards exercises like the handstand and planche.

There are many variations of the frog stand but I’m only going to be speaking about the variations that I feel are most relevant to calisthenics training and especially skills training.

Normally when people speak about the frog stand they suggest aiming to hold this for around 60 seconds, I personally feel this is too long and you will get far greater benefits from just making the standard frog stand harder.

The ideal hold time for the frog stand is around 20-30 seconds, once you have reached this milestone it’s now time to move on to the harder progression.

If you are considering adding the frog stand into your calisthenics training then please see the instructions below.

HOW TO DO THE FROG STAND

1. Start the exercise by lowering into the bottom position of a squat, once at the bottom of the squat place your hands on the floor in front of your feet.

2. Move your knees so that they are resting on your bent elbows, this will offer support while performing the frog stand.

3. lean forward until you can feel your feet raising off of the floor, for some people this will feel quite uncomfortable due to the fear of falling forwards, if this is the case you can place a pillow or something soft in front of you incase you are to fall forwards.

4. Hold this position for as long as possible, please bear in mind that it will take time to build up to the required strength and hold time so try not to rush.

The most important frog stand variation is the beginner frog stand, there are two variations for this, the first variation is the low frog and second is the high frog.

Choosing which variation to move forward with is down to personal preference when practising both of the beginner variations you will find the one which feels most comfortable.

With all variations of the frog stand, you will always enter it using the instructions above regardless of which variation you are working on.

LOW FROG