Form check for sPL/PE5

Hello F1 dudes-

I have approached week 11 of sPL/PE5 (the Planche lean) and, as always, have a healthly scepticism about my form... namely the if the angle of the lean is to mastery. I've closely judged my form in shots framed the same way as the official video, as well as other images in other threads ( such as https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/12626-how-far-to-lean-when-practicing-planche-leans/ )

Attached are stills from each of the 5 sets. Sets 1,2,5 are framed as in the official video, 3&4 from the side, lean is the same in each sets. Note: I'm not resting on the back of my toes as I'm still recovering from a very bad sprain in my right ankle from a few weeks back, until the injury I was on the back of my toes.

Any feedback is, as always, most appreciated. Thanks!

Looks good. The ultimate form would be your hands under your hips, but your form is still solid. Protraction looks good as well.

Thanks Awareness. My protraction does feel good, I had to start at week 1 with sPL/PE1, so that was a weak link for me and something I've focused on since day one.

I guess my big question is if this degree of lean constitutes mastery or not. It seems to match the official video, but I want to double check before I proceed.

You are on top of your toes. Mastery is while resting on the dorsal side of your feet like in the video, which is slightly more challenging.

Thanks Art. As I mentioned, I'm still recovering from a bad sprain and cannot support any weight on the dorsal side of my right foot/toes. Proabaly a few more weeks until I can. Until the injury a few weeks ago, I was doing the leans with the correct toe position, so it's not something I've been doing the whole time.

Other than the toe position, would the angle of lean be correct for mastery?

I think the lean is enough to progress. However, I had enough lean to progress but was still getting stronger from doing it. It becomes exponentially harder as you lean more. Before I was out due to injury, I had just repeated a microcycle on it. I think it's one of those "keeper" exercises - one that you become more efficient in as you progress but one you return to - speculation though, I haven't got that far yet (it's gonna be back to pe 1 for me!), so take that with a grain of salt.

The biggest culprit I see here is the piking at the hips. Aim for a completely straight hollow body. The degree of lean here is still far away from being maximum, but I think that is enough for the F1 mastery.

Ah yeah sorry I missed the note there. Carry on!

I think there's only a slight piking of the hips and it may fix itself when he gets back on the back of his toes.

Hercules said:

I think the lean is enough to progress. However, I had enough lean to progress but was still getting stronger from doing it. It becomes exponentially harder as you lean more. Before I was out due to injury, I had just repeated a microcycle on it. I think it's one of those "keeper" exercises - one that you become more efficient in as you progress but one you return to - speculation though, I haven't got that far yet (it's gonna be back to pe 1 for me!), so take that with a grain of salt.

Thanks, man. Sorry to hear about your injury, good luck with that. I think I will keep the lean in some form or another (as warm up) even when I progress to PE6 for the resaons you mentioned.

Hey Art and B1214N,

Glad you brought up the pike issue as that was something else I spent a long time trying to adjust, and my reference has been the official videos and as far as I can tell I've got about the same pike there as in the videos... even in the video for PE6 you see a slight pike there (that it the body line is not is not totally flat). My photo for rep 5 seems to have more pike than the others I guess.

In the months I've been working on this it seemed like attempting any flatter body line would then take away the curve of the upper back, that is it would impact the strength of that protracted and depressed scapula position, so I sought to find the balance there.

But you guys think I should flatten out more, before moving on to PE6?

(I don't want to sound as if I just want to hurry up and move on to PE6, it's just that I've done 3 micro cycles of the last month of this, PE5, cleaning up the form already... so I'm just picking at the form, but also don't want to get too lost in over analyzing it when it might be time to move forward).

Getting a straighter body line shouldn't cause you to lose the rounding in the upper back if you keep protracting. You just have to flatten the lower back. Perhaps it could be a strength weakness of your serratus anterior as the load will be more with flatter body.

B1214N said:

Getting a straighter body line shouldn't cause you to lose the rounding in the upper back if you keep protracting. You just have to flatten the lower back. Perhaps it could be a strength weakness of your serratus anterior as the load will be more with flatter body.

Interesting, I'll pay sttention to this, thanks. As I've gotton more proficient at the leans, I feel more the activation of my serratus anterior, when before I had no idea there was a seperate muscle there.

Zach Armijo said:

In the leans, i wouldn't consider that a "pike" as much as it is a hollow effect. when you elevate the feet and move on to actual planches, the back will straighten out. If not, then it obviously needs to be addressed. But keep doing what you are doing. Looks good.

In the end I too thought of it more as a hollow position. So as I elevate my feet up into PE6 then that hollow postion should begin to flatten out, then?

Excellent, thanks.

It doesn't seem that there is a definite answer here. Do you need to have hands under hips in order to move on to the next PE?

I can't tell where the athlete's hands are in the video because of the angle.

CodyW said:

It doesn't seem that there is a definite answer here. Do you need to have hands under hips in order to move on to the next PE?

I can't tell where the athlete's hands are in the video because of the angle.

What Zach said. The athlete in F1 doesn't have his hands under his hips. It gets exponentially harder the further back you place your hands from there before becoming balanced on your hands in an actual planche so the amount of lean shown in F1 is appropriate for its level.

Zach Armijo said:

In the leans, i wouldn't consider that a "pike" as much as it is a hollow effect. when you elevate the feet and move on to actual planches, the back will straighten out. If not, then it obviously needs to be addressed. But keep doing what you are doing. Looks good.

I respectfully disagree with keeping the pike. Being in a straighter body is harder than in a piked one because there is more load on the shoulders. Furthermore, you might become used to piking if you make it a habit and that is not what you want in a planche. Allan Bower seems to be mainly straight in that F1 video.