Unstable Strength With The Planche

Hey guys,

A few months ago I could hold a full planche for 2 second, now I'm even struggling with the straddle planche for some reason. It's like I lost all my strength in the planche out of nowhere. I've had this multiple times, reaching a very high level in the planche and then, out of nowhere, lose it completely. I didn't change anything in my training routine during that time.

Now I'm back doing tuck planches again, decided to really make my base of the planche really strong. Went from 5*20s tuck planches holds within 20 minutes to 5*26s tuck planches within 20 minutes hold in 2 weeks. My straddle is still bad, but my advanced tuck has never been this strong.

The planche remains an incredibly strange move to me. So my question is: Is it normal that it's so unstable? And what is a good way to make it stable?

Edit:

This was 2 months ago, planche lean:

This is 30 minutes ago:

Simply heartbreaking

How many times has it happened? It could be just bad days or over-training. Are you sure it's just strength and not balance?

B1214N said:

How many times has it happened? It could be just bad days or over-training. Are you sure it's just strength and not balance?

Well, it was after a competition that it happened, but still, it's been like this for 2 months now. And I'm not sure of that, I do know that my muscles simply just give up when trying a straddle planche now and back there it was easy, could even do them on fingertips and smile (reference to my avatar).

Have you moved? Maybe the gravity is different there?

http://www.space.com/11849-earth-gravity-map-geoid.html

Christian said:

Have you moved? Maybe the gravity is different there?

 

http://www.space.com/11849-earth-gravity-map-geoid.html

I haven't, as you can see both attempts were done at the same exact location.

Didn't see them before.

Do you train planche like everyday? If so then it could be over-training and so you could rest a few days and then try it again.

I am not a planche master, but I have experienced this a lot with high level strength based handstands. From what I can gather from it, it seems to be connected to working on a too intense level. Your peak strength will feel great, but it becomes inconsistent and very hard to consolidate. I have never had any injuries relating to it, but just consistency problems. Lowering the intensity and difficulty requires you to swallow your pride and get to work, but it pays off in the long run. Also varying your exercises can be great to hit things from different angles. Adv tuck planche presses to handstand and lower downs could probably help you strengthen for the transition between adv tuck and straddle for example.

Go back to easier progression and work on that instead for a while without attempting a full planche. Failure leads to failure leads to failure. Perfect practice makes perfect. 

Is anything else suffering? Overtraining would probably affect multiple areas as well.

So wait, you never worked up to a 60 second tuck planche?

It's hard to say what's going on unless you can tell us a bit more about what your training has looked like over the past few months.

B1214N said:

Do you train planche like everyday? If so then it could be over-training and so you could rest a few days and then try it again.

I train it around 2-3 times a week, so it can't be that.

Handbalancer said:

I am not a planche master, but I have experienced this a lot with high level strength based handstands. From what I can gather from it, it seems to be connected to working on a too intense level. Your peak strength will feel great, but it becomes inconsistent and very hard to consolidate. I have never had any injuries relating to it, but just consistency problems. Lowering the intensity and difficulty requires you to swallow your pride and get to work, but it pays off in the long run. Also varying your exercises can be great to hit things from different angles. Adv tuck planche presses to handstand and lower downs could probably help you strengthen for the transition between adv tuck and straddle for example.

This makes a lot of sense, I can't press to handstand in adv tuck planche with good form, so I'll work on that and other exercises!

Junkyard said:

Go back to easier progression and work on that instead for a while without attempting a full planche. Failure leads to failure leads to failure. Perfect practice makes perfect. 

Already gone back to tuck planche.

Daniel Burnham said:

Is anything else suffering? Overtraining would probably affect multiple areas as well.

I don't think so, my one arm front lever goes extremely well and a few weeks ago I could do my best HBP press.

Bipocni said:

So wait, you never worked up to a 60 second tuck planche?

I did. I could hold it for 60 seconds, now I'm working on 5*30 within 20 minutes, which is much harder.

I think that this was caused because of the Central Fatigue (CNS). I had the same error with my OAC training. I trained too long too intense. I think that your own body has told you what do you have to do and you have listened it well: I think that doing an accumulation phase with higher volume and low intensity, which causes more  periferical adaptations ( not so much nervous system adaptations), will lead you to recovery that nervous system's overtraining. 

This used to happen to me when I was training the advanced tuck planche. I attributed it to overtraining as the strength would always come back after a week off. 

-MR said:

This used to happen to me when I was training the advanced tuck planche. I attributed it to overtraining as the strength would always come back after a week off. 

I also took a week off, but no recovery

Nacho training said:

I think that this was caused because of the Central Fatigue (CNS). I had the same error with my OAC training. I trained too long too intense. I think that your own body has told you what do you have to do and you have listened it well: I think that doing an accumulation phase with higher volume and low intensity, which causes more  periferical adaptations ( not so much nervous system adaptations), will lead you to recovery that nervous system's overtraining. 

Yes, I was thinking the same thing,  but you managed to phrase it much better hehe.

Your problems stem from a lack of proper preparation. You should work up to straddle press to handstand and a solid half-lay hold before turning much attention to the full-lay. What you're doing (going back to tuck PL and working up to 5x30) is a good way to start.

Nacho training said:

I think that this was caused because of the Central Fatigue (CNS). I had the same error with my OAC training. I trained too long too intense. I think that your own body has told you what do you have to do and you have listened it well: I think that doing an accumulation phase with higher volume and low intensity, which causes more  periferical adaptations ( not so much nervous system adaptations), will lead you to recovery that nervous system's overtraining. 

I don't think CNS fatigue was his problem though as he can do other high strength moves well like the OAFL he mentioned and he said he only has this problem with planche. CNS fatigue will affect all high strength moves and is a part of over-training.

B1214N said:

I don't think CNS fatigue was his problem though as he can do other high strength moves well like the OAFL he mentioned and he said he only has this problem with planche. CNS fatigue will affect all high strength moves and is a part of over-training.

So still no idea what is going on, I only have it with the planche, never had this problem with other moves, which is why my planche is my worst move but favorite

I also don't think it has anyhing to do with CNS fatigue with this type of training. I think performance on advanced and high levels of any activity is like hiking from a high mountain top to another: Sometimes the only way to go is down.

Now you just happen to be in a regression valley. The only inaccuracy with the presentation below is, that it assumes you are practicing with a coach all the time, and this is why the regression parts are consistent in length. However, not having consistent coaching will most probably cause you to be more stuck in some mental blind spots and wrong thinking patterns for a longer time.

The higher your level, the longer you will probably get stuck in these valleys between your phases of highest achievement.

As a semi-professional violinist I can assure you this happens with professional classical musicians all the time!

I would recommend making your first priority something completely different of the planche, and just have light work on it. Then come back after you have achieved more skill in this other area, and you might just notice an increase in performance you really can't explain.

Yes, it is odd if he has improved in other drills... But the fatigue may be very specific. How many times do you try the full planche after you have gotten the full planche for 2 seconds? Did you try it in the same training's moment than the previous time? That is the only thing that i can imagine if it is not CNS fatigue.

Helander said:

I also don't think it has anyhing to do with CNS fatigue with this type of training. I think performance on advanced and high levels of any activity is like hiking from a high mountain top to another: Sometimes the only way to go is down.

Now you just happen to be in a regression valley. The only inaccuracy with the presentation below is, that it assumes you are practicing with a coach all the time, and this is why the regression parts are consistent in length. However, not having consistent coaching will most probably cause you to be more stuck in some mental blind spots and wrong thinking patterns for a longer time.

 

The higher your level, the longer you will probably get stuck in these valleys between your phases of highest achievement.

 

As a semi-professional violinist I can assure you this happens with professional classical musicians all the time!

I would recommend making your first priority something completely different of the planche, and just have light work on it. Then come back after you have achieved more skill in this other area, and you might just notice an increase in performance you really can't explain.

 

Interesting, so according to this I should be stronger soon than I was when I could do the full planche?

Nacho training said:

Yes, it is odd if he has improved in other drills... But the fatigue may be very specific. How many times do you try the full planche after you have gotten the full planche for 2 seconds? Did you try it in the same training's moment than the previous time? That is the only thing that i can imagine if it is not CNS fatigue.

Didn't really do it that often, once each week. But I did max out my straddle often, which I can't even perform properly now.

I have this problem with pushing strength. My pulling strength seems to stay high (or comes back fast) even if I slack off. But if I slack off on pushing, it goes down fast and takes ages to get back up to what it was before. 

In your last thread you could only hold advanced tuck for 10 seconds.

Perhaps tuck planche isn't the answer, but maybe advanced tuck?

Cody said:

In your last thread you could only hold advanced tuck for 10 seconds.

Perhaps tuck planche isn't the answer, but maybe advanced tuck?

My max at the moment with proper form is 15 seconds. Would you recommend me to start training with advanced tuck? Say, 5*8s within 20 minutes and build my way up to 5*30s?