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Stagnation in Planche Progression


Patrick Patterson
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It will help but bare in mind you should really lean forward the same amount as you normally would and use the feet assist as a light spot. This is why I like to wiggle my toes from foot to foot almost like a 1 inch hop.

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Joshua Naterman

It's just like a home-made assisted pullup device, but specialized for planche. You don't even need a pulley, really. Hang your rings, throw a belt around your waist, Tie the rope to the back of your belt. Throw the other end of the rope over the pullup bar your rings are hanging off of and tie it to some weights. Those weights will now be partially compensating for your body weight. The end.

His system just has a pulley. That's it. It would work BETTER if you ran it over a bar in front of you, like on the monkey bars at a playground, so that the rope won't be right next to your body, but it's really whatever.

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oh alright, that seems good. But right now I'm training at home so I don't have a bar for that, is there any other kinds of training for planche you would recommend?

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Joshua Naterman

Put a pullup bar in a doorway and throw the contraption over that.

Other methods mentioned in various threads here include using a resistance band as a lower leg holder, so that you can get used to holding yourself over your center of balance. It's pretty tough, and helps prepare you for the full planche. But really, until you have a solid 15s flat tuck at least, you don't need to worry about any of that. Just follow the book. It works.

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Alright cool, right now I'm still at tucked on rings, guess I've gotta work harder before using some of those methods mentioned.

Thanks :D

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  • 2 weeks later...
Kenneth Manning

It's been a long time since I've posted, as I've just been hammering away in another steady state cycle. However, I also seem to be experiencing a serious stagnation in my planche work.

I've got a solid full back lever and am now able to pull out of around a 135 degree angle back to invert (lower from invert to a full back lever [parallel to ground], hold for 8 seconds, then lower another 45 degrees with straight body and then pull back to invert). So being that my back lever is strong, I'm trying to figure out what to do to help my planche work along.

Right now I'm still "stuck" at a tuck planche. For around 8 weeks I tried working with jumpstretch rubber bands to hold my feet up, but after that 8 week block I was right back to where I started. Basically, from the floor, I get into a tuck planche, hips nearly shoulder high, but at around the 6 second mark, my hips tend to sink, until my knees are around 3 inches off the floor. It's driving me nuts!! I don't think it's a weakness in my arms/shoulders, and I thought my lower back was strong enough since my back lever is solid. Not sure what to do here. Darn sinking hips...

Also, just as more info, I'm now performing 8 sets of 5 second holds for the straddle front lever, and I can hold a moderate v-sit for 15 seconds.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Also, I"m 6'2", 195 lbs.

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Guest Ido Portal

Killroy,

I suggest you start to accumulate more volume with your current tuck planche work in order to move forward. When one is unable to increase intensity, it can be due to supercompensation not being triggred by enough volume.

Crazyness is described as doing the same things again and again but expecting different results. Change things up. Add an auxilery exercise and increase the volume on the planche work slowly. (even up to twice as much as now)

After hammering like this for another 4-6 weeks, take a bit of rest and retest. I am sure you will be surprised.

I will repeat it again and again, work capacity is the mother of all problems with most trainees. People do not accumulate enough work to take them to the next level. A full planche will not be developed by someone who can not go through a lot of work, daily, and recuperate. Do not expect to do 45 min of conditioning work a day and become an olympian ring specialist in two years. All great athletes I have known in my life share this quality - the ability to recuperate from great amounts of training quickly. (AKA Work Capacity)

Ido.

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Kenneth Manning

I am not delusional enough to think that I'll ever become an olympian ring specialist! :D Now with that said, I am very passionate about my training, I always have been. I'm heading into my 10th month using the BtGB program and in those 10 months have experienced exponentially greater gains in overall body strength and muscularity than I probably have in the last 10 years of weight training.

I have tried adding to the volume of tuck planches - currently I'm performing 8 sets of 15 second holds (though as I stated in my earlier post, the last 7-15 seconds of each set my hips have been sagging). At one point, when using the jumpstretch bands for lower-leg assistance, I was performing 12 sets of 20 second holds. I should note that when using the bands, I kept myself in an advanced tuck position with the band looped around my feet. I've also tried backing off, etc.....

I was thinking today about what might be the best auxillary exercise(s) to perform to help my plache work along. Any suggestions for someone with my issue? At the end of my workout today I completed 5 sets of 6 reps of reverse leg lifts with only my chest supported (also used a light jumpstretch band for resistance). I thought that perhaps only have my chest contacting the pad it might help as I could feel my entire back working to keep my torso flat while I was lifting my legs. Anyway, I'm not adverse to adding more exercises, so if you have any that you think might help, I'd appreciated the input.

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Guest Ido Portal

I do not believe you have an extension problem. I have seen your problem countless time in my training facility, and if I understand correctly, what is happening is that you are unable to maintain the new shoulder angle when you extend back - this feels and looks like your hips is saging, but most times, it is the new required 'deeper' shoulder angle that you are unable to support in order to compensate for the longer lever.

I would suggest to stop counting your sets with that sag. Count only the quality performance, do not accept anything not 100% there. Make sure you use sets that do not take you to technical failure also, stop short of that. Use 60-120 total sec of planche time, using those guide lines and building volume.

Supplement your training with an auxilery exercise concentrating on shoulders, perheps the maltese-planche dumbell straight arm lifts or another.

By the way, using the straps on the feet is inferior for that variation. I prefer to place it at waist level, just like a good spotter in the gym will support you. It will provide you with a more 'realistic' boost, and not delude you into believing you are ready for a more advanced variation of the planche before you realy are.

Good luck with your training,

Ido.

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Kenneth Manning

Ido - many thanks for the suggestions. I'll be implementing them beginning tomorrow. Probably going to begin with 10-12 sets of 6 second holds, as I can usually maintain the proper position for that time period. Now, I've done this before, but previously once I hit, say, 10 sets of 6 second holds, I'd just to 10 sets of 8-10 second holds, and so on... Perhaps this time around, I'll just keep adding sets (and not time) and possibly reducing the rest between sets until I can complete 20 sets of 6 second holds. I'll also start some focused work for the shoulders. I've been playing with the planche in my gym a bit this evening, and I'm thinking you're right, it's not a leg/back extension problem, it's the arm/shoulder angle.

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Joshua Naterman

Weighted dips can really help you here, as can some incline bench press. I haven't been practicing my planche at all for almost 6 weeks now due to elbow issues, I've just been working weights, and my advanced tuck planche is possibly better than it was before I got hurt! You've got to do the shoulder and chest work.

Also, as far as the recovery is concerned, sleep A LOT. As much as you can. Eat protein and some slow carbs(not too many, maybe 30-40g), a little olive oil, and take a 30 minute nap. Have some protein before you sleep too, even if it's just a tall glass of milk! Trust me, the extra sleep will make a huge difference. After reading Muscle Revolution I started paying more attention to the effect that extra sleep has on my performance, and I have noticed that when I fit in 10 total hours of sleep instead of 7.5 or 8 I perform WAY better and feel energetic and ready to kick some ass when I work out. This is leading to much better progress, so if you aren't literally feeling like a bundle of energy then you may need more sleep than you are getting. Any way you can add in sleep will help!

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Kenneth Manning

Slizzardman, thanks for the responses. I wanted to wait to post until I had a few workouts under my belt to comment on. Now, I was dipping some decent weight (for me) this past summer and still had issues with my planche work. I was able to get up to bodyweight (195 lbs) + 105 lbs for 5 reps on parallel dip bars. Ido was right in that it's definitely an issue with my arms/shoulders in leaning forward and not an extension problem. In today's workout, I performed 8 sets of 4 reps of the reverse crank. Essentially, reps 1-3 I moved from an inverted pike to a full back lever and pulled back to invert, and on the last rep I held the back lever for 7 seconds and finished by pulling to invert. So my leg/lower back extension seems to be strong.

For my tuck planche work, I had previously been beginning the movement on the floor with my knees on the floor. Today, I began by placing my palms on the floor, hands turned out 45 degrees, in a FULL SQUAT position, and simply leaned forward until my feet came off of the floor and I was in a tuck planche. I recorded each set with my cell phone camera and they looked better, although I only held each attempt for 5 seconds. Hips still weren't quite to shoulder height, but very very close.

This is definitely going to be a battle. Everything's been progressing nicely - my back lever work is getting a bit more advanced, I was able to do 8 sets of 5 second holds for the straddle front lever, I'm increasing the difficulty of the variations of ring dips I'm doing, etc......

Wednesday is my day off, so I'm going to try to rest up and get ready for thursday's workout....

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  • 11 months later...

Killroy,

I am in the same exact situation as you were in. I hope everything ended up working out for you buddy. I will definitely utilize that great advice, Ido. God bless guys

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Working a few exercises you will see some results, but if you work all the exercises you will see amazing results. The book is made so that all the exercises compliment each other. If you are not progressing on the planche, it is due to a weakness in some area that the planche is not very sufficient at developing. If you strengthen the weakness, progress will be made again. The only problem is it is difficult to determine what the weaknesses are. This is why over and over I recommend the WOD. I truly believe it is the best way to work all of the exercises in the book in a consistent methodical way.

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Completely agree with what Dillon said!

I stagnated at Tuck Planche as well for a while; but when I went back and worked on my L-sits, Handstand strength progressions and focusing on actually getting a 60 second tuck planche in 1 set before moving on my results were great.

At the moment am on a 35 second perfect hold on the rings (hands turned out, arms straight and hip at shoulder height). And am able to do a solid 20 second advanced tuck planche hold on PB before my hips start sagging.

Working the earlier progressions to death + other basic prerequisites/same musculature strengtheners are seriously awesome ways to progress!

And I'm not at all as strong as Kilroy with dipping strength even (Haven't done a weighted dip in my life and can barely do a HeSPU on the wall).

The planche is in my opinion the hardest static to master, but with consistent and (very important) patient work you'll get there!

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Thanks for the input guys. I am almost done with an 8 week cycle of the WODs. I can tell I have gained quite a bit of strength from them with reference to front lever and back lever strength. Planche is a different story but I will definitely utilize these suggestions and update progress. Very much appreciated boys

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Joshua Naterman

For my part, I have stopped worrying about planche and just started focusing on other stuff. Planche isn't something you're supposed to start working right away, and until we all have 60s L sits on the floor we aren't ready to start planche, at least that is coach's preferred progression. I realize it must be frustrating to not have full access, but I really think that like Dillon says the WODs are your best recourse. They always will be, but getting the 2nd edition of the book will really open the doors for everyone. In the meantime realize that you need to be strong in support positions and swinging supports, and that will build a surprising level of strength.

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Be consistent and stick with it. 8 weeks is a start but you will not see very much progress on the planche in this time. The journey for a full planche will be measured in years not weeks or months. This is why I always advise to take your time, get all the basics down first, and try to enjoy every advancement you make. This approach is much healthier, and will make you more likely to stay on track rather than working hard on achieving a specific skill and not seeing the results you'd like.

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