how many can do planche?

Crimsoncross said:

braindx said:

No, I quit gymnastics when I was 10/11.

I took up some exhibitional gymnastics in college... but now that I'm graduated I have no use for statics. I don't compete. I train general strength.

I can still do straddle planche, iron cross, front lever, etc. I just choose not to train them when I can train movements/sequences.

I'm relatively new here and I know that your name is Steven Low and that you have written some articles. Besides that, I don't know anything about you.

How old are you? So now you lift weights+bodyweight exercises? Are you a trainer or something like that?

I started training strength when I was 20. I am now 24.

I train upper body all bodyweight work, and for legs I sprint and deadlift for the most part. Some accessory work for legs like glute ham raises. You can look at my log (sig) if you're interest in what I am currently work on and things like that...

I am far from the strongest person here or most knowledge about gymnastics, but I do have a similar take on things from experimenting on my own to find out what works well. Of course, Coach Sommer, Ido, Gregor, etc. have all had a big influence on my training in some aspects too.

I am starting physical therapy school this summer. No, I don't train anyone, but have been thinking about getting my CSCS.

trianglechoke7 said:

Read the elbow tendinitis thread and maybe you will think twice about doing a planche after 2 months!

How can you say that with such confidence? If he can move into it with only two month, he obviously has some amazing skills.

Further, in PL there is not the same dual force on the triceps as in BL and FL (i takeit you refer to the often mentioned issue of tendonitis around the medial head og tricep

You don't believe in better safe than sorry, given that everyone and their brother has complained of elbow pain from planches and back levers?

Durden: The tricep isn't the issue in planche/bl, inner elbow is. And like I said, at 120 lbs he may very well not run into the problem I did, since I am damn near twice his size. It doesn't change the fact, and I say fact because it appears to be what has worked for almost everyone here in addition to being Coach's recommendation, that if you can't hold a position for a max hold of 15-20 seconds then you shouldn't be training it directly.

Gavin S said:

The question I have is: when do you know if your body is ready to take the extra load and move safely into the next progression? Is it a matter of times held in the static positions or anything else, like amount of time spent training (ie number of cycles) or any other factors?

From personal experience I've found progress to be very slow due to having quite weak joints and therefore lots of injuries in the past. I the original Coach Sommer article he said that you need to be able to hold that progression for a full 60secs in one set before moving onto the next, I've heard some forum members say 30secs is enough. Also, don't think that the only way to train PL/FL is the big jump straight from advanced tuck to straddle. You could have one knee perpendicular to the body, then two, then a straddle with the legs at a higher angle etc. And train each for a full cycle. So far I've had to devote 2 full cycles to each of the first variations and I'm nowhere close to a straddle yet. It's much safer to measure your goals in years rather than months. Patience is a bitch but it's gotta be done for long term training health

30s sets in 5 sets, with a minute rest between sets, is not to be considered the same thing as being able to hold for 30s. If your max is 30s, you will fail miserably in this test. Generally speaking, this amount of work will not be possible until you have at LEAST a 45-50s max.

Thanks for that Slizzard and Longshanks.

i thought in the book it said if you have a 15 second max you should move to a harder progression but i could be wrong.

also a lot of people talk about tendonitis or elbow pain from a planche,but do many people get shoulder pain? when i do a planche or even straddle-l as soon as i take the pressure of my shoulders they hurt.

braindx,

have you (or anyone) ever tried using statics with weights? like doing static holds before or after weight training.

I finally held a straddle planche on parallettes for a few seconds last week. I trained planche last 3 days and it is getting better. Took me 1.5 years though, although I did not train as consistently as I should have. I've also started doing freestanding HS and lowering down to straddle planche, holy crap and here I thought my delts were finally getting stronger :shock: