Planche progression - Tuck

I'm going to start this thread with a video of my tuck planche, where im stucked at this stage you can see. 8 second max tucked planche.

I started the training last summer but i give it up becouse of forearm pain. Im returning on it, but it seems extremely dificult for me to extend times or go to advanced.

Ive read the planche training from coach hundreds times, so i know the 'official way' but i cant progress. if there are any advice is welcome.

Im also doing Pseudo planche push ups trying to lean forward as far as i can so my hand are below my hips (no cheating , with strict form i can do 5-6 reps)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMgN1DTjwVg

Serotonin,

Instead of pressing up into a tuck planche and then extending out, I moved into holding an advanced tuck planche by doing the following:

1. Start with your hips higher up and your back flat, leaning forward on your toes. Parallettes will help tremendously rather than doing this on the floor. So start out in the advanced tuck planche position with a flat back, then lean into the planche and transfer the weight onto your hands. If you're not getting this, I know I have a video of me doing it on parallettes and I'll see about posting it later.

2. Start in a handstand against the wall or free-standing if you're able, bend your legs but keep the back flat, and lower down into the advanced tuck planche. If you haven't tried this method before, you may want to work on going from handstand and lowering to tuck planche. That will develop tremendous strength and may give you the boost you need to hold the advanced version.

Keep up with the pseudo pushups and also work on HSPU and press handstands. They will all help develop your planche strength further.

Thanks, im recently working on HSPU on wall, and trying the handstand without wall but is not very consistent at this time, although i can see the progress.

I've seen the method 2 but becouse of my poor handstand technic havent been able to do it. The first method i really dont know if i understand it the way it should be, so if you could post the vido i would appreciate it very much.

the best thing you can do at this stage of training is getting some paralettes. theres a guide to make your own on www.beastskills.com

these will help to reduce pain in your wrists and forearms and you can do hspu on them and press to handstand as well.

From my experience, it is a very common mistake to try to move to harder progressions too early. The fact that you can achieve the position for a brief moment doesnt mean you should start to work it already.

If you dont have a minimum 10 sec maximum hold time in the position, work an easier progression. Again, gymnastics static position cannot be directly compared to classical strength work, in which the advice would be - simple do more sets of lower repetition. (or in this case less time)

If you are not working in 5 sec hold time per set (50% of your maximum hold time) you will get stuck rapidly.

Leave your ego outside of the gym and choose an easier progression. Maybe my student - Tom Weksler can post his own experience with this issue here.

I definitely agree with Ido on this one, rushing into progression simply does not work.

i know how frustrated it can be to work on the same version of the planche for a long period of time, but i guarantee you that it is way more frustrated to understand that youve wasted countless workouts just because you have been working on a harder version than you should have.

I decided to move on to the advanced planche after ive had a solid 20 seconds of the tuck planche. the outcome was that i wasnt able to straighten up my back as much as i needed and got "stuck" at about 10 seconds for a couple of weeks. Only after i went back to tuck planche and worked up to a full minute according to Coach sommer's plan i acquired the abillity to hold comfortably the advanced planche. Surprisingly, the next time i got back to it i held it for a longer time and of course with a better form.

lately ive gotten to exactly the same point with the Straddle planche but now i know for sure that im not gonig to repeat this mistake and move on to it too ealry.

As Ido mentioned, when you work on a skill like the planche there are alot of aspects (technique, balance, etc.) needed to be learned alongside getting stronger.

I doubt that additional upper body work could help you with your planche progression as much as just going back to the straight arm frog stand. I beleive that you might be surprised if you checked your maximum time of hold at this position.

Acquring this skill is a goddamn journey - sometimes we have to admit that we followed the wrong path and go back in order to fix our mistake and choose the right way.

Ok, thank you for the responses.

My big problem with tuck planche is to mantein the hips at the level of the shoulders as you can see in the video. But i can hold much more time (15-20 sec ) if the hips are lower but without touching the floor with my toes.

Or may i do the frog with straight elbows (with bended arms i can easyly do 1 minute).

Which do you think is the best way?

Thank you for your interest.

The time counted as a planche is held is only in the correct position - hips level with the shoulders.

If unable to complete 10 second in this position, I recommend working either the planche with knees pushing against the inside of your forearms or the frog with elbows straight.

Good luck, I'm sure that in a couple of weeks time, you would surprise yourself with a new PR in the tucked planche due to this correction in your training process.

Stay tuned for my progress :wink:

I also would like to ask about a burning feeling (really burning) that only ocurrs in one of my forearms (the right one) in the front part of it during the hold.

This is usually the cause of failure when performing the hold.

It takes the wrists and the forearms some time to adjust to the hold especailly for someone who doesnt have experience with gymnastics work. I used to suffer from an inflamation in one of my wrists that caused pains in my forearm during the planche. my only suggestion is to make sure you give your wrists and hands a good warm up and make sure to work the antagonist hanging hold (the front lever) as well.

do you do your planches on parallets?

i have the same problem with my forearms when im doing my planches on parallets for longer than 10seconds ...

its because you squeeze the parallets, the extensor of your hand will be contract hard and on the other side your ellbow is extended and your extensor of your hand will be stretched and with some overstress it will hurt!

ido and tom are right, dont rush in your progress ...

i wasted about 2-3 month of training, cause i tried to do advanecd tuck planches after i hold my tuck planche without failure for 20 easy ass seconds (maybe 30 seconds with failure, ive never tried it)!

i can hold advanced tuck for about 7-8 seconds without failure, and did sets with 4-5seconds, solid. but i think it was to short. i did the advanced tuck thing for a while, after some weeks i stuck, now my tuck planche without failure is just at 12-14seconds that means im weaker while im train with the advanced tuck planche, haha, shit.

(and thats not the first time i noticed that, no, maybe the third but i never though about it and did the mistake again and again, haha. after i realised that i read the thing of ido and tom, thats true!)

now i train with sets of 12seconds tuck planche and add every week 1-2seconds, maybe more, wait and see!

but i also noticed that these progression is not the best/only way. i do additoinal excersices like lying dumbbell front raise (sets with 2-4reps) and things like tuck planche to handstand and back to tuck planche (with straight arms of course), some tuck planche pushups boosted my max hold time in the past too (and its some variety too! just do the planche progression day after day, its really boring!)

for example, my best advanced tuck planche hold was on the same day where i did the heaviest lying front raises!

ok, just some experience!

do you do your planches on parallets?

i have the same problem with my forearms when im doing my planches on parallets for longer than 10seconds ...

Yes on parallets hurt the most.

Thank you all of you for you responses.