Getting weaker?

Hello,

I have been training a Planche following the progressions listed here: http://www.dragondoor.com/articles/buil ... fault.aspx and have a small problem.

I took a rest day, then trained again and felt very fatigued so I took two rest days (as I train in a set of Train/rest/train/rest/rest/train/rest repeat) and it became harder after the 2 rest days to hold the position.

Originally I could hold the tuck planche (my current level) for an easy 15 seconds before I'd have to rest and repeat. But after the rest I could barely hold for 5 seconds, and that was pushing to my fullest. Can anyone help me understand why it is harder to hold the position?

Thanks for any comments

Guiv

It sounds like you were too ambitious on day one. Next time cut the work in half and see how you respond. Keep it at that level for 4-6 weeks, then bump it up and repeat.

Yes, you should take a max hold once you feel better. Let's say you hit 23 seconds. You stop the time when you start to lower your hips. Time only counts when you are perfectly still, if you lose the position at all you stop the clock. If you have to, start with your hips below shoulder level. After a few SSC cycles you'll have them up there.

Anyways, once you've taken your max hold here's the deal: If you got a max hold over 15-20s, you should be doing 4-5 sets of 50% time. If you hit 23 seconds you'd do 11 second sets. You would do 5 of those, which would total 55 seconds. You could also do 4 if you need to. The goal here is to get your body used to the position. It takes time for the muscle and connective tissue to actually make full physical adaptations to the stress, around 3 months for the connective tissue and 6 weeks for the muscle. That's why training cycles for this type of work are 3 months long usually. Sometimes 4 months. You will simply do the exact same thing 3-4 days a week for 12 weeks. Somewhere along the way it should feel easy, as if you aren't doing enough anymore. This is the most important time to NOT CHANGE ANYTHING. This is when your body is beginning to make the adaptations that will allow you to make a large training jump with your next cycle.

I would guess that you don't have "The Book." If you do not have Building the Gymnastic Body, which is available at this site's store for 44 bucks, you need it. This, along with all the exercise trees and a TON of training advice is in there. If you don't have the book you simply will not know how to structure your training to ensure success. If you DO have the book, follow the SSC details to the letter.

Every single person here who has gotten hurt has failed to follow the training instructions. Those who DO follow instructions tend to do well and have little or no issues at all. I have been on both sides of that fence and I am having a lot more fun and getting a lot stronger by doing things the right way. Planche and other straight arm skills do not follow the same rules as typical resistance training.

I just ordered the book now, thank you everyone. I will wait and follow the instructions in the book

Guiv

No problem! If you have questions we are here for you.

Hey slizzardman. I don't want to steal the thread but when I get to the end of my SSC or to the point where i'm doing underload work, how long should I do it before testing and creating a new ssc? 2 weeks? Thanks

4 weeks, at least.