Everyone's current planche/ lever progressions

Hi everyone,

I have been training the planche and front lever progressions for about a week now and have a tuck planche hold of about 20 seconds (max) but I think I could do more now, and a tuck front lever of around 40 seconds (max).

I randomly thought I'd try a straddle front lever and discovered I could hold one for a couple of seconds (didn't test my max) and that was the first time I have ever tried one. I was really surprised and will try to get a video at some point but preferably when I actually train straddle levers. (I refuse to move on to the next progression until I have the correct 60 seconds).

My point here is that I don't feel my planche is anywhere near as strong as my lever. Is it slightly more technically demanding or soemthing? Just wondering if anyone has had or is having a similiar experience. Maybe it's just that my pushing strength doesn't match my pulling or maybe I'm just not leaning forward enough. I'll have to experiment.

Keep training!

Rob

planche and lever don't have anything in common.

It's kind of if you compare pull up and handstand push up.

Im very close to full front lever (sometimes i think i hold it but just for a sec) although i have no proof, and when i recorded me i wasn't able to hold it :? . Of course its not a 'legal' hold of at least 2 secs, but the fact of just hold it for an instant for me is an achievement (i have been doing negatives from inverted hang, at first i couldnt stop at all the horizontal falling down quickly and now the fall down is so slowly that i can stop or almost at horizontal). I do that just for testing, while i usually do front lever pulls tucked or one leg tucked or holds bycling.

Straddle is a bit weird for me, as i'm not very flexible and the legs tends to go up if i straddle a lot so its easier than if a try to maintain the horizontal level of all body in which way i cant straddle to much but I can hold it for 10 seconds. Advanced front lever can hold it for 30 second. When i started front lever i just could hold the tucked (not advanced) for 5 secs. So here i've seen improvements.

My planche is really weak, i just can hold 10 secs of tucked planche (and is that way for almost a year), so, for the topic question, yes my lever is much stronger than planche. But this is not the same case of pulling and pushing, my dips are stronger than pulls (25 dips on pbars vs 12 pullups Body weigth).

I cant improve my planche (and after reading not only this forum i think im not alone :roll: ) but i have to say that i didnt made a consistent training cause when i do this a few weeks, i have forearm pain and cant contiue training.

So if you compare 10 seconds of straddle front lever vs in my dreams just half of a second of a straddle plache (i cant even dream in a full planche), i think the dont have a strength relationship.

Planche i think is much, much harder than front lever.

Imagine the blance in stradle planche and in the full planche. There is a diffrence in sholder position, so if you are doing full planche you must let the sholder a little lower-forward! with that you'll keep the balnce that your legs won't be to much weight burdon.

And here is a catch: beacuse for full planche the wight balance is moved forward, you must have stronger sholders. Her comes turn for diffrent training to train your sholders in similar movement.

I'm currently able to hold the tuck planche for 25 seconds with proper form but I train with smaller holds of only 15 seconds.

The tuck front lever though I can hold it for 45 seconds then my hands give out. I've been trying the advanced tuck front lever and can hold it for 25 seconds.

I'm quite satisfied with my progressions as 3 weeks ago I could only hold the tuck planche for 10 seconds.

And a small question: I practice the planche progressions on paralettes and I've noticed that I have a tough time doing them on the floor. Is this just a matter of wrist strength and wrist flexibility?

currently can hold a tuck planche for 40secs and adv tuck for 3 secs. i am doing tuck planches with ankle weights to build more strength without going into longer sets where there is little strength to be gained.

i can hold a one leg front lever for about 3 secs

Thanks for the replies.

Gregor thanks for the clarification. I was aware that planche and lever involve different muscle groups etc but I was just wondering whether most people like myself are far better at the front lever as opposed to the planche.

Out of interest Gregor can you do a planche and lever because judging by your picture of an L cross you must be immensely strong!

Cathan, IvanPS and Serotonin I am in a similiar position to you I feel with the lever and planche hold times etc. We will get our planche and lever one day! Haha

Thanks

Rob

Yes I can.

Lever (back)is basic in gymnastics so almost all kids in 11-12 years of age can hold it. And of course depends on gymnast attitude for strenght training and natural abilitiys.

For comparison I holded my first cross at the age of 12. But my swallow was quite late.

Dang Gregor age 12 for the Cross, that's a little early, you could have messed your joints up, I guess you were lucky enough and fortunate enough to do it safely, most coaches shouldn't static cross work till around I would say 14ish.

I'm nearly at a straddle planche, I just got back into holding static tuck planches and have progressed very fast now that I am back into it, and have put some work into front lever, it's not a priority of mine at the moment, and have a pretty solid back lever.

I know someone with 11 :shock:

It's no problem if you have enough mucles. Why are they start doing at the age of 14? beacuse then they don't have good muscularty, so if you have sooner, there is no problem!

And I thing more: i didn't start doing crosses befor 12 years, I just had good preparation and one day I tryed it. Still it was ugly cross, but first one is always the first one.

IvanPS said:

I'm currently able to hold the tuck planche for 25 seconds with proper form but I train with smaller holds of only 15 seconds.

The tuck front lever though I can hold it for 45 seconds then my hands give out. I've been trying the advanced tuck front lever and can hold it for 25 seconds.

I'm quite satisfied with my progressions as 3 weeks ago I could only hold the tuck planche for 10 seconds.

And a small question: I practice the planche progressions on paralettes and I've noticed that I have a tough time doing them on the floor. Is this just a matter of wrist strength and wrist flexibility?

Yeah holding on the floor compared to the parallettes is a lot more difficult. It's just the parallettes give a more favorable position for your wrists then the floor allowing you to stay up longer. I was experimenting for a few days and i found that if you go from an L seat to tuck planche all in one go like a combo it is much easier to get the tuck planche up on the ground. I don't really know why but it helps get into the tuck planche position when i do it. Haven't been able to do it too much though i hurt my back last week but when i do it, i hold the tuck on the ground quite a bit longer then if i don't do the transition.

Planche requires a lot more skill than either front or back lever.

Currently I'm working on tuck planche. Generally 2 or 3 to hit 60s. I'm on advanced tuck lever now for 2 or 3. Sometimes I do one leg levers for about 5 or 6 seconds or a straddle. I can momentary hold a straddle planche that is 15 degrees to high.

Still for the most part I'm working tuck planche and advanced tuck or 1 leg front levers.

I've heard of a 10yo doing a cross in demo/exhibition. I heard he was also from AZ. However, because of rules, he could not compete it till being 12yo in the US JO MAG.

Can you explain initials, please?

Planche,

I'm working on deltoid strength, and flexability to build a better base of strength. I'm working on a tuck planche position up on my dip bars. It allows me to get in the tuck planche and stress those muscles. I also work on dips trying to hold as close as possible to a tuck planche position. I'm also doing feet supported planche style ring pushups.

Levers,

I can get into an advanced tuck front lever. My time to hold is getting better on this. To build strength for this I like to do both supine rows off the rings, and deltoid rear laterals off the rings. I like to also use the rings and get into a tuck lever, and try pullups.

Overall,

I'm really enjoying the work, but I wake up sore 6 days of the week. I'm training Monday thru Friday, I alternate weeks between push moves and pull moves. One week I get 3 days of push moves and 2 of pull. The next week it is reversed.

Next week will see my leg routine change as well. Squat 3x week, leg curls, and extensions 2x, then reverse the order.

This is a lot of volume of work each week, so watching my intensity and not overtraining is important. So far I feel pretty good, and I'm seeing excellant results. My arms are back up to a solid 15.25" flexed cold.

My deltoids are really starting to show up as well. Fat loss is slow, about 1.5 lbs per week, but thats good.

The best comment I've gotten was yesterday from my Wife. While wearing a t-shirt she looked at me, then grabbed my shoulders and arms.

"DUDE, your getting big."

The size is mainly muscle memory from bodybuilding years ago. I expect my arms to plateau at about 15.5" maybe a bit more, at least for a little while.

Coach Sommer, thanks for this site.

I don't think I noticed anyone mention pseudo planche push ups. I like to do a few set of these after working my frog stand. I also do the pseudo planche push ups with hands facing feet for variety. But currently I am only doing it on the knees. I have been keeping a workout log of my progression, which is something I strongly suggest to others if you have not. Gives you factual information about your improvements and such.

Sorry Gregor. Here ya go:

AZ: Arizona, Ca. Same region/province/state as Coach Sommer

JO: Junior Olympic

US: United States

MAG: Men's Artistic Gymnastics

yo: years old

I just do pseudo planche pushups for general conditioning. I have been playing around with holding planches with the fingers pointed back. It's very new and untrained. I like the ability to really open up the elbow, however I did notice more pressure on the elbow than the other way.

I believe there should be more emphasis put on the psuedo planche push ups. It's a great exercise that can be used to achieved the planche without any other exercise. First develop the strength to do psuedo planche push ups with ease, then move onto elevating the feet. After time, you will have the strength to do planche push ups.

Is there a link somewhere to correctly executed psuedo pushups? I looked on youtube and I've seen several different people doing several different things...

Also why are you supposed to only hold half of your max time during static holds?

The hand placement really depends on your balance point. I like to put the middle of my hands to where the top of my hip bones are. And for the 50% static hold rule, thats really for the people who are experiencing pain or discomfort from not being used to the work out.

temet nosce said:

I believe there should be more emphasis put on the psuedo planche push ups. It's a great exercise that can be used to achieved the planche without any other exercise. First develop the strength to do psuedo planche push ups with ease, then move onto elevating the feet. After time, you will have the strength to do planche push ups.

With this exercise you won't achive a planche!! YOu can try to moving forward and backward in pseudo planche position, but you must have legs on the boject with the wheels. Only thing is you can learn that is push to planche from momentum force (but you will not hold it).

The frog stand 60 second set came fairly easy to me, so I moved onto the next static hold. I can only hold the tuck planche for barely 12 seconds with my legs almost touching the floor, so I went back to the frog stand and am only doing 30 seconds each with straight arms. What can I do to help get my legs up in these progressions?

When I tried the tuck lever, my body automatically went to the advanced tuck front lever so I stuck with it. I can do 25 seconds max, but I am doing 10 seconds each. Should I try and get through the tuck lever first?

tuck lever, advanced tuck lever...not a big deal if you are strong enough and your position is good

Garre33, just keep on training the planche and it will go up. dips and pseudo planche pu will help as assistance stuff.

Gregor said:

With this exercise you won't achive a planche!! YOu can try to moving forward and backward in pseudo planche position, but you must have legs on the boject with the wheels. Only thing is you can learn that is push to planche from momentum force (but you will not hold it).

i agree, once you begin tuck planche pushups the psuedo planche pushup becomes obsolete and i dont believe you could ever achieve a planche with psuedo planches alone

If you believe tuck planche progression exercises are the only way to achieve a planche you are wrong. Although I think they are great! What I am saying is that doing them is not the only way you will achieve a planche. You have to remember the is always different training techniques to achieve any goal. Don't believe me about the pseudo planche push up only training? Well here you go... (not me)

Although that guy is clearly really strong, and what he's doing is really impressive he doesn't hold a proper planche in the video. His back is arched when he's doing the pushups and he never actually holds a planche position. I don't believe u will eva hold a planche training the way he did. U Will end up with arched planche pushups, but no static hold of the movement. in the correct position.