Advanced Tuck Planche or straddle planche?

Hello all,

great to see the forum up and running! Nice to see it all coming along, and people joining and discussing gymnastics. I've been getting into the planche lately, practicing for about 6 weeks to 2 months now. I first started training for it around 2 years ago, but wasn't able to be consistent. My daily practice has now gotten me some results, and notice improvements day by day.

However, I'm not at a 'good' straddle planche yet. I wish I could get my hips up, but as soon as straighten my legs my hips drop towards the floor. However, I can keep my body and feet hovering 4-5 inches above the floor, and hold for about 12 seconds. I'm not sure if holding the advanced tuck, which I can now hold for around 15 seconds, is more beneficial to my overall progress or not. In the tuck, my knees are behind my hips but still far apart from each other.

I made a video of both, and the structure in the 'straddle tuck' looks much more solid than the hanging straddle with extended legs. I will post it when i have a chance.

Comments from other planche practitioners?

Thanks,

Martin

Lol im still in the tuck planch position. Can hol it for 20seconds maximum. I can only hold the advance tuck planche for 3 seconds then i Hit the floor.

How did you train for it? And I see you bench train?

Hi Goku,

I bench press PTTP style pretty much, with a few exceptions on some days. I think it has helped my planche.

Regarding the progress in the planche: first of all daily practice. And practicing several times a day whenever I can. I took some of Coach Sommer's training regimens at first, making good progress on the 50% TUL of max hold, until i could hold the tuck for 1 minute.

I also did some work on wall planches, like in this video link below:

not sure if it has helped me though, do these too inconsistently. Also harder to feel the same tension. BTW, the guy in that video does planche push ups with a weighted vest! Mad strong! He says he got to the planche push up in 5 months of this kind of training.

Second, I have been experimenting with a product called Fitvibe (similar to powerplate). Essentially it vibrates at specific frequencies, causing instability, thus more stabilizer muscles need to kick in to help you hold the same static position. They say it causes more muscle fiber and motor units to be recruited, thus your body "learns" a position faster. I wanted to put it to the test by doing planche training on it! So far, it seems to be moving me along relatively faster. Too early to tell though. If I get to a planche push up in less than 5 months I'll let you know! lol

He says he got to the planche push up in 5 months of this kind of training.

They guy obviously has great genetics to get a planche in 5 months MUCH LESS at 6' tall. Probably has a background in like martial arts or some other sport that requires good strength to bodyweight ratio.

For us mere mortals it usually takes at least a couple years of consistent work just to get the planche... much less planche pushups, heh.

As for instability... work your planche on rings. That's a lot of fun.

Hi,

Yes I reckon that guy has great genetics being able to build strength that fast at that body weight (165lbs) at 6'.

I realize I'm not genetically gifted and am heavier (183lbs at 6'), making it all the more difficult.

However, this will not deter me from working towards the planche. If I can get the planche in 5 months, that would mean it'd be on time for my birthday, which would be a nice gift to myself hehe...but I won't be disappointed if it comes in 9 months or 12.

I've started training for the planche before in the past, and now I really feel i can stay consistent and am progressing.

As for instability training on rings: my Xtreme rings are on the way, someone is bringing them over from the States for me!

here are some variations of my progress I've posted on youtube. Still quite instable, position of hips and legs is no good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBO_a1fJ2-U

Basically, I want to know which is a more useful way of progressing, the second or third attempt? Am I wasting my time trying to get my hips up from the low position, or should i continue training it? Or should I focus on getting my knees closer together and hips up in the tuck/advanced tuck?

Thanks for your comments!

Martin

Yeah 5 months is crazy. Good for him. I am still working on it. And it has been about a year. Most I can do so far is 3 straddle planche push ups on parallets.

...I wish I could do straddle planche push ups! I'm not quite there yet...

Here's a slightly better version of the link I posted yesterday. My hips are slightly higher today, so I'm improving. But still a long long way to go...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmtbqinPb0w

Martin,

You are not yet ready to focus on the straddle planche. Follow the link for excellent advise by Ido Portal and Tom Weksler in how they solved the same problem in their training that you are experiencing now. viewtopic.php?p=293&highlight=#293

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Thank you for that advice, Coach Sommer.

I read their posts, and will go back to the Tuck. I have held it for a minute before, that's why I moved on to another progression. I guess cycling back has its purposes, I may not have learned certain aspects of the move in the previous progression. Of course I'm eager, but I don't want greed to ruin my training either...

Thanks again,

Martin