This article breaks down what I believe to be the most productive way to achieve a planche considering overall strength development and injury risk. The reason you train the planche is to get strong, remember. Planche should signify the immense strength you attained in the upper body. Specializing in the planche to check the mark - I am not as interested in. This information would be highly useful for the heavier/taller and the average joe trying to gain some muscle and strength, bodyweight style.

Prerequisites

Planche training is stressful on the wrists, forearms, elbows and shoulders. Exposing yourself to planche immaturely is risky and simply unnecessary. You have simpler ways to get strong, what is the rush?

Planche is predominantly about shoulder strength and elbow strength. To those unfamiliar with gymnastics-style strength training - you may ask what is elbow strength. I am referring to the tendon resilience necessary to hold the planche (and other straight-arms movements). General population is commonly advised to not lock-out the elbows when training strength. Performing partial range of motion to keep the tension on the muscle. I say - ‘use it or lose it!’. If you don’t load the joints (gradually, safely), you will never achieve gymnast type of strength.

Before you start training the planche, I recommend having:

• 3x5 Full Range Wall-Supported Handstand Push Ups. Shoulder width-apart. This is necessary to address anterior deltoid strength.
• 3x8 Full Range DB Hammer Preacher Curls using 20% of your body weight per arm. This is necessary to address the elbow flexors at the end range.

Planche Begins

When you start training the planche - a tuck planche should be comfortable for you. If it’s not - you don’t have the prerequisites - you cheat. Advanced tuck planche (knees below hips) would be challenging.

From now on it’s a question of training the actual skill in order to get good at it. Achieving a straddle planche can take anywhere from 0.5-4 years. Mostly dependent on height, body weight and leg mass. Shorter and lighter athlete can achieve the planche in only 6 months once the prerequisites are there. It can take up to 4 years for a heavy and tall athlete to achieve a straight line straddle planche.

Training Frequency

Train the planche twice a week. You can barely go wrong with x2/week frequency per movement. It’s sufficient practice exposure and plenty of time to recover in between. Planche sessions should be spread 3-4 days apart for optimal recovery.

Planche Exercises

I have a whole blogpost on planche supplementary and accessory exercises. It’s worth a read. 

To summarize:

1. Start the session by training the main movement specifically. It doesn’t get more specific than planche isometric Holds. Use the bodyweight positions progressions: tuck→froggy tuck→advance tuck→straddle—>half lay→full.

Add a light resistance band around your hips for assistance. Decrease the assistance as means of progressions between different bodyweight progressions.

1. Follow the isometric holds with a supplementary exercise - a dynamic exercise like pseudo planche push ups, ring-turned-out push ups or dumbbell planche raises. 
2. Optional and advised - finish the session with accessory exercises. Exercises that target muscle groups necessary in the planche. Indirect training, mostly isolation and light exercises. For the planche: preacher curls, dips, tricep extensions, push-ups, shoulder external rotation, straddle back extensions, etc.

Training Intensity and Volume

For the planche, I recommend 1 high-volume session and 1 high-intensity session a week. 

Aim for 60 seconds (in total) for the isometric holds in the high-volume session. Schemes like 5x12” seconds, 6 sets of 10 seconds, 4 sets of 15 seconds - all work well. 3x20” if you are craving a deload.

Aim for 30 seconds (in total) for the isometric holds in the high-intensity session.

Schemes like 8 sets of 3 seconds, 7 sets of 4 seconds, 6 sets of 5 seconds or 5 sets of 6 seconds work well.

For the supplementary exercise, stick to 3 sets of 3-6 repetitions. Slow, controlled, quality repetitions. The sets should last you about 15-30 seconds.

For the accessory exercises, go light. It’s like bodybuilding training. You know; time under tension, mind muscle connection, pump blood into the muscle. All that. 2-3 sets of 10-20 repetitions per exercise work well. 

The rest of the week should be devoted to other skill training (e.g. Front Lever), handstands, mobility, general bent-arm exercises like pull-ups, dips, rows, hspu, etc. It’s very important to keep pushing your bent-arm strength up as you specialize in the planche to support long-term progress. Especially the overhead strength.

Progression Model

You can’t force progress on the planche. We are talking about a delicate lever that could only strengthen little by little. You should feel extremely comfortable before moving on to the next bodyweight position or band assistance.

I recommend using a step-loading progression. Meaning, stick to the same variation and load for 3-4 sessions before slightly reducing the assistance by bands (potentially by -2.5kg). In other words, you will only ‘objectively’ progress once a month. In the meantime, think about the quality of execution, control, tension, and body awareness. There’s a lot to improve.

For the supplementary and accessory exercises - use a double progression method. Meaning, choose a variation/weight you can do for the prescribed rep range. Once you are able to complete the ceiling of reps for all sets - intensify the exercise and build back up again. You can switch these exercises once every 4-12 weeks.

Injury Prevention

Common areas of injuries when training the planche:

1. Wrist pain
2. Ulnar deviation
3. Proximal bicep tendinopathy - front deltoid pain

All of which should be fine if you do have the prerequisites down and you stick to the slow and methodical progression model aforementioned. But - shit happens. What do you do? General principles to apply:

1. Drop all exercises that cause pain. Don’t be a hero.
2. Keep doing all exercises that are entirely pain-free.
3. Rehab the injury: perform frequent (daily) light resistance exercises for the injured tissue. Light = 70+ reps per set. 2-4 minutes of constant time under tension. I prefer to put a song on and go to work instead of counting reps. Use light dumbbells or thin resistance bands that allow you to work the area using high-reps. Choose an exercise that does target the damaged tissue but the pain is almost non-existent. Probably 1-2 out of 10 on a subjective scale of pain.

Planche is a hell of a skill. It demonstrates immense upper-body strength. Start training it when you are ready. Be patient and progress slowly. The lever-based exercises can only strengthen so much at a time. The planche for taller and heavier athletes would be considered elite. Don’t compare yourself to others. 

Train hard. Train smart.

Good luck,

Refael.