Jan/100
Planche Progression Video
The planche is one of hand balancing’s most advanced moves. In this video you’ll discover one tip on planche progression.
This is just one of four methods that is included in the Hand Balancing Mastery Course. Be sure to check that out for many more details on not just planche progression but so much more.
Even beginners can get started working on the tuck planche. Once that’s stable its just a matter of opening up the hips more and more each time.
But don’t think you’ll master this skill overnight. It takes tremendous strength all across the body.
For more details on this be sure to check out this other post on planche progression.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
Nov/091
Planche Progression
Here you’ll find tips on planche progression.
“I’m 21 years ( physically strong ) I do need to get into Planche. Can you advice me on something to start with ???”
Kenji
I have not built myself up to doing the planche. Haven’t really worked on it much.
But I can give you a variety of drills and methods to build it up, proven by a number of other people who have had success. The basic planche progression is to increase the leverage of the movement little bit by little bit.
That is going from a tucked position to a straddle and finally a complete planche. When you get good at one position, building the strength and skill to do it, you move onto the next.
I first learned about this method from Coach Sommer. In his article below you’ll get many more details on this planche progression. Plus it also covers the front lever.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
Nov/090
Advanced Progression
A One Hand Balance in the Old Style
Here’s a question from Matthew on the difficulties and progression of advanced hand balancing skills.
“What would say is the difficulty of a planche vs a handstand, one handed handstand, 2 man planche, how should I be progressing if I am fairly competent in all of these skills?”
Each skill is very different from the next. The skill and strength it takes to do a planche is very different from that it takes to do a one handed handstand. Some people will find certain skills harder then others and to give them arbitrary difficulties wouldn’t really help.
But as a basic idea so you can know what you’re getting yourself into I would say the one hand handstand (and the planche too) are about 100 times as difficult as the two hand handstand.
How should you be progressing? The same as everyone else. Whether you are working on a basic handstand or and advanced skill like the one arm handstand you can progress by adding a second at a time.
If you are competent at the skills you listed, first off, congratulations. You are doing great. If you want to know where to go from that point there is a wide variety of options.
You can work on a one handed planche. You can learn to hop on one hand. How about a tiger bend? And if that’s easy try it on one arm!
(By the way, all these skills are found in The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing.)
The sky is the limit. Just keep progressing. It’s the name of the game.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher.
Nov/090
Planche Pushups Training
This question from Paul concerns planche pushups training.
“From a beginners perspective, what exercises would you recommend to working into a full planche pushup?”
That depends entirely on how much of a beginner you are. If you are really just starting out there is going to be a ton of work before you get to the planche and finally a planche pushup.
Suffice to say, you’ll need a strong planche before you can approach doing planche pushups.
There are two drills that come to mind to help on the pushup portion. Even if you can’t do the planche yet you will be able to do this planche pushup training and get started.
One involves having a friend hold onto your feet. Now, you don’t merely want to do pushups in this position. That would make this nothing more then an elevated pushup. Instead, lean far forward in advanced of your hands, that is to assume a planche position.
With your partner holding your feet you won’t have to support all your weight, but the goal is to do as much as you can on your own.
From this position you do your assisted planche pushups. The key is to do low reps and really maximize the effort that goes into each one.
The second drill is similar though it doesn’t require a partner. This is to do what are known as pseudo-planche pushups. You get on the ground and get into a normal pushup position.
Like before, you will lean forward so your shoulders are forward of your hands. Your feet are on the ground but you will be working in a similar planche position.
There are other methods but these will help you out big time. Along with them you’ll really need to be training your planche and making it strong.
Much more on the planche can be found in The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
Jul/093
Planche and Hand Position
A few comments were raised about the hand position in Rafael Guerrero’s planche in a previous post.
Why was he up on the fingertips? Is this necessary to do a planche in good form?
Unless you have hyper-flexible wrists you won’t be able to do a planche with the fingers pointing forwards and flat on the ground. Most people turn their wrists out to the sides to alleviate this sort of strain or come up on the fingers.
But there are other ways to do a planche with the hands not taking as much stress as these other pictures by Rafael show. You can do it on some sort of parallel bars.
Or completely on the fingertips.
Even in a hand-to-hand balance.
But if you do have the wrist flexibility you can do it on flat ground with the palms flat on the ground and facing forward. In the True Art and Science of Hand Balancing the chapter on planches showcases W.H. Mering doing just that.
And if you’re seeking to build incredible strength like these planches show I have an important announcement later this week. Stay tuned!
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
Why was he up on the fingertips? Is this necessary to do a planche in good form?
Unless you have hyper-flexible wrists you won’t be able to do a planche with the fingers pointing forwards and flat on the ground. Most people turn their wrists out to the sides to alleviate this sort of strain or come up on the fingers.
But there are other ways to do a planche with the hands not taking as much stress as these other pictures by Rafael show. You can do it on some sort of parallel bars.
Or completely on the fingertips.
Even in a hand-to-hand balance.
But if you do have the wrist flexibility you can do it on flat ground with the palms flat on the ground and facing forward. In the True Art and Science of Hand Balancing the chapter on planches showcases W.H. Mering doing just that. Check out the book for more.
If you’re seeking to build incredible strength like these planches show I have an important announcement later this week. Stay tuned!
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
Jul/093
The True Planche
An older hand balancer recently sent me a CD full of pictures of himself and others hand balancing. There are some amazing pictures and I thought I’d start off with one of the best. And there will be many more coming posted up here. Without further adieu meet Rafael Guerrero.
What most people don’t realize is how to do the planche correctly. While any semblance of a planche is a great display of strength and skill, when you can pull it off in this form its that much better. Of course to do it like this being a much smaller size is a plus!
Here’s a small section from The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing talking about the correct form of the skill.
“As exemplified by Paulinetti, the planche on two hand’s finds the body straight, flat and horizontal from throat to toes, and especially from throat to pelvis. Since the chest is thicker than the waist, this means that the shoulders are decidedly humped, corresponding very much to the hips. The position is much as if the performer were lying on a bench with chin and toes extended over either end–there is no arch in the back, and the hips are NOT flexed at all. This is where much of the trouble comes in, just as in doing the straight handstand with the head between the arms. Usually the performer gets the chest fairly well positioned, but instead of leaving the hips straight and then flexing the waist area of the spine slightly, he leaves his arch in the back and jack-knifes the legs forward (pretty much as in Figure 6) in order to get the feet down into line with the trunk. Again, in trying the planche–especially if endeavoring to get the flat chest effect–he neglects to thrust the chin forward and as a result has his face looking right at the floor instead of raised about 45 degrees and looking straight ahead.
“All in all, the correct position is decidedly not a normal one to attain, especially to a balancer accustomed to arching his back, and nine out of ten aspirants never even approach it. They usually wind up in nothing other than a “horizontal handstand” position–back arched, head up, and latissimus muscles hooked against the triceps. Understand, this is much of an accomplishment in its own right…but it is not the true planche.”
If you want to find out much more on the planche the read the full chapter in the book for the full details. But now you know some of the specifics for what it takes to do a true planche.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
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