Planche Progression: A Step-by-Step Guide

Challenging to perform and intimidating to look at, the planche has a well-earned reputation as an advanced move.

Yes, this impressive trick comes with a long list of requirements in strength, endurance, and control, that is certain to turn away many.

Those interested and willing to climb this mountain however, will learn that it has plenty to offer, including and beyond mere bragging rights.

All the side-stops on that path, leading from the basic tuck planche to the full straddle planche, are all amazing ways of improving strength and balance.

The journey may be a difficult one, but by the end you’ll see yourself in a new, better light.

The Many Benefits of Planche Training

Planche training, if done correctly, will lead to an immense increase of upper body strength—and a more subdued improvement when it comes to the rest of your body.
Your shoulders, arms, and especially wrists, will all benefit greatly.
This holds true even for beginner-level exercises, and the effect only becomes more pronounced as you advance.

These effects will also be felt on a large number of other exercises; from the many variants of push and
pull-up, to the more exotic hand balancing exercises like back levers, press to handstand, and the like.

But be careful—injuring yourself is easy, and (especially in terms of planche progress) will set you back significantly.
Be patient and persistent, and you will eventually fight your way to the top of the mountain!

The Tuck Planche: Preparing for the Big Thing

Planche mastery can be broken down into four tiers:

• No experience/Unable to do a tuck planche
• Can perform a tuck planche (also known as the “floating crane” to those who speak yoga)
• Capable of a full straddle planche
• Can pull off exercises derived from the straddle planche (eg.
  Planche pushups)

Thus, in order for us to reach the straddle planche (and beyond), we will need to perfect our tuck planche.
We will achieve this through a series of progressively more difficult steps.

The base position
will serve as foundation for everything else we are about to do.
It consists of the following:

• Elbows facing backward (towards your feet)
• Torso leaning forward with shoulders pulled down
• Arms locked out and pushing toward the ground

Fingers and palms can be pointed anywhere for as long as you can maintain balance.
As for your legs, we will be moving them around as we progress through all the steps!

All of these are ideally performed in five 15-to-20 second sets.
When you are capable of performing five sets of a step with good form, it’s time to move on to the next one.

As always, don’t forget to warm up and stretch beforehand, and always give yourself a minute or two between sets!

Step One:
From the base position, lean your torso forward until your shoulders exceed your wrists.
Keep your legs extended back, feet positioned so they rest on your toes.

Step Two:
Lean forward while widening your legs into a straddle position.
Your toes should stay on the ground.

Step Three:
Perform position one, but instead of keeping your toes on the ground, raise them on an elevated surface like a box, stool, or something similar.

Step Four:
Like position three, with the elevated surface now positioned closer to your upper body (your core or thighs, for instance).
As you lean forward, bend your legs up.

Step Five:
With your feet suspended on an elevated surface, tuck your knees into your arms while pushing against the ground.
This is called a “suspended crane.”

Step Six:
Time for the full
crane pose! Ditch the elevation and hold the position while keeping your knees supported against your arms.

Step Seven:
When you are comfortable with the crane position, you can start experimenting by distancing your knees from your arms. Start with one at a time.

Step Eight:
Now we can start trying to distance both knees at a time, eventually working our way up to the floating crane pose (or a full tuck planche).

The below video gives a good idea of how the tucked planche looks like in real life and in good form:

And there we are!
Stronger and more coordinated than ever, and ready to move on!

The Straddle Planche

The straddle planche on the other hand, can’t be so cleanly segmented into steps.
Here there will be no linear road to travel, but a list of exercises you can do in any order.
Focus on the ones that work best for you, and you will keep improving.

All of these will assume that you start in the tuck planche.

Exercise One:
Move your knees back until they are floating freely.
This is called an open tuck planche, and is great for improving hand balance.

Exercise Two:
Separate your knees as far apart as you can manage, and hold that position.
Alternatively, do this without holding, in repetitions.

Exercise Three:
Push one leg back into a one-legged planche, put it back, then do the same with the other leg.

Exercise Four:
Slowly extend both legs into a straddle planche.
Similar to exercise two, his can be maintained as a static exercise, or done in repetitions.

Do these as you would the ones leading to the full tuck planche: 15-20 second instances of 5 reps.
Don’t quit, listen to your body, and you’ll work your way up to the full straddle planche in no time!

Osvaldo Lugones gives a great overview of this exercise below:

Going Beyond: The Planche Push-up

Still here, huh?
For those who can’t have enough, there is an even more advanced version of what is by itself an advanced move:
The planche push-up!

The name says it all, and it’s a real killer!
Of course, this should only be attempted by those with utmost confidence in their straddle planche, and even then we advise caution.

But if you got that far, why not go farther?
After all, the mountain we are climbing
has no summit.

Final Thoughts

And that’s about it.
Focus on the above mentioned exercises without putting too much expectations on outcome and eventually, you will achieve the full planche.
Keep in mind that this exercise is very advanced and requires a lot of strength, as well as a
balanced diet, plenty of rest, and consistent work so don’t get disheartened if you don’t achieve it fast.