Tuck Planche Help

[a.ramz]

Hey everyone and coach, first off wanted to say what a help this site has been to me. At first I thought lifting weights was the only way to get strong, but after reading Coach Sommer's articles I was dead wrong. I am currently working on the planche progressions and I am finding the tuck planche extremely difficult (the frog stand was not a problem). When I get into the position I find that my knees go ahead of my elbows and found out that it was not supposed to. I can hold this position for about 8 seconds (back parallel to the ground). Is there any way to fix this problem?

Thanks guys.

P.S. Im 17, 5'6" and 110 lbs. If u need more detail just leave a comment.

[JoeS]

Your knees getting ahead of your elbows means your body is swinging like a pendulum instead of remaining stationary with your hips level with your shoulders. To correct the problem, lean forward and push your hands into the ground at a 45 degree angle, not straight down.

[a.ramz]

Thanks JoeS!

That did the trick, you were right about my body swinging like a pendulum, I was pushing my hands straight down into the ground, not at 45 degrees. Once again, thanks!

[George Launchbury]

Don't know if it helps, but it has been discussed here in the past that a best effort in a variation should be at least 10 seconds, allowing you to train in 5 second sets. Failing that, it was advised to stick with a slightly easier variation for a little longer. Training in sets too near your max will lower the amount of volume in training, and too short sets will not give so much training effect. If I recall correctly, training in sets of around 50%max was considered pretty optimal (still working to 60 seconds total volume per position).

With that in mind, have you been doing the frog-stand with straight arms? Bent arms is the usual starting point, and straight arms is a slightly harder variation, and will help with getting that shoulder angle. This might give you a stepping stone between the two variations. Be sure to check your hips are level with your shoulders in the frog-stand as well, as it makes it a lot easier if they are high.

Regards,

George.

[Alex]

Nice, I'm coming up to the second part of this progression as well.

[a.ramz]

Thanks George, that was really a really helpful post. With the correction in my tuck planche form I was able to pull of a 14 sec max hold, so no worries there. However my little brother has a 6 sec hold, so I will tell him to do the "adv. frog" stand for a while. Thanks!

Good luck Alex, I have a feeling this variation is going to take me years to get.

[vafarmboy]

I was going to post this exact same question! I'm planning on starting the tuck this week, but won't be able to until tomorrow as I'm traveling. However, I tried demonstrating for my son and could barely hold it at all! (Granted, it was very late and I was quite tired...) Anyway, I'll try the hint tomorrow morning and see how things go.

Thanks!

[Mark Weaver]

I don't understand how my knees aren't supposed to go past my elbows. The article says to keep your knees tight to your chest. That puts my knees almost even with my shoulders when my hips are level with my shoulders, and that puts my knees about 4-5" past my elbows. Does your height make any difference? I'm 6'1"

[George Launchbury]

Hi Mark,

I don't have much experience with technical details of the holds, but logic dictates that where your knees are in relation to your elbows relies heavily on the amount of flexion in the spine, and how tight your knees are to your chest.

The key here is to keep the hips and shoulders at the same height. To be sure, have someone spot you, and/or take some photos/video so you can see for yourself. If your hips are at the correct height, and your elbows are straight, don't worry about the elbows/knees thing, since the tuck is merely to make things easier while you get stronger.

For most people JoeS's advice is right on the money - since most tuck-planchees have neither the strength or mobility to keep their knees that tight to the chest, it's a good marker that the hips are probably too low. Especially as it's so hard to accurately guess the height of your hips unaided at this early stage in training.

In the article the statement... "Holding the knees tightly to the chest will make this exercise easier" ...probably explains why a lot of adults find the step up from frog to tuck so hard, because they lack the strength and flexibility to really tuck in, and are forced to do something nearer to the (harder) adv.tuck position.

Don't know if that helps,

George.

[Mark Weaver]

Thanks for your comment. After trying it last night I think I came to the same conclusion. The point is to keep your hips and shoulders level. I had my wife make sure my hips and shoulders were level, and didn't worry as much about where my knees were in relation to my elbows.

Thanks again.

[George Launchbury]

You're welcome.