If you are tall or heavy don't lose hope - full planche at 202cm 102kg/6'7 225lbs and other feats by heavyweight calisthenics athletes

[mrsc49017]

@thomaslowrens I don't get how these guys are so tall and so light but also so muscular. I am 6'2 235 lb, and am way more lean these dude. What the hell is going on.

 

[lmay4111]

@mrsc49017 I'm a bit late to reply but shoulder width makes one hell of a difference in weight. If your overall frame is just wider you are naturally going to be much heavier than someone with a smaller frame even tho he might be more muscular

 

[mrsc49017]

@lmay4111 Something to think about, thanks

 

[thomaslowrens]

@mrsc49017 Maybe you have thicker bones and more mass in the legs?

 

[mrsc49017]

@thomaslowrens Well my focus was cage fighting for years, but i wouldn't think BWF would be much different in physique tbh.

 

[dawn16]

@thomaslowrens 197cm here, don’t take away my excuses!

Nah but seriously, I think focusing on other stuff is better for us tall guys. Sure, conquer your weaknesses, but still play to your strengths as well.

 

[thomaslowrens]

@dawn16 If your weaknesses are your passion then it's worth working hard on them anyways, otherwise it depends if they help with your strong points.

 

[sister_diane]

@thomaslowrens Awesome post. As a 2.03m/100kg guy I greatly appreciate this post.

 

[thomaslowrens]

@sister_diane Thank you, the post served its purpose then.

 

[sister_diane]

@thomaslowrens Yes, I was actually convinced that for me the full planche would probably be unattainable, maybe even impossible, as I’d never seen anyone of my height do one. So it’s lovely to see a real 2 metre guy who is also heavy do a full planche. I will still probably never achieve it, because I have tonnes of goals in life and won’t be fully committed to the planche, but it’s good to see that a good tuck planche is probably very realistic for me.

 

[thomaslowrens]

@sister_diane At worst you can probably still get a straddle planche, if you get good flexibility in the splits it would be near the difficulty of an L planche or advanced tuck.

 

[hazeldenise1952]

@thomaslowrens Does height affect the front lever? I honestly don't understand why.

I know the moment arm is bigger and the torque is
bigger but the pulling strength should be on par. Front lever correlates with weighted pullups pretty well considering the load on the lats can be similar if supporting muscles don't prohibit it. I've never seen bigger guys have problem with weighted pullups. I see big guys pulling insane weights every day

They also have bigger heads(your head acts like a counter balance)

They apperently have a harder time filing their frames so the weight of the leg isn't always a gigantic difference. I should look at some data comparing leg weights of men at different weights but I don't know how

Longer arms shouldn't make the movement harder. When the arms are longer the moment arm is bigger but the angle is steeper. The hold is at a different parts because of this but I can't know how strong we are at different ranges of motion of the movement so didn't take that into calculation. However when I try the lever in false grip it's easier. I don't know if it's because my arms are shorter with false grip or because I pull more with my forearms.

Ab strength isn't a hold back for almost anyone so I am not even considering that.

Note: I am 5'11 so don't really know how being tall works with calisthenics first hand nor I am calisthenics expert or even an intermediate practitioner. Please correct me if you know about the subject. This has been bothering me for days and I am glad I saw this post.

 

[thomaslowrens]

@hazeldenise1952 Weight grows with the cube of height, while muscle cross section area (which is proportional to strength) grows with the square of height.

The square-cube law is why ants can lift more than 20 times their own weight while elephants can barely jump (or not at all, not sure about it).

So the weight of the head doesn't grow enough to be a significant counterbalance, and it's true that longer arms can help because of the reduced lean putting the muscles in an angle where their length produces better force, but being tall (or having proportionally more leg muscle size) can shift the center mass closer to the legs causing the required lean to increase.

 

[dawn16]

@thomaslowrens TIL I must be ultra-heavyweight with 1.98m and like 107 kg

 

[ofavro]

@dawn16 Nah - I‘m nearly the same - at least after the holidays ...

Just keep up working on it.

 

[thomaslowrens]

@dawn16 In the context of calisthenics you are, but if it's your passion that won't stop you from getting stronger and maybe achieving some difficult moves.

Are you already lean or is it something you can work on to improve strength to weight ratio?

 

[dawn16]

@thomaslowrens I actually stopped doing calisthenics a while ago because I just couldn't do pull-ups, got frustrated, and also moved away, so the outdoor calisthenics gym I used to go to was no longer available. Unfortunately none of the playgrounds near where I live are suitable for calisthenics. I got myself a set of rings but I'm just too weak to do a parallel "bar" hold on them, like no chance at all, kinda weird how that works (I had already progressed to negative dips on bars). For now I'm thinking of just buying myself a pair of dip bars to set up and doing rows with the rings, I can make the playground right in front of my house work that way. However I'm currently doing running and hoping to shed some pounds that way, which I suppose will help me get back into calisthenics and make it less frustrating

I would currently consider myself kinda skinnyfat but with naturally powerful legs (my leg progression was always waaay ahead of everything else), so I decided to make that work in my favor by taking up running. Where I live it's very hard to not do hill running too so it's a good workout!

 

[thomaslowrens]

@dawn16 You can keep the feet on the ground for ring support holds and later dips, and foot assistance can be helpful for learning pull ups too. Plus the ability to easily change the incline for rows and push ups means you can progress quite gradually, I trust your ability to improve.

The best way to lose fat is a caloric deficit, but some cardio is good for the heart anyways.

 

[dawn16]

@thomaslowrens For sure, I'm also trying to keep track of my diet. However I discovered I just really like running now for some reason, even though I've hated it for pretty much forever and originally just took it up to stay physically active (and to help lose weight).

Thanks for the advice wrt. rings, that does sound better than shelling out more money. I was thinking about that too but the following portion of the RR gave me pause:

• If you have rings, this will be MUCH harder, but if you build up to a solid RTO support hold first, you might be able to safely work negative ring dips. However, it's highly recommended you find a way to do parallel bar dips before moving to ring dips for increased safety.

Do you have an opinion on that? I guess the plan of action would be to work up to 3x1 min. hold with no foot assistance, and then get into negative dips with foot assistance?

 

[thomaslowrens]

@dawn16 The foot supported version is underrated, it's a simple way to scale down the intensity to a safe level, you can give yourself as much assistance as you need.

You could try assisted support holds -> assisted dips -> unassisted dips, and once assisted support holds are easy you could use the unassisted holds as warm up or skill work and work on turning out the rings.