V-sit, planche progression- is my form good ?

shek

New member
Hello,

I’ve made some progress with my v sit and planche training until a big plateau left me unmotivated(especially in planche).

I am currently having a deload which hopefully will help me break my stagnation.

Anyway, I’m wondering if my form is good in both v sit and planche. My v sit has improved a lot, but the problem is that I don’t feel like I protract when I perform the exercise.

If you notice anny issues, can you tell me how I should improve them?
Link is down below

 
@shek You're farther along in both of these skills than I am, so I don't have any useful form advice for you (except try to straighten your legs more on v-sit and get your back more horizontal on planche, which I'm sure you're already trying to do), but I just wanted to say good job and keep pushing towards your goals! Both skills already look super impressive at their current level; keep it up!
 
@i4e So what do you think his weakness is? Is it his shoulders? He seems to have arm strength and core strength, don't you think? I wonder if an expert can identify the exact muscles he needs to work on.
 
@pray_daily Again, this is coming from someone who has a much much uglier v-sit, and who can only tuck planche. But I'll try to be useful:

V-sit

For V-sit, you can kind of approach it in multiple ways. Probably the best is too continue improving hamstring flexibility, so that he can bring his legs closer to vertical without having to bend at the knees. An alternative -- to an extent -- is to strengthen the abs so that you can pull your legs closer to your chest. Think of your hamstrings as a spring, where the more acute your hip angle, the stronger the restoring force becomes. Increasing flexibility is like reducing the spring coefficient, whereas increasing core strength is like having a larger external force that can displace the spring farther from equilibrium. Humans aren't actually ideal spring systems though, so this only works within a small range before you have to worry about injury risk.

The other way he can get his legs more vertical is to simply lean his torso further back. For this, you don't have to bend any more sharply at the hips, but the catch is that it takes a non-negligible amount of rear delt/mid back strength to hold that position and not fall on your ass. You can think of this approach as a kind of progression towards a reverse planche, which is obviously very difficult.
The correct route forward is probably some combination of all 3 of these approaches, and OP just needs experiment to identify which of these areas has the most room for improvement

Planche

The arms look fully locked out, which is good to see. Obviously make sure you're not progressing faster than your tendons can adapt. If I had to guess, i would say that the shoulders and biceps are probably the limiting factors, just because that's almost always the case. To confirm this, OP should try doing a reverse hyperextension with his trunk (lay your torso down on e.g. a table, gripping it tightly, and try to lift your legs behind you so that your thighs and shins are horizontal), just to make sure his lower back isn't the weak link.

I'll emphasize once again that I'm not an authority on the subject, but I think OP could probably benefit from focusing on hypertrophy work for his arms and shoulders for a few months (?). That could mean going back to full tuck planche for longer holds, but it could also mean doing bicep curls and frontal dumbbell raises (arms locked out of course. Bonus points for palms facing forward, but progress safely with it), if op has access to equipment. I think if OP packs on more muscle mass first, then later on he should have an easier time training it to be strong in the planche position specifically.

Hopefully at least some of that was helpful!
 
@i4e You’re comment is very helpful, how am I supposed to do reverse hyperextensions if I don’t have the equipment required ?
 
@shek Fair question. Maybe you can find a bench at a local park? Just try holding your legs horizontally. Full ROM isn't very important atm since we're just trying to diagnose weak points first.

Alternatively: How is your back lever? Back lever should be easier than planche, but the load on your lower back should be very comparable. If you can hold a back lever, then you know your trunk isn't the weakest link in your planche. If you can't hold a back lever, then just disregard this point and look for a bench.
 
@shek A strong back lever is pretty important for planche. I'd say like 20s supinated back lever and pretty comfortable supinated back lever pull outs. A full back lever pull to inverted from german hang without sagging the back or leading the pull with your feet is probably the best prerequisite for planche.

Back lever uses all the same muscles as planche. Training one is almost like training the other.
 
@shek There should be a lot of carryover between the two moves. My (unqualified) advice is the same: Focus first on putting on some more bicep and shoulder muscle, and then in a couple of months go harder on specificity training - on whichever skill tbh. If you want a major milestone faster, then probably focus on back lever first. But on the other hand, once you nail straddle/full planche, back lever will probably be a piece of cake.

But the most important advice is what I said at first: just keep pushing for it! Good luck!
 
@pray_daily I can hold a good form straddle planche and I used to be able to hold a 90 degree v-sit.

My planche:
V-Sit: Unfortunately, I don't have a picture ):

For the v-sit, it's his lack of hamstring/pike flexibility and his lack of pike compression that's preventing him from getting a higher v-sit. He should also depress his shoulders down too. Additionally, he should not have his scaps protracted in the v-sit - they should be at either a neutral position or in a retracted position. Just like another commenter said as well, if he wants to start working toward a manna or a v-sit higher than 90 degrees, he will addtionally need to start working on his shoulder extension strength which involves his rear delts, rhomboids, triceps, and traps a lot (he can improve this through lots of barbell shoulder extensions and victorian dumbbell flys).

Planche: The limiting factor is simply his upper body strength as related to the planche. His core, I'm assuming is already strong enough to at least hold a straddle planche postion; however, more than likely, many of his connective tissues and muscle in the planche such as the anterior delt, pecss, biceps, and upper abs are not yet strong enough to handle the strain of a straddle planche. If he did a lot of banded planche presses (AKA handstand-to-planche/planche-to-handstand), he would strengthen all these muscles while building up his nervous system for the planche as well. Additionally, he can do Zanetti Dumbbell Flys to strengthen all of these related muscles.

/@shek
 
@shek You can use a wooden stick or a PVC pipe and put some weights or ankle weights on that. Trust me, even 20lbs is gonna feel crazy for this exercise 😉
 
@pray_daily Well, I still have to improve my arms strength a lot, I think my core is pretty stable lol. Still waiting for an expert to clarify my weaknesses.
 
@pray_daily In the video about the reverse hyperextension, he mentions that usually a problem for planche is a weak lower back. Absolutely not an expert, and absolutely not able to do what OP does!
 
@shek For the V-sit, point your toes and straighten your knees. Your lower legs seem too relaxed. Look at gymnasts, they never have relaxed feet, always pointed. For the planche, no comment.
 
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