Planche

The full planche (or straight arm support scale or top planche) is an isometric calisthenics element. It can be executed on various surfaces such as parallettes, floor or rings, and opens up lots of different elements, which make it one of the most popular and wanted elements in calisthenics.

## Description and execution

When doing a planche, you hold your body in a horizontal position above the support surface, with straight arms. Different forms exist, are more or less hard and have more or less carry over to other skills. It is generally performed with depressed and protracted (abducted) scapulae, external rotation in the arms, and a posterior pelvic tilt.

## History

The planche originally comes from gymnastics. The oldest picture found was from Italian gymnast Alberto Braglia in 1908. The oldest footage found was from 1938. The gymnast's arms were locked out but he had a bend in the lower back. A planch with the same form was executed on rings in the 1960 Rome Olympics.

In the 1980s with the rise of breakancing, you see other iterations of planche.

In the 90s, the planche standards in gymnastics have risen: the banana form is not accepted anymore. Harder variations of the skill like the maltese start to appear.

## Technique and cues

A multitude of different cues exist for the planche.

To keep the protraction, you can think about making your back wide or tucking your chest in.

To keep a good overall form, your gaze should be at a roughly 45° angle with the floor.

To keep a good line, you can think of an invisible string puling your feet up.

To keep a good core activation, thinking about squeezing your buttocks work well, for example thinking there's a dollar between them (thanks Barkage)

Using muscle irradiation also works well to generate more force: grip the bars as tight as you can.

## Prerequisites

Many beginners start their planche journey without having the proper conditioning for the skill. That's partly why injuries are so frequent on it.

Before training for the planche, it's preferrable to be able to complete at least 30 reps of push ups, 20 reps of dips and 15 reps of pull ups.

Before attempting the planche, you should be comfortable holding a 8 seconds advanced tuck planche.

## Carry-over

As mentionned before, planche opens up a world of possibilities in bodyweight skills.

It has direct carry-over to maltese, especially in performed in a supinated position, and is considered a must-have prerequisite for it.

It's an obvious prerequisite of planche push ups and presses, which are very popular skills in static combos.

It has some carry-over to hefesto in terms of tendon strength.

## Difficulty

The difficulty of the planche hold varies a lot depending on the surface, width and variations used. It can vary from being an intermediate to an advanced skill.

In the FIG code of points, a full planche on the floor is rated B and it's rated C on rings.

In the Burningate code of points, it is worth 2,2 if done on p-bars, 2,8 on floor, 2,6 on straight bar and 3,1 in rings.

## Noticeable planche athletes

Patryk Ziolkowski

Valentin Blanc

Chen Yongtong

Xiao Gang Pao

Lee-van Rollé

Viktor Kamenov

Slava Kripak