Planche Training With Resistance Bands

July 19, 2023 John Donohue

The best planche progressions/exercises

In my opinion, using a resistance band is one of the best way to approach training for the planche. In this piece, I’ll go over the reasons why. As well, I’ll go over several different band-assisted planche variations and progressions, and the things you need to be aware of and keep in mind when training them. Let’s get into it :)

Reasons Why Using Bands is Useful for planche training

1. Measurable Improvements / Different Band Resistances

One easy way to see that you’re improving is by being able to progress from a thick resistance band, to a thinner band. And, in fact, you can even measure how much actual help, in terms of weight, you are getting from a given resistance band.

To do this, you need a scale. What you do is, while standing on a scale, and with the resistance band anchored from the same place you will be training your planche:

pull the resistance band down to the height that it will be at when you are in any given band-assisted planche position.
See what your weight is. (It will be less than your full weight)
Let go of the resistance band
Your full weight - Your weight standing on the scale pulling resistance band = the amount of help you are getting.

For example, I am about 84 kgs. When I use my thick resistance band, I weigh 62kgs.

So: (My full weight, 84kg) - (My weight with resistance band, 62kg) = 22kg of assistance.

It is possible to see precisely how much assistance a band is providing you in terms of weight.

In my case, with the bands I have at home, I get:

6kgs of help from my thin band
11kgs of help from my medium band, and
22kgs of help from my thick band.

If this isn’t making sense, maybe a visual explanation will help :)

You can also pair the bands together. For example, as you improve and use less resistance, your band-assisted help could look like this:

Medium+thin band: 17kg of help
Medium band + thick band: 33kg of help
Thin band + thick band: 28kg of help

In my case, these are the different amounts of assistance my bands provide me with. It is okay to combine the thin and medium band, but I don’t recommend adding a band/more assistance to the thick band, which already helps a lot.

2. Specificity of the planche position.

What I mean by that is, the band-assisted full planche, and the full planche without resistance band, is the exact same position.

If used correctly - ie the band is correctly placed at your center of gravity - your position training with the band, and your position in the planche without the band, will look the exact same.

The form when you are performing a progression with and without a band are the exact same. This is one of the reasons why using a band is so relevant.

I’m not saying to immediately jump into band-assisted full planche. Rather, I am only saying that using bands is helpful to create intermediate steps between progressions. Using bands will help us gain more awareness and strength for the next step in the progression ladder.

band assisted half lay planche

For example, in going from a Tuck Planche to an Advanced Tuck Planche, or from a Straddle Planche to a Full Planche, an intermediate step would be to use a band-assisted version of the progression that you are moving up to.

I.e. instead of Tuck Planche → Advanced Tuck Planche, your progression would look like this:

Tuck Planche → Band-assisted Advanced Tuck Planche → Advanced Tuck Planche

3. The last reason using bands is super helpful in planche training is injury prevention.

Training with resistance bands allows us to practice the exact position as when we would be performing a move without any assistance at all, except in a de-loaded manner. So, we get to practice the correct position with the exact same angles in our wrists and shoulders using the exact range of motion in the relevant muscles, without putting as much stress on our joints as we would be putting on them when unassisted. This allows our body more adapt to new positions and progressions and reduces our risk of injury.

Training the exact positions, albeit in a de-loaded manner, will help your body adjust as you progress in your planche training.

I’ve got an entire program dedicated to learning the planche in my app, definitely go check it out if you’re really serious about training for and achieving the planche.

Setting up your resistance band correct for planche training

When setting up resistance bands, we want to be sure that it is helping us from the opposite direction of gravity, ie directly up, and also from our center of gravity. Usually this works out to being right around our lower abdomen - below the belly button and just above the hips.

Here is another visual description on setting up your bands.

How to planche with resistance bands:

Wrap the band around your hips
Place your hands down directly under the attachment of your band

Make sure:

1. the band is aligned with the direction of gravity,

2.that it is attached to your center of gravity, i.e. between your naval and your lower hips, and

3. that you place your hands directly below the position of the band attachment.

Using this set-up, you can use the resistance band for all variations of planche progressions. And if you want to learn more planche progressions, head to this video or corresponding blog post of the best planche progressions.

That’s all I’ve got for now! Hit me up with any questions, comments or criticisms you have regarding planche training with resistance bands. Take care movers!

You can find fully structured and easy-to-follow planche specific programs at my app, here.
You can find a youtube video with many planche progressions for you to work on here.

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