How Gymnasts Learn the Planche SO FAST (Ft. Brandon Wynn)
Summary
TLDRThis video explains the three main methods gymnasts use to quickly learn the planche: body composition, assistance, and training cycles. It discusses the importance of building a muscular yet lean physique through intense training and proper diet. Assistance techniques, such as spotting and resistance bands, help gymnasts progress faster. Finally, structured programming with micro and macro cycles ensures steady improvement. Former USA Olympic gymnast Brandon Nguyen highlights the role of mental training and organization in achieving strength-based goals like the planche.
Takeaways
- 💪 Gymnasts use multiple factors to learn the planche quickly, not just one method.
- 🏋️♂️ Body composition is crucial for gymnasts, emphasizing large muscles with low body fat to stay strong yet light.
- 📏 Bigger muscles help increase strength capacity through neural adaptations and muscle cross-sectional area.
- 🥗 Diet is essential for achieving low body fat while building muscle slowly over time (main gaining).
- 🤝 Assistance, both in exercises and programming, plays a significant role in gymnasts' training for skills like the planche.
- 🧠 Mental training and overcoming perceived difficulty are key aspects of strength training for gymnasts.
- 🎯 Gymnasts use spotting, equipment, and resistance bands to create a balance between harder and easier planche progressions.
- 🔄 Gymnasts utilize training cycles (micro and macro) to structure their routines and progressively overload.
- 🛠 Gymnasts start training very young, which gives them a foundation in mobility, flexibility, and strength, making planche progression faster.
- 🌀 Gymnasts incorporate various training methods like circuit training, superset training, and skill-specific training to build strength efficiently.
Q & A
What are the three main methods gymnasts use to learn the planche quickly?
-The three main methods are body composition, assistance, and training cycles (both micro and macro).
How does body composition help gymnasts achieve the planche?
-Gymnasts maintain large muscles while keeping a low body fat percentage, allowing them to stay light but strong, which is essential for performing bodyweight movements like the planche.
Why don't bigger muscles hinder bodyweight movements for gymnasts?
-While bigger muscles add weight, they increase strength and help gymnasts perform demanding skills. Low body fat ensures that the muscle is functional without adding unnecessary weight.
What role does neural adaptation play in strength training for the planche?
-Strength is a result of neural adaptations combined with muscle size (cross-sectional area). This means as the brain learns to control larger muscles more effectively, strength increases.
Why is diet so important for gymnasts aiming to learn the planche?
-A proper diet ensures that gymnasts maintain a low body fat percentage while building muscle. They need to balance a caloric surplus for muscle growth with periods of caloric deficits to stay lean.
What does 'main gaining' mean, and how does it help with learning the planche?
-'Main gaining' is the process of maintaining a lean physique while slowly building muscle. It helps athletes stay light while progressively increasing strength, making movements like the planche easier.
How do gymnasts use assistance in their training to learn the planche?
-Gymnasts use spotting, resistance bands, and partner work to make exercises more achievable. These assistive tools allow them to train in a way that gradually builds strength and confidence.
What does it mean to 'train above and below' a goal, such as the planche?
-Training above means making some aspects of the movement harder while receiving assistance (e.g., wearing ankle weights). Training below involves using assistance to make the full movement easier (e.g., resistance bands).
Why is programming and organization essential for learning the planche?
-Gymnasts follow structured training cycles, which allow them to progressively overload and track strength gains. These cycles (macro and micro) ensure balanced development and prevent injury.
What is the importance of flexibility and mobility training in gymnastics?
-Flexibility and mobility are trained daily by gymnasts to prevent injuries and enhance performance. Neglecting these areas can slow down progress and make advanced skills like the planche harder to achieve.
Outlines
💪 Key Factors in Gymnast Training for Planche
Gymnasts use multiple factors to quickly learn the planche, including body composition, assistance, and training cycles. These are designed to build functional strength and avoid copying methods from other sports. Body composition is the first factor, where gymnasts develop large, muscular physiques with low body fat, especially focusing on their arms, chest, and back. This balance between strength and low weight helps with performance and injury prevention. The video explores how muscle development is crucial for mastering strength skills like the planche.
🍽️ The Role of Diet in Gymnasts’ Body Composition
Diet plays a key role in achieving the low body fat percentage that gymnasts maintain while building muscle. Brandon Nguyen, a former Olympic gymnast, emphasizes the importance of a caloric surplus to gain functional strength, while keeping lean through techniques like carb cycling. The goal is to achieve 'main gaining,' where gymnasts stay lean while gradually increasing muscle mass. Resistance training complements this approach, focusing on building muscle while cutting excess fat to make bodyweight movements like the planche easier.
🤝 Assistance Techniques in Gymnastics Training
Gymnasts often rely on assistance to accelerate their progress, such as using spotting and resistance bands during exercises. Brandon Nguyen highlights the importance of mental training to push beyond perceived limits. Training 'above and below' your goal helps build confidence and prepare the body for the final skill. Gymnasts also use advanced techniques like weighted planches with support to target specific muscle groups, making bodyweight skills more achievable when performed unassisted.
🌀 Training Cycles: The Structure Behind Gymnastic Success
Gymnasts structure their training around macro and micro cycles to stay on top of their goals. These cycles, which vary from long-term to week-by-week plans, ensure progressive overload and efficient strength gains. Brandon Nguyen shares his training regimen, including circuit training, supersets, and skill-specific exercises, following a four-week cycle to progressively increase strength. This structured approach, paired with prehab, mobility, and flexibility training, helps gymnasts keep their bodies prepared for advanced static skills like the planche.
📅 The Importance of Daily Mobility in Gymnastics
Daily mobility and flexibility training is a crucial part of a gymnast’s routine. Brandon Nguyen stresses that he never skips mobility exercises, which help prevent injury and improve performance. These fundamental practices, paired with the right exercises and organization, allow gymnasts to perform skills like the planche. The video concludes with an emphasis on supplementary exercises and how focusing on mobility can help calisthenics athletes catch up to gymnasts in skill acquisition.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Body Composition
💡Planche
💡Neural Adaptations
💡Hypertrophy
💡Assistance
💡Macro and Micro Cycles
💡Spotting
💡Caloric Surplus
💡Main Gaining
💡Mobility
Highlights
Gymnasts use a combination of body composition, assistance, and micro/macro cycles to learn the planche fast.
Body composition plays a crucial role in achieving strength skills like the planche; gymnasts have large, ripped physiques with low body fat percentages.
Training for muscle growth is intense and forces the body to adapt to high levels of stress, which helps with building strength.
Neural adaptations and muscle cross-sectional area are key components in gaining strength, as explained in the book 'Overcoming Gravity' by Stephen Lowe.
Gymnasts stay light to avoid injury and maintain aesthetic form in gymnastics; balancing muscle mass with low body fat is essential.
Diet plays a critical role in maintaining low body fat percentages while building muscle, with techniques like carb cycling and caloric deficits being important.
Mental training is essential for skill progression. Gymnasts train both above and below their goal to push their physical and mental limits.
Training above the goal means making some aspects of the skill harder, while getting assistance in other areas to make it manageable.
Gymnasts use spotting and partner work to make progress toward achieving difficult strength skills like the planche.
Resistance bands are a valuable tool in calisthenics, acting as an alternative to having a spotter for assisted planche training.
Gymnasts rely on structured programming with macro and micro training cycles to organize their progress effectively.
Gymnasts start training at a young age, which gives them years of foundational work on mobility, flexibility, and injury prevention.
Circuit training is a common method among gymnasts to progressively overload their muscles and build strength over time.
Superset training is another key technique, often alternated with circuit training in cycles to build strength and achieve gymnastics skills.
Brandon Nguyen emphasizes the importance of daily mobility and flexibility work to prevent injury and support progression in skills like the planche.
Transcripts
the method gymnast used to learn the
planche fast is not only one factor it's
multiple put together if it was only one
factor then other sports disciplines
would just copy this method to gain the
incredible amount of relative functional
strength there are three main methods
that gymnasts use to learn the planche
fast the first is body composition the
second is assistant and the third is
micro and macro cycles don't worry i'm
going to explain all of this but let's
talk about the first factor which is
body composition if you've seen any kind
of ring gymnast you'll know exactly what
it is and that's their physique they
have huge ripped physiques mainly in
huge biceps large arms forearms as well
chest and pecs and large backs so really
they look huge even for this size now
you might be wondering how did gymnast
build these incredible physiques that
you might have been trying to build
yourself in the gym well this is a whole
video in itself so i'll explain that in
another video if you guys want but all
you need to know for now is their
training is intense it's perfectly
suited for building muscle and strength
it's so intense that the body is almost
forced to adapt and build muscle so that
the body can withstand the huge amounts
of stress and stimulus that the gymnast
put on it during training now more
importantly how does this help with the
planche won't the bigger muscles just
weigh you down and make it harder to do
bodyweight movements well that isn't
really the case here is the ex-usa
olympic ring gymnast brandon nguyen
talking about gymnast body composition
because you have to stay light you know
for a couple reasons you have to stay
light because your gymnastics looks good
when you're light but at the same time
you have to be light because you're
pounding your body constantly every
single day so when you're not light
you're going to get injured this
explains why gymnasts have such big
muscles while being ripped the muscles
help with the intense routines while
having a low body fat percentage helps
them keep light so all the muscle is
functional so it helps with the routine
of course these routines are full of
strength skills like the planche and
maltese this is explained more in the
book overcoming gravity by stephen lowe
a gymnastics coach he mentions that the
formula for strength is strength equals
neural adaptations times muscle
cross-sectional area we can dive so much
deeper into this equation and i can
explain exactly how you can increase
your strength using this equation but
that's a whole video in itself again so
again comment down below if you want
that video all you really need to
understand from this equation is the
bigger the muscle the greater the
capacity for strength gains once neural
adaptations are made brandon nguyen also
agrees with this concept i think you
need hypertrophy to create strength
right and then it really comes down to
making sure that your training regimen
is structured around your goal we need
them both we need to push our bodies
past that limit every single time so our
bodies can realize and then have the
ability to do something it wasn't able
to do before right that's the whole goal
so i think it's one in the same
so now we know that the huge amount of
muscles that gymnast build from the
gymnastic routines and the low body fat
percentage helps them with their plants
staying light while staying strong but
this leads on to the next question you
might have what can you do to get that
genetics physique that we know helps
with getting the planche the first thing
is going to be diet to get that low body
fat percentage it's going to be mainly
diet and also to build that muscle
you're going to have to focus on your
diet a little bit while having your
training right but here's brandon nguyen
who is largely seen as the nutritionist
and nutrition guy on his olympic team
here's what he had to say about diet
recovery that i'm talking about is the
nutrition aspect of all the training
that we're doing that's something that's
really overlooked for people that don't
train for performance or gaining
functional strength and what that
nutrition needs to be is caloric surplus
or ingesting more calories than we're
burning regularly now if we need to
maintain a lean body that's okay and the
way that we're going to do that is doing
some sort of carb cycling or some sort
of cycling where we're in taking a
smaller amount of calories on a regular
basis and then having a period of two to
three days where it's higher but the
main thing here is you want to be in a
deficit for a bit until you hit that
body fat percentage you want to stay at
then from there you go in a little bit
of a surplus so you start gaining that
muscle slowly over time this is called
main gaining and will help you with
learning that planche the second thing
you want to focus on of course to
complement the diet is going to be the
training you want to focus on your
resistance training so you build that
muscle slowly over time but also firstly
make sure that you're losing that excess
body fat so you get to that low body fat
percentage and get lighter that will
make these body weight movements easier
i have some other videos on nutrition
and what i eat as a vegan and calories
in calories out to build muscle on a
vegan diet if you're interested in that
we have those videos as well that you
can watch after this one the second
factor that gymnasts use to learn the
planche fast is assistance not only
assistance in exercises but also
assistance with their organization and
programming but first let's talk about
the assistants with their exercises
again here's what brandon nguyen had to
say about gaining functional strength
for skills such as the planche so the
number one most overlooked variable in
gaining strength for a specific goal is
the mental training aspect now if your
end goal or your goal skill is something
that you've never done before in your
entire life you need to structure all of
your training above and below that end
goal and when i say above and below i
mean doing exercises that show your body
and show your brain that you can do more
than what that end goal is and then
train with a high volume the majority of
our time spent below in getting stronger
training above your goal is increasing
your mental strength it's almost
convincing yourself that the goal or the
skill that you're trying to achieve is
not as hard as you're actually
perceiving it is and convincing yourself
that it is actually possible because
sometimes we can put these goals on a
pedestal so let's explain further what
does it actually mean to train above and
below your goal so what does this mean
in practice imagine doing the planche
but making some aspect of it harder but
you have some assistance in another way
well with gymnasts maybe they'll do the
planche with ankle weights on but with
someone assisting at their trunk or
their chest so what this means is it's
going to be harder in some ways so the
glutes are going to have to activate
more lower back they're going to have to
lean more but they have some assistance
this makes it obtainable so in some ways
it's a little bit easier but in other
ways you're making it harder so when it
comes to doing the punch with no
assistance on its own but no ankle
weights you're mentally ready for how
hard it's going to be and it makes it a
lot more achievable and of course you
know gymnasts use a lot of spotting and
a lot of partner work for these skills
that a little bit harder than the skill
level they're currently at this is also
what one gymnast coach had to say about
spotting we do everything with spotting
if you want to have someone assist you
correctly either have them assist you at
the feet or if you're a little bit
stronger have them assist you at the
trunk and upper leg now the next
question you might have is how as a
calisthenics athlete can you get this
version of assistance to learn the
planche faster well the first thing is
we can get a spot of course that will
help us with many of these static and
dynamic movements and make them more
achievable we also know gymnasts use a
lot of equipment that act as assistance
so resistance bands this is something
you want to keep using because it
basically acts as a spotter without
having a spotter there and if you do
need resistance bands then go nation has
you covered these are the resistance
bands i recommend you buy the best ones
i have used and they have all the sizes
that you will need throughout your
calisthenics journey now using
resistance bands in this way so you're
working at about 60 to 80 percent of
your max is what's called working under
your goal so this is what brandon wynn
was talking about you want to work above
which is making some aspect of the
planche harder while having assistance
and then work under which is just having
assistance to make the planche or that
full goal easier so that's doing the
full planche with a band gymnast also
use momentum as a form of assistance so
you guys know i love swings this is a
gymnastics exercise that really works on
getting you in that planche position but
you have momentum assisting you so try
this one out as well the last way
gymnasts use to learn the planche fast
is with organization and programming
this is by using training cycles and you
can have macro cycles which are kind of
bigger more long term training plans and
then you can have micro cycles which are
much shorter term week to week training
plans so gymnasts are lucky because they
have coaches so they get assistance from
the coaches with spotting in the correct
way and then they also get assistance
from the coaches in terms of their
training cycle so sometimes when you're
especially when you're a lot younger you
just get to go in and just do whatever
the coach says so your training is
already planned out for you and that's
another point when do gymnasts actually
start their training and with their
coaching from like ages four to six this
is super young so they're able to really
start with the basics start with all
their prehab work their mobility their
flexibility they get a head start on us
calisthenics athlete that only start in
our teens this is why it might seem like
they're learning the planche super fast
but really they've done years and years
of the basics and the foundations and
their prehab so they have that lower
risk of injury and can train a lot
harder and then they also have the body
composition and the diet down which is
helping with their recovery and keeping
life this means when it's time to up the
intensity and learn the static skills
that are more advanced their body's
already prepared but for us calisthenics
athletes it takes a longer time to get
the wrists mobility up you guys know
when you start learning hair stands your
wrists are already aching they've got a
head start on us so how do we catch up
to the gymnast well again here's what
brandon nguyen suggests you do so how i
cycle my workouts is i do circuit
training
and in gymnastics skill specific
training
and then i do a lot of superset training
so what i do is i'll take a cycle and
i'll call a cycle a four week period of
time where you're progressively
overloading along the same guidelines so
a cycle of a circuit training would be
doing a lot of different exercises in a
row so i always start out with let's
just say 10 exercises with no rest so
that would be a circuit so you start
that out for your first of your four
week cycle you progressively overload
through that time increasing
throughout the week so there's a lot of
different ways you can increase you can
increase reps you can increase sets you
can increase intensity
weight
and in this case interval timing in
between the sets wouldn't apply so when
you increase throughout the weeks you're
able to gauge how strong you're getting
and where you're going and then at that
four week time i always take a break and
then i start with my next style of
training which would be superset
training i go through the same process
four weeks take a break then you start
your next style of training which would
be skill specific training so what i'd
add to that is the only way we're going
to be able to catch up to some of the
gymnasts is by training efficiently and
to do this we need to have ourselves
organized just like brandon wynn said so
we need to make sure that we're
including all the things we should be so
that means we're including our mobility
our flexibility our prehab work our
basics all of that that the gymnasts
have been doing for years we need to
catch up on and here's what brandon wins
says about all those little things like
mobility that you might be neglecting
let's see how many times a week do i
train mobility and flexibility every
single day i don't train without doing
mobility now none of these tips matters
if you're not doing the correct
exercises in your training program and
in this video i show you the
supplementary exercises that gymnasts
actually use to learn the planche and i
used it to learn the planche for the
second time and i show you exactly how i
did it
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