Valentin 'OTZ' Blanc's Planche Training Style Explained

Summary

The video explains how athlete Valentine Blanc trains to achieve incredible planche strength. He focuses on three key areas: training style, programming, and diet. The core training involves combinations, linking static and dynamic movements, which challenges his body to adapt. Blanc trains in cycles, shifting between high volume with low intensity and high intensity with cleaner form. He emphasizes the 'SAID principle,' which states that the body adapts to specific challenges. The video also covers his mindset, unique diet (eating once a day), and prehab routines to maintain mobility and avoid injuries, offering insights into how to train for optimal bodyweight strength.

Takeaways

• 💪 Valentine Blanc focuses on three main areas for his strength training: training style, programming, and diet.
• 🤸‍♂️ Valentine’s training archetype centers on combinations of static and dynamic calisthenic skills.
• 📚 The SAID principle is key to Valentine’s approach – the body adapts to whatever it is challenged with, leading to progress in strength and endurance.
• 🏋️‍♂️ Instead of training in isolated sets with rests, Valentine uses long, continuous combination sets to build strength and endurance simultaneously.
• 🔄 Valentine cycles between high-volume, low-intensity training phases and low-volume, high-intensity phases to balance muscle growth and strength gains.
• 📏 Valentine equates form to intensity, with good form being harder to maintain at higher intensities.
• 🔗 The training progression involves long sets with reduced form, followed by shorter sets with higher form and intensity, cycling between these phases.
• 🤕 Valentine values mobility and injury prevention, incorporating prehab and conditioning to avoid injuries.
• 🥗 Valentine trains while staying lean and focuses heavily on his diet, eating just once a day to maintain his body weight for optimal strength-to-weight ratio.
• 🧘‍♂️ Valentine’s training is highly focused on pushing movements like planche, but he maintains balance by including some pulling exercises for overall strength symmetry.

Q & A

What are the three main focuses of Valentine Blanc's training?

Valentine Blanc focuses on his training style archetype, his training programming, and his diet (including prehab and conditioning) to achieve his plant strength.

What is Valentine's training archetype?

Valentine's training archetype is 'combinations,' where he focuses on linking static and dynamic exercises into continuous sets.

What principle does Valentine use to guide his training approach?

Valentine follows the 'SAID principle,' which states that the body adapts to the specific demands placed on it. In his case, training specifically for combinations improves his performance in combinations.

How does Valentine manage volume and intensity in his training?

Valentine trains in cycles, alternating between high volume with lower intensity (to build endurance and muscle) and low volume with higher intensity (to improve strength and form).

How does Valentine define intensity in his training?

Valentine defines intensity in terms of form, where 'form equals lever plus control equals intensity.' Higher intensity is achieved with more difficult leverages and greater control over movements.

How does Valentine adjust his training to handle high volume without compromising form?

Valentine reduces the intensity, which in his case means sacrificing perfect form slightly, in order to perform longer sets. Over time, he cycles back to shorter sets with improved form.

Why does Valentine focus primarily on pushing movements?

Valentine mainly trains push movements, like the planche and presses, to perfect these skills, although he balances this with some pulling exercises to maintain overall strength and balance.

What does Valentine do to avoid injuries during his intense training?

Valentine prioritizes an hour of stretching and prehab (preventative rehab) work every day to ensure mobility and avoid injury, a lesson learned after sustaining injuries from overtraining.

What is the role of diet in Valentine’s training regime?

Valentine follows a strict diet, eating only once a day, to maintain his lean physique and bodyweight, which is crucial for bodyweight athletes like him to perform optimally in calisthenics.

How does Valentine differ from traditional gymnasts in his training approach?

Unlike gymnasts who focus on static skill transitions, Valentine incorporates a mixture of dynamic and static movements in his combinations, using both isometric and eccentric contractions, which sets him apart from the more structured training approach of gymnasts.

Outlines

00:00

🏋️‍♂️ The Key to Valentine Blanc’s Unbelievable Plant Strength

The video opens with a focus on Valentine Blanc's impressive plant strength, outlining three key aspects of his training approach. These include his training style, programming, and diet. The main content will dive into the first two aspects, while the final part will discuss his diet and conditioning. Valentine Blanc's unique approach involves focusing on specific archetypes of calisthenics training, particularly combinations, which set him apart from others in the field.

05:01

🔄 Training for Combinations: Valentine’s Unique Approach

Valentine Blanc specializes in training for combinations, linking one exercise to another. His training reflects the 'SAID principle,' which highlights that the body adapts to the specific challenges it faces. Blanc trains for combinations rather than static exercises and preps for competitions by performing sets of these combinations. This training philosophy emphasizes linking static and dynamic movements, which results in better overall strength and endurance. Blanc believes that true strength comes from the ability to seamlessly move from one exercise to another.

10:03

📊 Programming for Strength: Volume and Intensity Cycles

Valentine Blanc's training programming revolves around managing volume, intensity, and form. He cycles between high-volume, lower-intensity phases and lower-volume, high-intensity phases. A unique aspect of his method is using form as an indicator of intensity, where 'form equals intensity.' His approach involves alternating between long sets with less perfect form to build endurance, and shorter sets with cleaner form to enhance strength. This cyclical approach gradually leads to extended, clean combinations over time.

⚖️ Balancing Push and Pull Movements

Although Valentine primarily focuses on pushing movements like planches and presses, he balances his training with some pulling movements to maintain overall strength. He emphasizes the importance of mobility and prehab conditioning to avoid injuries, based on lessons learned from overtraining early in his career. Today, he incorporates stretching and mobility exercises into his routine, much like gymnasts, though his training differs from theirs by focusing more on dynamic combinations than static movements.

🥗 The Role of Diet and Supplementation in Performance

Valentine Blanc emphasizes diet as a crucial factor for bodyweight athletes, particularly in maintaining strength relative to body weight. Blanc only eats once a day to stay lean, which helps him optimize his strength-to-weight ratio. The video also promotes ethical supplement brands, encouraging athletes to consider products that support both health and the environment. The focus is on staying as lean and light as possible, which is essential for bodyweight exercises.

Keywords

💡Training Archetype

The 'training archetype' refers to the distinct approach to training that shapes how an athlete structures their exercises and focuses on specific skills. In the video, Valentine Blanc's archetype is 'combinations,' which involves linking static and dynamic movements in sets. This is key to developing both strength and endurance, as Blanc practices transitioning between different types of skills within a single set.

💡Combinations

'Combinations' describe a training method where different movements—static and dynamic—are connected together into continuous sequences. Valentine Blanc focuses heavily on combinations to enhance his strength and endurance, training his body to transition smoothly from one skill to another. This approach helps develop a unique form of strength that differs from traditional sets and reps training.

💡S.A.I.D. Principle

The Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands (S.A.I.D.) principle means that the body adapts specifically to the challenges it is exposed to. In the video, Valentine Blanc uses this principle by training specifically for combinations. His body adapts by improving its ability to handle the unique demands of transitioning between different movements during training.

💡Volume and Intensity

'Volume and intensity' refer to how much work is done in a training session (volume) and how hard that work is (intensity). Valentine manages these by alternating high-volume, low-intensity training phases with low-volume, high-intensity phases. The balance between volume and intensity allows him to build strength over time, adapting to the demands of each phase.

💡Form

'Form' refers to the technique or posture with which an exercise is performed. For Valentine Blanc, form is also a way to measure intensity. The cleaner the form, the higher the intensity, especially in difficult skills like the planche. In his training, Blanc alternates between longer sets with slightly compromised form and shorter sets with perfect form to balance volume and intensity.

💡Lever and Control

'Lever' and 'control' are crucial factors in determining the intensity of an exercise. 'Lever' refers to the body's positioning, where shorter levers (like in a tuck planche) reduce intensity, and longer levers (like in a full planche) increase it. 'Control' refers to the neural ability to activate the correct muscles during the exercise. Valentine Blanc combines lever and control to manage intensity and form during his combinations.

💡Prehab

'Prehab' is short for 'preventative rehabilitation,' a type of training designed to prevent injuries. Valentine Blanc takes prehab seriously by incorporating an hour of stretching and mobility work daily before training. This proactive approach is important to avoid the overuse injuries that commonly occur with high-intensity training, especially when training multiple times a day as he once did.

💡Strength and Endurance

Strength and endurance are the two key physical qualities that Valentine Blanc combines in his training. Strength refers to the ability to exert force, while endurance is the ability to sustain that exertion over time. Blanc’s training emphasizes linking the two, as seen in his combinations, where he trains to perform challenging exercises repeatedly without fatigue.

💡Hypertrophy Phase

The 'hypertrophy phase' is a period of training focused on increasing muscle size through high-volume, low-intensity exercises. Valentine Blanc uses this phase to build the muscle base needed for his advanced strength skills. After the hypertrophy phase, he transitions to a strength phase with lower volume and higher intensity to refine his form and strength.

💡Bodyweight Training

'Bodyweight training' involves exercises that use the individual's own weight as resistance, such as push-ups, pull-ups, or planche variations. This form of training is central to Valentine Blanc's method, as he focuses on mastering complex bodyweight movements like the planche. Bodyweight athletes need to manage their weight and mobility closely to maintain peak performance.

Highlights

Valentine Blanc trains for unbelievable planche strength by focusing on three key areas: training style, training programming, and diet.

Valentine Blanc’s training archetype focuses on combinations, linking static and dynamic movements seamlessly.

The key to his success is specific training using the 'SAID principle'—your body adapts to the specific challenges you present it with, such as strength or endurance.

Valentine trains specifically for combinations, building strength and endurance by moving from static skills to dynamic movements without rest.

His training differs from static sets followed by rest periods. Instead, he performs continuous combination sets, mimicking the intensity of a competition.

Valentine emphasizes training cycles: first focusing on high volume with low intensity (hypertrophy), and then low volume with high intensity (strength training).

Valentine’s concept of intensity is linked to form. He uses the equation 'Form = Lever + Control = Intensity' to explain that good form increases intensity.

He alternates between long, high-volume sets with lower form and short, low-volume sets with perfect form, gradually improving both over time.

Valentine focuses mainly on push movements, which allows him to perfect advanced pushing exercises like the planche, while balancing this with some pull movements for overall strength.

Mobility and injury prevention are key for Valentine. After training three times a day and facing injuries, he now incorporates an hour of stretching daily to avoid future problems.

Although there are similarities with gymnast training, Valentine’s approach is more dynamic, combining both static and dynamic elements in his routines.

Valentine’s diet is critical to his performance. He eats only once per day, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a lean body for bodyweight athletes.

Valentine stresses that bodyweight athletes should closely monitor their diet to maintain an optimal weight-to-strength ratio.

Valentine uses form as a measure of intensity and consistently cycles between focusing on volume and form to progressively improve his combinations over time.

Valentine’s training program incorporates prehab and conditioning to prevent injuries and maintain a balanced physique.

Transcripts

welcome back jack athlete straight into

it i'm going to explain how valentine

blanc trains for unbelievable plant

strength there are three main things

valentine focuses on to get his god

level plant strength and both you and i

probably don't do them the first two are

the main things he focuses on and will

be the main content in this video and

those two things are his training style

archetype and his training programming

the third and final part of this video

will be the third thing that he focuses

on which will be his diet his pre-ab and

conditioning and how he trains

differently to gymnast valentine also

sent me an equation to help me

understand his training style which i'll

explain also so if you do want to find

out exactly what exercises exactly what

the programming is you know how many

times a day etc you will have to buy

their program which you will be able to

find on their social media platforms so

you guys have probably noticed there's

different archetypes of calisthenics

training you have freestyle you have

sets and reps you have statics you have

weighted calisthenics all of these are

very different in how you train for them

but from looking at these clips of

valentine what would you say his

archetype is for me i would say it's

combinations and when you think about it

what he did to get really good at this

archetype is pretty simple he trained

specifically for combinations and i'll

explain exactly what that looks like but

this is also exactly what he preaches in

his programs his combinations if you

watch my last video on calisthenics

strength principles and if you haven't

you really should if you're training for

calisthenics but in this video i explain

what the said principle is and and now

i'm going to explain how valentine uses

his principle to his advantage

if you don't remember what the said

principle is or haven't watched the last

video yet then here's a quick reminder

so what this principle means explain

very simply is whatever you challenge

your body with your body will get better

at so if you challenge your body with

running your body will adapt and get

better at running if you challenge your

body with swimming your body will get

better at swimming if you challenge your

body with strength training then your

body will get better at strength

training by gaining more strength and

this is what valentine has baked into

his training from very early strength

and endurance which equals combinations

this is how he trains he trains

specifically for combinations so his

body gets better at combinations it's

very quite simple when you think about

it so instead of training like you and i

who are probably doing static sets then

resting then doing another static set

then resting then after that going to

dynamics then resting instead valentine

is training like he's prepping for a

competition constantly he's doing sets

and sets of combinations

so this could be one static skill into a

dynamic school into another static into

a dynamic school and then he keeps going

and these are combination sets then he

rests so that whole combination was one

set then he repeats this is one of the

things that makes the difference and

just like the said principle states if

you challenge your body with

combinations your body will get better

and adapt to combinations but let me be

very clear this doesn't mean he's always

training very hard and very long

combinations i'll explain this more in

the next section of the video when i

talk about his programming but this is

where i quickly want to explain a bit

about his mindset and why he trains this

way because this will really predict

whether you should train this way as

well so this is him in an interview

explaining why he trains with such

combinations and why he loves the plan

blanche is uh is not just skill you know

is like all complete category you know

and if you want to perform perfectly uh

every element with every variation

in all different

possible senses uh then um no for me you

know planche and balance is a sport and

uh the rest is the rest you know so as

you can see he sees strength as being

able to do one thing into another into

another into another into another so

linking strength and endurance that's

pure strength to him in these bodyweight

movements so guys if this is your goal

as well you want to be able to do

combinations you might as well start at

your level once you've done the

foundational level of strength which he

also recommends in his program there's a

foundational level of strength you have

to be at before you start learning the

planche then when you get to the planche

you can start working on combinations

which is just linking an exercise to

another exercise you don't have to be

expert level to do this so that's one

way but if also you want to perfect your

static skills this is kind of more what

i want to do i want to do combinations

as well but i want to perfect my static

skills so instead i work on perfecting

my static skills individually and then

once i have them down and the form i

want i bring them together and then the

combinations so that's another way of

doing it so it's different approaches

i'm yet to know which one's better one

might be better than the other but only

time will tell and maybe sometime i'll

make a video on this so we've

established his training archetype which

is combinations how he does this which

is specific training using the said

principles so he trained specifically

for combinations to get better at

combinations and we've explained why he

does this because he sees this as the

epitome of strength but now in the

second portion of the video we're going

to get into the juicy stuff his training

programming which is going to explain

how he manages volume intensity and form

and how they relate to each other now i

asked him in dms how he's able to manage

volume and intensity to learn these

really hard skills and combinations and

this is what he said

if you want to be able to perform a

simple and short effort

in clean form

though the way is to produce

medium form how high volume

then convert it into something clean

now to sum that up if you didn't catch

that what he was saying is pretty much

what i was saying in the calisthenic

strength video you pretty much want to

train in cycles one cycle you have high

volume and then medium to low intensity

this is your hypertrophy phase then once

you've done that you've trained high

volume then you go to low volume higher

intensity so this is your new

adaptations which is strength training

but what he does differently is form his

intensity so when you're changing the

intensity you're actually changing the

form here's what he said about this

first you grow volume then you convert

into something clean then you grow

volume again and you convert into

something guys this is literally what

i'm saying in the calisthenics strength

principle video you want to train high

volume gain muscle adapt to the high

volume then convert this into straight

now again the only difference here is

valentine uses form as intensity and you

might be wondering okay why is form

intensity but let's listen to see what

he says about this

then volume low intensity form is

intensity

to explain his point a bit more clearly

he sent me an equation this was form

equals lever plus control equals

intensity

so what this means is form is dependent

on the lever and your control and this

also equals intensity so form equals

intensity but it's dependent on the

lever and your control so in the full

planche you have less leverage this

means it's going to be harder to perform

with good form which means it's higher

intensity but in the tuck planche you

have much more leverage because the

lever is shorter which means the

intensity is lower which allows much

better form and now from my

understanding the control part is more

than neural adaptions so are you

activating the right muscles and have

control over the movement the more you

can control the movement the easier the

form will be and that will adjust the

intensity so how does valentine use this

so first he trains really long sets but

to do this he has to reduce the form

because form equals intensity to do high

volume you need to reduce the intensity

so and to him intensity is form so he

has to do the longest sets with a bit

less form then after training like this

he goes to more strength training so he

does shorter sets or shorter

combinations so that's less volume but

he increases the form so he makes the

form almost perfect but for slightly

shorter combinations then he keeps

repeating this he goes back to higher

volume longer set but reducing the form

and then converts this again to clean

form but shorter combinations i hope

that makes sense and then over time he

keeps repeating this and it adds up to

very long sets where it's clean form but

this takes months maybe years

this is what valentine also agrees with

the key is volume of work if you do

things one by one you will get the

result

of the intensity and the volume of your

work now to conclude this section you

might have the final question okay how

much high volume should i do like how

long should my sets be or how long

should my combinations be when i'm

starting out learning in this way now

let valentine answer that do the maximum

end shut up

okay so now we've gone over his training

archetype which is combinations and why

he trains this way and then we've also

gone over what he does to train this way

which is his training programming but

now we're gonna go over the final part

of the video which is gonna be the extra

stuff he kind of does because when you

get to this elite level the little

things really add up so we're gonna talk

about those things now okay so really

quickly i think valentine nowadays only

really trains push i think he does a few

pulling movements just to keep a nice

balance so he has strength in both areas

but i think his main focus is push so of

course this gives him more time to focus

and perfect his pushing movements if

you're doing push-pull legs you know

overhead press squat deadlift planche

etc it's going to be really hard to

perfect every movement but for valentine

he focuses only on planche multis

presses one arm planche stuff like that

all pushing movements so it makes it a

little bit easier to program however i'm

pretty sure he still does pulling

movements because he's a guy that's

always about balance so i'm pretty sure

he bounces out his push by still doing a

bit of pull just to make sure his body

is balanced

another thing he focuses on to help with

balance is his prehab and his

conditioning so he talks about this in

another interview where he used to train

three times a day for a year and he made

a lot of progress but then he got six

months of injuries as a result so i

think nowadays he does an hour of

stretching a day before he even trained

now i'm never injured because i know how

to don't be how to do my conditioning

and stay safe you know so he takes his

mobility really seriously and this is

something that's similar to gymnasts

they take into account their flexibility

and mobility so during this video you

might have seen some similarities in how

he trains and how gymnast trains but he

says he trains very differently to a

gymnast different or completely yeah

yeah

yeah yeah because uh gymnastics doing a

lot of preparation is really organized

you know uh it's because they are

beginning so young you know and uh they

are planet everything they do

uh we are really not doing it in the

same way and what you're saying here is

kind of true if we're talking about ring

gymnasts they go from static skill

transition to static skill to transition

to static skill but valentine is more

about combinations that can be dynamic

as well as static so he go he's going

from static to dynamic to another

transition to static to dynamic mixing

up so instead of a lot of isometric

contractions he's getting a lot of

different contractions isometric

eccentric all of that so another thing

is his mindset so combinations as we

said it's strength and endurance put

together so some days you're not going

to have the strength or some days you're

not going to have the endurance and he

takes this into account and the last

thing i want to talk about is his diet

because you know diet is so important

for gymnasts and for body weight

athletes because the strength we need is

relative to our body weight so how much

we weigh is really going to depend on

how strong we are so we need our diet in

check so our weight doesn't fluctuate a

lot and we're as lean as we can be if

you watch my gymnast video you know all

about that and something i will say is

valentine he eats only once per day so

what you need to take from this is you

need to watch your diet because it's

really important for us bodyweight

athletes because staying as lean as we

can and as light as we can is really

important and if you're like me trying

to cut body fat so you get a bit lighter

and a bit stronger as a result well then

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but in any case if you missed the last

video on the calisthenic strength

principles that even valentine blanc

uses then click here because the experts

and calisthenics aliens you guys idolize

they use these principles to their

advantage

[Music]

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