How Gymnasts Learn the Planche SO FAST (Ft. Brandon Wynn)

Summary

This 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

00:00

💪 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.

05:02

🍽️ 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.

10:04

🤝 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.

Keywords

💡Body Composition

Body composition refers to the ratio of fat to muscle in the body. In the video, gymnasts are described as having 'huge ripped physiques' with large muscles and low body fat percentages. This balance allows them to perform strength-intensive movements like the planche without being weighed down by excess fat, making their bodies lighter and more efficient for bodyweight exercises.

💡Planche

The planche is an advanced gymnastic strength skill where an athlete holds their body parallel to the ground using their hands. The video focuses on how gymnasts train to achieve this position by building functional strength and increasing neural adaptations, often through methods such as body composition management, assisted exercises, and structured training cycles.

💡Neural Adaptations

Neural adaptations refer to the changes in the nervous system that improve strength and coordination in response to training. In the video, it’s explained that strength is a result of both muscle size and neural adaptations. Gymnasts train their nervous systems to efficiently recruit muscle fibers, allowing them to perform demanding skills like the planche.

💡Hypertrophy

Hypertrophy is the enlargement of muscles due to strength training. In the video, it is discussed as a necessary factor for increasing strength. Gymnasts achieve hypertrophy through their intense training routines, which increases the size of their muscles, ultimately allowing them to perform strength skills with greater efficiency.

💡Assistance

Assistance refers to the use of external help or modifications during training to make a skill more achievable. Gymnasts often use assistance from coaches or equipment (such as resistance bands) to learn the planche faster. This concept also involves training 'above' and 'below' the goal, where difficulty is adjusted to improve both physical and mental strength.

💡Macro and Micro Cycles

Macro and micro cycles are terms used in periodization, a structured approach to training. Macro cycles are long-term plans (months to years), while micro cycles are short-term (days to weeks). The video explains that gymnasts use these cycles to progressively increase their strength and performance, allowing them to balance intense training with recovery and skill development.

💡Spotting

Spotting is the act of assisting an athlete during exercises to help them safely perform challenging movements. In the video, spotting is a key method used by gymnasts to practice difficult skills like the planche. Coaches may physically support an athlete’s body to reduce the risk of injury while still providing enough challenge to encourage strength gains.

💡Caloric Surplus

A caloric surplus occurs when an individual consumes more calories than they burn, which is necessary for muscle growth. In the video, Brandon Nguyen explains that to build strength and muscle, gymnasts must eat in a caloric surplus while maintaining a lean body composition. This balance helps them build functional muscle without gaining excess fat.

💡Main Gaining

Main gaining is the process of maintaining a stable body weight while slowly increasing muscle mass and strength. The video discusses how gymnasts use this method by staying in a slight caloric surplus after reaching their desired body fat percentage. This helps them stay light while gradually building strength for skills like the planche.

💡Mobility

Mobility refers to the ability to move joints freely and efficiently through a full range of motion. The video emphasizes the importance of daily mobility training for gymnasts, as it prevents injuries and enhances their performance in skills like the planche. Maintaining good mobility allows athletes to perform complex movements with greater control and flexibility.

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