Two years after tearing my bicep during a full planche attempt, I'm back on the road to reclaiming one of calisthenics' most coveted skills. But this time, my approach is different. After starting and stopping a "Road to Full Planche" series multiple times, I realized that the act of filming was sabotaging my training. The solution? Record sessions as usual, then commentate afterwards. What follows is a detailed breakdown of a single planche-focused push session that reveals my methodology, the struggles, and the small victories that define elite-level skill training.
The Problem With Documenting Training
For me, training is sacred. When I initially launched the planche series, the content performed well and audiences loved it. But there was a hidden cost. I found myself postponing planche sessions because I could not film them, losing mental focus during recorded workouts, and ultimately abandoning the series twice. The realization was simple but important: the training itself must always come first. Content creation should serve the training, not the other way around.
This is a lesson many athlete-creators learn the hard way. The moment you start optimizing sessions for the camera rather than for progress, quality suffers. By switching to a post-commentary format, I preserve the integrity of my training while still sharing the process with my audience.
The Challenge: Full Planche Press by FIBO
The session carried extra weight because of a challenge from Daniel Lasstoff, a world champion in calisthenics, who dared me to achieve a three-second full planche hold to press by the following year's FIBO fitness expo. While I already possess a straddle planche press, the full planche press remains elusive. This kind of peer-driven accountability is a powerful tool in elite athletics, and it set the tone for a session focused entirely on pressing mechanics.
Banded Planche Presses: Building Volume Intelligently
The session began with full planche presses using resistance bands for assistance. I started with a heavy band providing 10 to 23 kilograms of support, maintaining a hollow body position throughout. After solid repetitions, I progressed to a lighter band at 6 to 13 kilograms, then dropped further to a 3 to 6 kilogram band. At each level, the focus remained on two critical elements: scapular protraction and hip-initiated movement.
One of the most common errors I see in planche pressing is initiating the movement from the feet rather than the hips. When the feet lead, the result is an arched press that lacks the structural integrity needed for a strict movement. The correct cue is to imagine a rope pulling the hips upward, letting the movement cascade from the center of the body outward. Simultaneously, maintaining thoracic kyphosis (a rounded upper back) while keeping the hips in posterior pelvic tilt creates a counterintuitive tension that takes months to master.
The Unassisted Attempt: Honest Assessment
When I attempted a full planche press without any band assistance, the result was revealing. My feet moved upward, but my hips remained essentially stationary. In my own analysis, I was simply not strong enough yet. I think this kind of honest self-assessment is rare on social media, where most creators only show their best attempts. But it is precisely this honesty that makes a training log valuable: progress is not linear, and acknowledging weaknesses is the first step toward addressing them.
Full Planche Holds: The Hollow Body Battle
After maxing out press intensity, the session shifted to full planche holds. I attempted a tuck planche to full planche entrance, which I'll be the first to admit is a newer and less practiced transition for me. The holds were decent but not exceptional. The session simply was not my strongest day, and the unfamiliar entrance pattern compounded the issue.
A training partner provided real-time cueing during subsequent hold attempts, calling out instructions like "legs higher" and "protract." This external feedback loop proved invaluable. Even when I could not achieve perfect protraction, the verbal cues helped me find additional height in my planche position. The interplay between internal body awareness and external coaching is something that separates good training sessions from great ones.
Volume Over Intensity: The Strategic Decision
One of the most instructive moments in the session came when I recognized that my holds were underwhelming and made the deliberate choice to return to banded presses for volume work. I selected the strongest band and focused on explosive repetitions, reasoning that volume at a manageable intensity would serve me better than grinding out poor-quality max attempts.
The guiding principle here is straightforward: choose an intensity where at least three quality sets are achievable, then build toward eight or even ten sets over time. If the quality of sets is not degrading, there is energy left in the tank and more work can be done. This is a fundamental concept in strength training that applies far beyond calisthenics, but it is especially relevant for skill work where technical breakdown renders additional sets counterproductive.
Handstand Push-ups and Session Finishers
With planche work complete, I transitioned to deep handstand push-ups on parallettes. I specifically use the deep variation because regular floor handstand push-ups trigger impingement in my right shoulder, a condition I am actively rehabilitating. The deep range of motion, counterintuitively, allows pain-free training. The goal was straightforward: four quality repetitions per set, with an emphasis on keeping elbows tucked to maximize transfer to planche pressing.
The session concluded with a set of 90-degree push-ups to test technical capacity under fatigue, followed by a brief front lever display. Even at the end of a demanding push session, the ability to execute clean 90-degree push-ups demonstrated solid reserve strength.
The New Training Format
What makes this session noteworthy is not any single breakthrough moment but rather the systematic approach to a long-term goal. I have moved away from the old vlog-style documentation in favor of a format that respects the training process. Sessions are recorded passively, then analyzed and narrated with the benefit of hindsight. This allows for genuine effort during training and thoughtful commentary afterward.
For anyone pursuing advanced calisthenics skills, this format also models a valuable practice: reviewing your own training footage. Many of the technical insights I share in these breakdowns, such as the loss of protraction during eccentrics or the hip stalling during unassisted press attempts, would be invisible without video analysis.
Key Takeaways
- •Training integrity should never be sacrificed for content creation; find a documentation method that serves the training, not the other way around
- •In planche pressing, initiate the movement from the hips, not the feet, and maintain thoracic kyphosis with posterior pelvic tilt simultaneously
- •When max-intensity attempts are not going well, pivot to volume work at a manageable intensity rather than grinding out poor repetitions
- •Use external coaching cues during holds to push beyond what internal awareness alone can achieve
- •Choose an intensity that allows at least three quality sets, then progressively build total volume over time
- •Video review of your own sessions is one of the most underused tools in calisthenics skill development
The road to full planche is never a straight line. It is a process of constant assessment, strategic pivoting, and accumulating quality volume over months and years. My willingness to show the messy middle of this journey, rather than just the highlight reel, is what I hope makes this training log a genuinely useful resource for anyone chasing high-level calisthenics skills.
