Tuck Planche – Exercise For Extra Strength And Muscle Gains
Tuck planche will help you build impressive shoulder and core strength. You will need strong and flexible wrists to do it. It will also require you to master hand balancing.
This exercise is hard and not suitable if you are someone who is just starting out on a fitness journey.
It will take time to build enough strength needed to pull it off. This exercise will prepare your body for even harder exercises like straddle and full planche.
Tuck planche is a part of a planche progression. It’s one of the hardest skills in this progression.
Fortunately, this progression starts with easier exercises and gradually moves up to harder skills like the one presented here.
When I started writing this post I thought I should try to do it. A few weeks ago I pulled off my first tuck front lever. My pulling strength was always lagging behind my pushing strength.
So, I thought I might be able to do tuck planche as well. Suprise, suprise – I tried it and I did it. Yeah! You are the first who got to know about this.
What is a tuck planche
Tuck planche will be an excellent option to build your shoulders, arms, wrists and core strength. If you are eager to do a full planche, you will have to master the tuck variant on your way to full planche.
If you look at the planche and front lever one next to another, you will notice it looks similar. The same goes for tuck planche and tuck front lever. The former is coming from pushing and the latter from pulling family of exercises.
Because of that, when planning your workouts, you can combine your front lever and planche exercises in one training session. When done like that, you made yourself a challenging upper body workout.
To perform tuck planche you will position yourself on all four. You will then need to raise your butt up in the air and balance your weight on your hands on the floor.
This is a simplified explanation of what this skill looks like.
Equipment
In essence you will not need any equipment to do a tuck planche. If you struggle with your wrist strength or flexibility, parallettes might help you deload your wrists.
So, equipment needed for a tuck planche is:
- Parallettes (optional)
How long does it take to learn tuck planche
One of the most common questions that pop out when talking about this exercise is how long will it take to master it. Unfortunately it’s not very easy to answer this question.
It will depend on various factors like:
- Your current fitness level
- How much you train for achieving tuck planche
- Your height
- Your weight
- How long are your arms and legs
- Your age
Achieving tuck planche may take you from right now to never depending on the factors mentioned above.
If you are able to do knees on elbows hold for 10 seconds, you may expect to do a tuck planche pretty soon. I would expect you will be able to do it in a few weeks to a few months. Of course if you apply yourself and include working on this skill for at least twice a week.
You can easily test your current fitness level needed for this skill by trying to do exercises in a planche progression from easiest to hardest.
Generally speaking the higher you are the harder it will be to master this skill. Also, if you weigh more it will be harder to pull it off.
Your arms and legs length will also be a determining factor when trying to master tuck planche. The longer your arms and legs the longer it will take you to master it.
When you are getting older your body loses muscle mass and acquiring new skills becomes more and more difficult. So if you are 40 years old and older it will be more difficult to master this skill than for someone in his twenties.
So, if you are overweight, over 6 ft tall, over 50 years old and only sit in front of TV, odds are you will not be able to achieve this skill. Unless you are really motivated and apply yourself fully. Then you can do anything.
Prerequisites
To be able to do this exercise, you need to build strong shoulders and wrists. Besides shoulders and wrists, you will have to have a strong core and chest muscles. Being able to balance on your hands will be needed too.
If you are able to do knees on elbows hold, you may be able to try to do your first tuck planche. If you are still not able to do it, work more on easier exercises in planche progression.
Tuck planche muscles worked
As already mentioned, you will feel your shoulders, core your arms and wrists when trying to perform this exercise. This skill will make your entire body tense.
Tuck planche muscles worked:
Primary
- Front deltoids
- Arms
- Abs
Secondary
- Chest
- Upper back
- Lower back
- Glutes
How to do a tuck planche
Positioning:
Position yourself on the floor on all four – on your hands and knees. Place your hands next to your knees with palms down on the floor.
Performing:
Lift your knees off the floor by lifting your butt up in the air and pointing your toes back. You will have to balance your entire weight on your arms. Keep your arms straight. Don’t bend your arms in your elbows.
Hold this position as long as possible.
Progression / Regression
If this skill still challenges you, there are easier exercises you can try. Here are a few examples:
If this exercise is getting too easy, there are harder variants you can try. Here are a few exercises from easier to harder:
This exercise is pretty hard. You will have limited exercises that are harder to do. There are plenty of exercises that are easier than tuck planche.
Key takeaways
Tuck planche is a challenging skill that requires a lot of strength. Your entire body will have to work hard to pull it off.
You will also need to be able to do some hand balancing.
It will mostly work your shoulders, arms and core muscles. Strong and flexible wrists are a prerequisite for this skill.
If you are working on a full planche, this skill will be a nice milestone to strive for.
