Calisthenics skills
Planche program: frog stand to straddle and full
The planche is the longest straight-arm progression in the catalogue, and phase.fitness programs it as steps with holds — 5–8 sets of 5–30 seconds at the start, 3–8 at the top — moving you up on standards, with the wrists and biceps tendons given the time they need.
Updated
- Level
- Advanced
- Length
- 16–52 weeks
- Days per week
- 2–3
- Modalities
- Calisthenics
- Equipment
- A floor, parallettes; a band for assisted holds; rings for the rings variants
- Sessions go to
- The phase.fitness built-in player
The short answer
The phase.fitness planche program follows its catalogue: frog stand and straight-arm frog stand at 5–8 sets of 5–30 seconds, tuck and advanced tuck planche at 5–8 × 5–15 s, then the supporting work — pseudo-planche push-ups at 3–5 × 5–12, planche leans and band-assisted planche at 3–5 × 5–15 s — before straddle and half-lay planche at 5–8 × 3–10 s and the full planche at 5–8 × 3–8 s. A front lever is the recommended posterior-chain base. The assessment places you on the first step you cannot yet hold, sessions run in the phase.fitness player, and the wrist and elbow preparation is never skipped.
Strength without mass, through leverage
The skill-sports document phase.fitness reads describes what the planche demands: maximal relative strength trained through the nervous system at hard leverage for 3–5 sets of 1–5 with 3–5 minutes of rest, and isometric strength at progressive leverage for 3–5 sets of 5–10 seconds. The planche is both at once — a lean so far forward that the shoulders take the whole bodyweight on straight arms — which is why its progression has fifteen steps and why hypertrophy volume works against it: mass raises the load carried without raising the force applied.
Connective tissue sets the pace. Wrists, biceps tendons and the anterior shoulder adapt more slowly than the muscles that drive the hold, so the program keeps the early steps long and the supporting work — leans, band-assisted holds, pseudo-planche push-ups — in every phase.
How do you prepare your wrists for planche training?
Deliberately, and never skipped. phase.fitness opens the program with four to eight weeks of frog stands and straight-arm frog stands at 5–8 sets of 5–30 seconds, which is as much wrist and elbow preparation as balance, and keeps that preparation in the week through every later step.
How long does it take to get a straddle planche?
Twelve to twenty-four weeks on that step alone in the phase.fitness progression, after four to eight weeks of frog stands and eight to sixteen of tuck work. The whole arc to a full planche is measured in seasons, which is why the program runs from sixteen weeks to a year.
What phase.fitness builds
A program is a sequence of phases, each with a job. These are the phases phase.fitness writes for this case, with the bands the generator has to respect — transcribed from the document it reads, not invented for this page.
Frog stands
4–8
Tuck planche
8–16
Straddle
12–24
Full planche
ongoing
| Phase | Weeks | Job | Band |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frog stands | 4–8 | Balance and wrist preparation | Frog stand and straight-arm frog stand 5–8 × 5–30 s |
| Tuck planche | 8–16 | The first true lean | Tuck and advanced tuck 5–8 × 5–15 s; pseudo-planche push-ups 3–5 × 5–12; planche lean 3–5 × 5–15 s |
| Straddle | 12–24 | Lengthen the lever | Band-assisted planche 3–5 × 5–15 s; straddle 5–8 × 3–10 s; half-lay 5–8 × 3–10 s |
| Full planche | ongoing | The hold, then the press | Full planche 5–8 × 3–8 s; straddle planche to handstand 4–6 × 1–5 |
A sample week
One week from the first phase, as it would sit on the calendar. Your own week follows the days you say you have — 2–3 here — and the equipment you list.
- KCalisthenics
- Rest
| Day | Modality | Session |
|---|---|---|
| Mon | K | Planche step 6 × 8 s, pseudo-planche push-ups 4 × 8, planche leans 3 × 12 s, wrist prep |
| Tue | Rest | — |
| Wed | Rest | Lifting or running day, if the program has one |
| Thu | K | Band-assisted planche 4 × 10 s, dips 4 × 6, front lever maintenance 3 × 10 s |
| Fri | Rest | — |
| Sat | K | Planche step 6 × 8 s, handstand holds, hollow body, external rotation and wrist work |
| Sun | Rest | — |
S = strength · C = cardio · K = calisthenics. The order is the point: hard days are kept apart and the long session gets the clean slot.
How it adapts when a phase ends
Every hold and every push-up is logged in the phase.fitness player. When a phase ends, the current step is checked against its standard from the log and advanced only when the hold is clean for the prescribed seconds; a step held for weeks without progress is kept, and the plan points at the supporting work rather than at the next lever. Nothing here involves a model — the progression is the catalogue, and regenerating a phase is free.
Where the sessions go
phase.fitness plans; you train in the app or on the watch you already use, and the completed session comes back. For this program:
What phase.fitness does not do here
A planche is measured in years for most people, and the program will not shorten that by skipping steps. The holds run in the phase.fitness player and are not pushed to Hevy, Liftosaur or a watch; wrist or elbow pain is a reason to hold the step, and the document says pain that persists is a clinician's matter.
The evidence
The documents this page is built from
These are the knowledge-base documents the phase.fitness generator reads for this case. The phases, bands and weekly numbers above are transcribed from them.
- Relative Strength and Neuromuscular Control for Skill and Aesthetic Sports — updated 2026-02-21, gymnastics
- Strength Training Basics — updated 2025-01-07
Frequently asked questions
What are the planche steps in phase.fitness?
In the phase.fitness catalogue: frog stand, straight-arm frog stand, tuck planche, advanced tuck planche, then pseudo-planche push-ups, planche leans and band-assisted holds as support, then straddle planche, half-lay planche and full planche — fifteen steps with holds of 5–30 seconds at the start and 3–8 at the top.
How often should I train the planche?
phase.fitness plans two or three sessions a week with the planche work first, when the nervous system is fresh, as the skill-sports document prescribes. Isometric work at 3–5 sets of 5–10 seconds can be spread across light days.
Do I need a front lever first?
The phase.fitness catalogue lists the front lever as a recommended posterior-chain base for the planche, not a mandatory prerequisite. The assessment places you on the planche progression either way.
The only app that plans strength, cardio and calisthenics together
This page is the calisthenics day: the planche is straight-arm pressing strength that no bench or overhead press builds, programmed with holds and rest like a lift, and it sits in the same week as your other training.
Right now, phase.fitness is the only training app that writes strength, cardio and calisthenics into one periodized program — same calendar, same phases, same recovery budget.
You choose the mix. A calisthenics-only plan, a cardio-only block, strength plus cardio, or all three: the phases, the end-of-phase analysis and the sync work the same way with one modality or three.
Why calisthenics is in the plan
Bodyweight skill work is strength training in a different shape. Straight-arm work, levers and handstands build scapular control, tendon capacity and relative strength that barbell and machine work leave untouched, and they transfer because they are closed-chain, whole-body patterns. Treated as a modality rather than a warm-up, they get sets, holds and progressions like a squat does.
No exercise catalogue on the market contains a tuck front lever, so those sessions run in the phase.fitness built-in player; strength goes to Hevy, Liftosaur or a Garmin watch, cardio to Garmin and Intervals.icu. How the skill work is programmed.
Free to start, no card. The first phase is yours to keep whatever you decide.
