Every three months I get an urge to practice basic gymnastic holds (handstands, planches, levers). I never really get anywhere though. Maybe I’m impatient. Maybe I like barbells better. Regardless, I have much admiration for those that can do a planche. I mean, a push up without hands? Really?
Must be photoshopped.
Everytime I search for tips, I run into pictures and videos, and it hit me the other day: most people that can do advanced holds are lean. And I’ll even say, most are rather muscular without much fat. I know, I know, a fat person wouldn’t be able to do them, so I shouldn’t expect to see much evidence against my observations. But it reminded me of the adaptation process and why it might just make sense.
Muscle is formed when our body thinks it will be destroyed without it. Our legs grow from squatting because he barbell will collapse on us if they don’t. If there isn’t enough food to support the growth, then we will just get stronger. Either way, adaptations are taking place from specific signals given to the body.
But consider moving you bodyweight through space. Would a signal be put through that says, “how fat I am affects my ability to survive” ? If you’re constantly being chased by velociraptors, are you lean because you’re burning calories, or because your body knows it runs slower with love handles?
DeFranco says that he can tell how fast a guy is by how many pull ups he can do. Isn’t this similar? How can we be fat if we can move our body through space with strength and speed?
Is moving your body through space in challenging ways more important than burning calories? Can your mind tell your body, “I need to be lean, I can’t be fat, I need more muscle to survive” ?
You can do it man. Just grease the groove! This may sound silly but I’ve taken advantage of the fact that there’s something I ritualistically do several times a day (pray) by always doing planche holds right afterwards (sometimes stretches instead). Even when I do birddogs occasionally, I do them with my hands closer to my hips a la planche position. Last year, at my peak I reached a straddle for a few seconds (though that’s been lost since I broke my arm a while ago). Anyhoo. Grease the groove. Look for variations you feel better about, holds aren’t the only way.
Sorry to hear about your arm.
Yeah, greasing the groove is a valid strategy. Still tough work. Thanks for the suggestions.
I’m gonna have to disagree with the mentality here, just because I once did a 100 chin ups a day challenge for a month and maintained 25% body fat throughout it. I know my n=1 might not count for much, but there it is.
What did you eat during this time?
Diet was very “clean” (meat, veggies, unprocessed foods, etc), but too high dietary fat (nuts/nut butters especially) stopped me from leaning out, as I was under the impression carbs were the end all be all…
Well then that explains it. Conflicting signals…well…conflict.
This is a bit of an old post but I think you are spot on. The more weight you are carrying the harder it is going to be to do these moves. Because of this the body adapts and the weight starts to fall off. Maybe its physiological or maybe you just start eating less but it will happen. Paul Wade talks a bit about this phenomena.
Nice. Thanks for browsing the archives