The pseudo planche push-up is where the push progression crosses from strength training into skill training. It’s still a push — but the mechanics are different enough that your previous push-up strength won’t transfer directly. You’re building new capacity here.
This is Kip’s current edge in the push progression. Real talk from the training floor — not theory.
What Changes at T3
At T1 and T2, your hands are under or slightly behind your shoulders. Load goes into your chest, triceps, and shoulders in a standard horizontal pressing pattern. In the pseudo planche push-up, your hands stay on the floor but you lean your weight forward so your shoulders are in front of your hands.
This changes everything. The anterior deltoids take on primary load. The serratus anterior must work overtime to keep the scapulae stable under a new loading angle. And for the first time, you’re beginning to train straight-arm strength — the ability to resist a bending moment at the elbow with the arm extended. This quality is what planche work requires and what almost no regular push-up training develops.
Setup and the Forward Lean
Start in a high plank. Rotate your hands outward so your fingers point to the sides or slightly backward. Now shift your whole body forward — lean until your shoulders are four to six inches in front of your hands. This lean is the exercise. Without the lean, you’re doing a regular push-up with a strange hand position.
How much lean? Start with whatever you can hold without your hips dropping or your elbows bending involuntarily. Build the lean over weeks. More lean = more difficulty = more planche-specific training. The goal over months is to eventually lean so far forward your arms are nearly perpendicular to the floor — that’s a tuck planche entry position.
The Movement
From your forward-leaning position: lower by bending your elbows, but your chest moves forward and down rather than straight down. This is a forward diagonal press, not a vertical one. Push back to your starting lean position.
Key cue: your elbows should track back behind your body, not out to the sides. This keeps the load in your anterior deltoids and triceps rather than dumping it into your chest.
Connecting to the Masters Track
The pseudo planche push-up is the primary push-side prerequisite for the Tuck Planche Hold. The body position you train here — lean, protracted scapulae, anterior delt load, straight-arm resistance — is the same position you hold statically in the tuck planche. Building the push-up version first means you arrive at the static hold with the specific strength it requires.
The chain: Pseudo Planche Push-Up (T3) → Tuck Planche Hold (T4) → Straddle Planche (T4) → Full Planche (T5)
Move. Groove. Repeat. Smooth.
★ Kip is training this movement now. Share your pseudo planche progress in the community →
← Full Push-Up | Next: Archer Push-Up → | Masters: Tuck Planche Hold →
Move. Groove. Repeat. Smooth.
You're on your way. And we're here with you.