Halflay Planche

It depends entirely on which definition of halflay you are looking at, which is why progression charts swap the two around. Here it means hips fully open, legs together, knees bent with the shins angled up, exactly as Daniel holds it, and in that form it sits between the advanced tuck planche and the straddle planche. Straddle is not one fixed difficulty either, the width of the split is a dial, so a very wide straddle can feel easier than this and a narrow one is nearly a full planche. Some coaches use halflay to mean straight legs with a small pike at the hips, which is a much harder position sitting just under the full planche, so always check the picture before you compare yourself to anyone.

This is the position to move into. Own the advanced tuck first, around 10 to 15 seconds for three to five sets with a flat body line and no joint pain, and get tuck planche push ups moving with control. Then open the hips, keep the knees bent and the legs together, and you are in the halflay. You will hear people say the straddle is useless and that you should go straight for one leg. It is not useless, the width gives you a way to keep training when a fixed shape is too heavy, so run halflay and straddle work alongside each other rather than picking a camp.

Your shoulders are probably fine, your hip extension is the limit. In the halflay the glutes and lower back have to hold your legs at body height while the shoulders hold the lean, and that hip work is the half almost nobody trains. Work it directly with glute bridges, hyperextension holds and superman holds, and in the position itself think push the hips forward rather than lift the feet. A band takes weight off your whole body, so it helps you rehearse the shape but it will not build the hip extension on its own.

There is no honest single number, which is why every answer you find says something different. People training it report wildly different paces for the same rung. One lifter spent a whole year taking a tuck planche from 10 seconds to 53 seconds, then only three months to build an advanced tuck. Another went from advanced tuck to straddle in three months, while plenty describe years of work just to reach a straddle at all. A more useful measure than the calendar is the rung in front of you, and the common rule of thumb is that once you can hold your current position for around 10 seconds on your main set, you move up a level. Being tall or carrying heavy legs genuinely slows it down, because longer legs sit further behind your shoulders and that is more load at the same body weight, but slower is not the same as impossible.

Both, and Daniel points out this one works either way. Parallettes let your wrist sit closer to neutral, which takes the extreme extension out and is why most people manage longer, more comfortable holds on them. The honest counterpoint is that living on parallettes hides a wrist deficit that is still waiting for you the day you put your hands on the floor. Use the parallettes when your wrists are the thing failing first, and keep some floor work in the week so they carry on adapting. Five minutes of wrist prep before every session helps more than picking a side.

Two to three sessions a week suits most people, with at least a day between them. Statics are joint work as much as muscle work, and connective tissue adapts more slowly than muscle does, so your elbows and wrists usually set the ceiling rather than your strength. Intensity matters more than the number of sessions here, so keep each session to a handful of quality holds in the 5 to 15 second range instead of grinding long ones. Add lean or add sets, never both in the same week. If elbow or wrist pain is still there after three to five days of reduced straight arm work, get it looked at rather than training through it.