VIKTOR KAMENOV | His Planche Training & Advice | Interview | The Athlete Insider Podcast #33
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The text of the interview (translated automatically):
you know it's not all about motivation there is one quote motivation will help you start but discipline will help you continue yo gorillas welcome to the athletes insider podcast by gornation my name is phil and today's guest is a special guest and uh yeah one of the most influential people in street workout and calisthenics from bulgaria the planche god he's called and i'm really happy to welcome you to the show victor kamenov hey phil thank you so much for the interview it's a big honor for me it's also a big honor for me um big honor for the people uh we received over 300 questions for this interview we picked out the best and to kick off who is viktor kaminov how do you present yourself um victor kamino from bulgaria sofia i'm currently 22 years old and i'm doing calisthenics for already eight years and almost nine wow so you started quite young right yeah quite young i was i was 30 14 years old and in the beginning i looked at it like a game really it was like a game most of my peers were playing video games but i was going to the bars and doing pull-ups okay and how did you get in touch with the sport how was your first impression first impressions from youtube definitely from youtube like all the all the other athletes uh there was one guy hannibal for king also dennis minion from ukraine uh and i was really inspired from them wanted to do the same things as they were they were doing also gymnastics i was always fan of gymnastics even from a little kid uh we have we have one living legend in bulgaria jordan joshua and i remember even as a kid watching his role things on the olympics and really wanted to to do those things especially the statics uh and another reason also my uncle is training and he's still training and even now he's he's my inspiration when i when i see myself uh making excuses i just look at him and see man he's 50 years old 50 years old and he's still training no excuses wow so he's uh also planching or like basics or not that much planching because at the time when he started planche was uh not that popular move even in the gymnastics planche was not doing that that often okay but you never did gymnastics yourself right never never never have i've always tried to imitate gymnastics and uh mostly the strength part of course and and not into the floor or or uh some other equipments okay so uh yeah take us um to your to your um 13 14 year old victor kaminov um how did you look like how did your first training sessions go did you directly do your pull-ups or was it also difficult for you to learn these moves well it was the first my first tries were in 2011 and there were just some pull-ups between the classes at school in school but i don't i don't found this as uh as my initial steps my my my starter was in 2012 when i really got into the sport and my the first thing that i was uh mostly motivated to do was constant because it was just interesting for me at this point i was not aware of what my thesis is what planche is it was just boring for me i i knew that there were some in in uh gymnastics there were some moves like this but i was more about one arm constant uh or just regular constant so my main my main focus was on the handstand yeah wow okay so from training beginning to the first handstand how long did did you take ah not that much not that much really around around three four months okay uh but it's it's hard to say what does it mean learned handstands because handstand can be can be hold for 20 seconds with bad form or for two minutes with perfect form of course you can't get that for three months you need much more sure the question from the community came how long did you only train basics in the beginning as i told you in 2011 i was that was my period where i was doing only basics but then after 2012 i had no period only doing basics i was even more focused on the skills plus basic of stuff for of course but uh just from the beginning till now i always do basics even though i'm not that much focused on instagram of showing them they're really important just to give you that initial strength okay so basics for you mean which exercises in uh in particular uh in the beginning just push-ups uh dips pull-ups just a normal one regular okay they they sound like cliche but in fact they help really for beginners they're so important and even today they help you for healthy joints and tendons of course of course it's it's steps that need to be done yeah blank just from the beginning try to to execute them properly for example pull up with locked elbows yeah you know you you can't injure yourself you can't change yourself from the beginning you must start implementing proper technique so then when you gradually get higher level you won't get injured for example you've seen all the complicated moves you have a straight elbows so if you skip that proper technique from the beginning then you have some problems later okay that's already good advice i guess for all the beginners beginnings um to to really focus on the good form for basics um because otherwise it it yeah it doesn't prevent you for injuries etc switching to today how does your workout schedule look like today today in 2020 today in 2020 mostly planches and some little front levers this is it i'm training five days a week i'm resting two days which are no total rest i'm just doing some flexibility constants but i'm not focusing that much on endurance and freestyle since i'm not competing anymore okay and you're not competing anymore and not planning to compete well look there is there is difference between what i think and what i i feel i want uh because in 2017 and 18 when i competing for the last time i devoted so much time to to preparing for competition but i i saw low revenue from that and it's okay for one guy who is 17 years old 16 years old who is helped by his parents uh he can devote all his time to trainings and then go get top place and go back and get nothing but it's okay but once you get get uh older you see that you need to do something else to uh to get more revenue from what you're doing really from from the time that you spent so uh i started with the workshops in 2017 and i found it really much profitable for me and also i can say not less enjoyable for me because uh by this way i can somehow help the people so you like you say five days a week um uh planche front lever and uh so you're not you don't planche every day because this was a question from the community especially beginners they somehow get this mentality from the calisthenics scene you will have to work out every day no that's a big mistake really that's a big mistake for beginners and i was doing that in the beginning and what i saw was low progress because you can train with soreness and pain you train hard one day and then and then the next day you're cute that's that's more often for the beginners but even even for me right now if i do a really hard training the next day i'll try to to concentrate at least on some other pressure for example i'll go more on the pool if i did push today so planche i'm training four times a week currently right now of course uh sometimes it's different depending on my time that i have but at least four times i'm trying just to maintain my level wow to maintain your level so your goals right now are to maintain the level or to even go my goals right now are mainly to maintain my level and i have some thoughts for some combos that i've always wanted to do but they still haven't so i'm working on them but really slowly really slowly yeah i'm not rushing because i don't want any injuries i understand and you're getting more and more experience you're also like learning a lot and you just came out with your new planche program um a few days ago um so you want to talk about this one yeah first uh again thanks a lot for mentioning it it's it's a great support for me uh yeah i've released a new planche program which is more developed devoted for a high level guys which already have planche and want to learn uh presses and push us but also i have another ebook which is for total beginners the guys who are hardly even doing a tick planche and need to go to straddle planche and full planche so yeah i mainly explain my way of training there how i used to train how i train right now for uh the best results and fastest and healthier results without any injuries because it's really important the way how you're trained it's not only about doing poor attempts yeah also also to the programmers are there are some videos that will help you better understand the moves and maybe maybe one thing that i counted as a bonus because nobody else provided is personal contact so if they have some problems with their progress and according to to the ebook they can always ask me okay sounds uh really nice because i think you with your results etc you have a different approach um especially that because you didn't you don't come from gymnastics you have your own approach you you self-taught a lot like you learned a lot yourself yeah of course everything was by myself because i remember in 2013 there were no tutorials there were let's say uh two or three tutorials on planche which um i'm really questioning them how they uh how they're good and most of the time i was not aware what to do and everything was just tries tries and fails and tries and fails uh got got some injuries but i've always always tried to not rush that that's the most important thing that helped me uh still be healthier till that day and that's an important thing that's maybe also an advice that every beginner can take with it with him um it's really a lot of people see this i don't know eight month full planche journey i learned the full planche in three months and it's really the community is really about rushing and a lot of people are wanting to learn the plans really really quick but if you think long long term and you want to be healthy even though you have like eight nine years of street workout calisthenics like you um this is the way you know you need to be patient right you know the thing is that right now uh people see the idols they have a lot of information of what their idols are doing and beginners from just pulling up uh and dips try to go directly to car moves like maltese and in my time i had no that reference from my idols my idols were not doing my thesis like just just some guys from the gymnastics that i told you but uh i was i i was still thinking that it's gymnastic it's olympic sport and i must stay away from that keep focusing on the handstand keep focusing on the muscle ups you remember the old calisthenics um yeah so it was different because we had um different uh references yeah that's true so yeah for everybody uh we will talk later about it as well um for everybody who is interested in this uh we you offered our community uh also the ten percent discount on all your planche programs yes which is called coronation 10 so everything is in the description um what i am asking myself if i watch your performances etc is um is everybody capable of um having this performance that you have with the right training approach with um yeah like normal genetics let's call it oh you you set normal genetics yes with normal genetics uh consider it to what a normal genetics should be for calisthenics of course yes but i can't hide it uh the hate and the weights are really a big factor if you're two meters high and 150 kilograms i think the answer is totally clear um so yeah of course everybody can get high level i'm not sure if the same level as me but for sure high level and uh clearer clearly better progress if they implement a better problem better approach of course okay um yeah so your approach right now is um patience so not not rushing yeah your approach is resting two days per week if you're sore on on pushing movements you switch to pulling movements what else are your secrets let's call them because everybody's asking what are the secrets of victoria what what's what's his secret no the secret the secrets are so simple and they're not secrets i don't know consistency consistency that's the main thing i'm not consistent on instagram you see but i'm consistent on everyday lives what i'm training on my trainings i'm always consistent and disciplined also disciplined because you can't always count on motivation there will be days when you're back from work from university at let's say six seven o'clock and you'll be that you don't want to to train but discipline is what that is that that will help you continue training you know it's not all about motivation will help you start the s1 quote motivation will help you start but discipline will help you continue that's that's a good one and that's what what a lot of athletes say if you don't implement them consistently they're not going to work uh is it possible to learn planche only by a planche leaning uh only by the leaning exercises is it possible only leans and no attempts yeah no no it's impossible it's of course because we do attempts yeah okay so it's the mixture of attempts liens and also some assistance work or some at times some lean some basics in the end but mostly attempts mostly attempts that's the most important thing leans will help you not that much for the strength but more about preparing yourself for the training not to get injured yourself and the basics in the end help you for conditioning getting more strength in the proper the proper way activating properly the body but the most important things are the attempts and i was doing only attempts till 2014 or 15 and as as you see in my old videos that helped me but not enough not enough then i started thinking like i need to put some other things uh i need to train more professional also i was training in a gymnastic gym so i was seeing how gymnasts are training so i i added some basic workouts in the end of the training which is specifically for planche and push for push skills uh not normal basis i mentioned in the beginning so yeah okay so you talked about the leans which is i think clear to everyone and makes sense to prepare yourself for the workouts to prepare your tendons your joints etc and let's talk about the middle the attempts uh the real workout let's call it um how do one does one make the best progress is it with resistance bands is it by doing the tuck planche the whole time if he is not able to do a straddle planche in the best of what level you are for example if you already have some basic strength you can do let's say four or five seconds straddle planche a good option is to separate the trainings those parts in the attempt separate them by two parts in one day you will focus on the form on the other day you focus on the halt so by this way you can you can have them both in a high level trend and the resistance band that you ask me i don't even put that in the attends bar but it's more about the basics and it's not that much for for strength but i look at it for brain work because i put i put my phone away and record myself and see all the details where what i need to fix and then the next training i already have that feeling when my body where my body is positioned so yeah this is the main approach that i'm even doing right now and that uh i um tell to the people i recommend to the people separate both uh but of course for total beginners no need for separation just just pure attempts just pure times and some additional basic exercises which are really easy but are not not the normal most known pull-ups and push-ups yeah okay makes sense another question next to resistance bands was also if rings accelerate or make sense as is a good workout to build strength and planche of course but it's different from the ground and don't count on rings to help you on ground you see even uh guys on olympic level in gymnastics so hard on on rings doing zanetti's full planches so i don't know just amazing level but when they go to the ground they're much uh much weaker than me and than so many athletes calisthenics at least so they're not connected if you want to get stronger on rings train on ranks if you want to get stronger on ground or pirates trend there okay the training method you know like there are a lot of training methods uh greasing the groove uh emom uh like basics like endurance just for basics um high intensity high volume drop set supersets all this is there something that you can advi like you like or is there something that you don't like at all i can't say that there is any bad way of training and all those things that you're telling me maybe you also mentioned saturn reps these are uh not things that i usually train and for sure not something that i do right now uh definitely it's really important when you prepare for competition to work on your endurance because uh there that's one of the most important things not only about how much you hold an element but also about how many minutes you can be alive on the stage because right now you see i can be in a really good condition for 40 seconds video on instagram but if i go on a competition which is even only on statics i'll be dead in in one minute because i'm not training endurance uh when i was competing i was in the gym and doing my sets for three hours only only sets without stop and that helped me improve my entrance but right now i'm looking more about the quality of a single attempt so yeah that's that's my main advice for those who want to compete just just make your sets okay one or two minutes everything combined and also on another day keep the focus on the single times as i'm training right now okay that makes sense um if you do your planche attempts uh do you what do you prefer like long rests in between or high high intensity so a small rest in between what is your advice again uh it depends of for what you're training okay right now i train as much as it allows me to do a perfect attempt that's that's the the main uh thing that i follow of course for for uh competitions for days where you're training endurance it's totally a good option to do for example full planche hold wait 20 seconds or even less and then do again full planche hold you know these are things that will help you uh make better endurance but only accounting on this type of training is not enough because you can't you can develop that uh good form and condition of a single attempt yeah so it mainly depends of what you're aiming for there is no single right answer okay great a question that was upvoted on youtube and you already smiled when i uh sent it to you in the beginning is um does the bent arm planche help for the planche okay well that's one of the most common questions for beginners and the answer is no because if you want to to have a planche i mean real planche with straight arm you must work on straight arm bent arm will never help you gain that strength in the elbow in the shoulder just because the position is different maybe will will help you partly for developing core strength but counting on bent arm planche will never help that much really you see you see so many old school athletes again i'll mention hannibal for king who is doing this type of planche for i don't know probably 30 years but he still still can't do a full planche he just don't help you because it's just a different move of different minds of course it's different move totally different move uh i can of course add that it help it will help you gain some strength for the foo for the planche push-ups because punch push-ups is transition between those two variations with straight arms and bent arms so it's important when you start training the push-ups also to probably make some holes for that this position um yeah but but only for planche it will not help you okay a question that was also making me smile i don't know how you think about it um two people asked um is it true did you break your fingers and uh now have metal plates in your fingers uh so you are stronger on finger planche uh yeah actually that's the reason no really okay okay yes um okay good um how important sorry sorry yeah but like you know if you say like this people will believe um and there are people who didn't ask this question that's why i always smile that's why i have a smile yeah how important is core workout especially lower back on the way to the planche does it make sense to especially work on that of course of course it's strengthening the lower back and the waist will help it will help you and prevent you from going to that banana planches because you see so many guys keep their shoulder high but when it's about longer hold the first part that goes down will be the lower back so putting a little bit focus on gaining that strength right there will help you and uh will prevent you from doing this uh type of not proper planche yeah of course there are some basic exercises uh which are mostly done in the gymnastics sense i've seen them in the gymnasium gym and i still do them in in home um so yeah is there an exercise that you can explain that uh help yeah i can i can explain one exercise that i still do it's a lie down on a box or something which is high around 50 centimeters uh it must be on your you must lay on your stomach and then just lift your legs up and uh by this way you feel the pressure in the lower back it's simple as that okay uh also additional you can put some weights you do it a straddle or full with like cool cool yeah okay cool so beginners if it's too hard they can do uh straddle or tuck of course they can do straddle they can they can do even tuck to full extensions they can do only straddle lifting they can do full lifting you see you you must check how you feel it yeah makes sense um yeah people asked for a day in the life of victor coming off take us in your daily life how does one typical day look like well it's really different for example today what happened i woke up early like 6 30 i made some training then i prefer for an interview after the interview i'll go to the hospital because unfortunately my mom is there and she can be with us since christmas ah then i'll go back i'll do some studies for a university then i'll answer all the instagram messages that people send me then i work on my new program fix some problems in the site and it's different every day bro i'll just tell you what's my schedule for today okay yeah so uh your your uh work your studies um what is your profession architecture i studied right now architecture it's my already fourth year yeah okay so you're soon finished yes we'll finish one of the main questions also concerning your maybe also a little bit your private life was um why aren't you so active on youtube on instagram and you already told me life doesn't always work as you as you plan what is the reason well the main reason is that i don't find that much time for getting active of course i can be more active but i need to draw the quality i don't want to draw the quality sometimes i think that it's not only about quality it's also quantity and that i need to to fix the balance so in the coming months i'll work on on that okay so we can expect to see a little more from you yes yes i have a lot of plans really i have a lot of plans and ideas in my mind we'll see how it works great good luck for that already thank you let's maybe sum up all your workout experience your workout advice what are the main three things that if people improve them in their workout they would get much better results the three things well there are a lot of things but if we need to some of them will be discipline consistency and training smart knowing what you're doing these are the three things okay if we go a little bit more into detail um what what makes them important well even as i already said if you have a proper training method but you're not consistent you'll not achieve anything and of course the opposite so i think that explains everything so you think if i buy your program i won't be uh i if i and i i just have it on my computer on my mobile phone i don't follow it i won't be a plunge piece right well probably if it's only on your phone it will help you a little bit okay just just because of the energy okay but uh but not that much okay damn it okay so uh yeah this discipline um it's important to get up even though uh you're you're not motivated all yes of course today i woke up at 6 30 to train for sure i was not motivated to train on a saturday on saturday on 6 30 yeah but i don't have a choice i had to do my tests later talking about prevention also injuries um yeah i think play a role in in a lot of athletes careers and people were interested about about your injuries in your career well the biggest injury i remember was 2015 on my wrist then this summer i also had an injury on my shoulders because some weighted stuff and i was out from the basics for a long time since it was pandemics and i had to train on aesthetics at home uh so i got some some shoulder injury which a little bit put me out of uh out of condition i can't lie yeah and that's probably one of the reasons why i was not active in in the summer yeah but it's really important that those moments not to stop not to give up and to listen to the doctors because some doctors told me that it's over and it's it's it's normal totally normal always go to two or three doctors because before you make any decision so yeah just just keep training slightly some some things that will uh help you maintain the strength and in the same time not get worse with the injury and of course it depends on the injury for me it was just a really hard tendonitis in uh shoulder inflammatory but if it's it's a bigger pro problem of course there must be other fixes you're like in the calisthenics scene now since eight and nine years um how do you see the development of the sport um man it's changed so much so much uh at first you remember they were all those guys tweaked muscle ups bent arm planches then came the russian guys with the perfect static moves malteses then came the dynamic and right now there are three main groups the statics the dynamics and the complete guys which are i feel that they're always fighting each other because all the competitions are more for the complete guys well are always one static guy who is telling that the completeness is [ __ ] and there must be a specific competition only for statics and they're always another guy on dynamics who is saying oh we don't have a competition only for dynamic so in the future i think about uh separating those three disciplines because i feel so much different from the kid who is 14 years old and doing 900 you know i feel that he's just doing another sport he's not doing calisthenics that's my sport it's so different discipline so definitely separating three of them will will be uh really important also there is four discipline like the muscle of the weighted stuff many people also talk about putting our sport in the olympics but since i'm really into gymnastics and i know in details what's happening there i can say that there is already a sport which is similar to the calisthenics and it's much on higher level uh also if you want to put it in the olympics we need to set a certain rules and the beauty of our sport is that we don't have rules and it's free sport yeah and everybody can implement uh new skills every time on stage uh well if we if we put it on the olympics all the rules will be in the brackets and they will be preset with uh pointing system which in my opinion is nothing bad about it okay makes sense yeah and there are already some some competitions like for example the burning gate cup it focuses more on yeah of course burning get cup they were trying to imitate somehow the methods of the in the gymnastics competitions but in my opinion if it depends on me i'll fix some things yeah okay i was competing there two years uh two times and i saw some things that can be better okay but that work true um yeah what are your goals for 2021 maybe to sum up and to come to an end of the interview this interview will come out on christmas um on christmas day so just before the new year what what are your goals for the next year my main goals are continuing developing on instagram continue posting good videos even though they're not that long and full of so many skills but i want again to focus on the quality but have that balance quality quantity again uh developing my website uh my programs i have 10 more programs that i want to release and i'm started writing them right now one after another uh also youtube i have some some ideas for videos there because i started three years ago but for one reason i stopped and three years later i think i will be back um and hopefully hopefully the pandemic is over i want to start my workshops again because that's uh certainly the thing that really brings me the most joy seeing seeing the world and in the same time helping the sport to develop great yeah that would be nice i still remember your workshop in vienna uh your small you had a small workshop on the bodyweight day there which was of course all those things that i'm telling you are uh just in the area of sport that i'm planning and i think this is the the topic of this video yeah true yeah we're nearly finished with the interview we still have some quick questions quick answers at the end what do you prefer pizza or burger pizza of course of course no way to convert both of them no way okay do you are you a dog or a cat person first i'm allergic so it's hard to say but probably probably cat because it's a cleaner animal maybe maybe but honestly neither of them um do you have a favorite location for holidays for holidays so i go to i have a house in uh once one small city around uh the capital sofia so sometimes i go there and i like it because uh it's it's uh not noisy like the big city and i can totally focus on myself myself my work without any disturbance great um do you have i know it's a big question but do you have a favorite calisthenics athlete or somebody that you look up to for plan inspiration during the years i had many favorite athletes and i still admire them but maybe will sound a little bit narcissistic but recently i i get the most the motivation from my old videos okay uh looking at what you did before uh make you think that all these things can come one more time if you put the needed effort of course i can mention some guys that really admire uh for example from the static game my friend netko really strong guy also valentin you had an interview with him we bought our friends one guy die long i like his form really yeah many athletes many artists there's so many new guys doing great stuff somebody asked do you have uh like do you have an opinion on the question who is the strongest planter in the world is there one there is no one stronger planter in the world okay one is stronger in push-ups the other is stronger in presses the 30s in cold there is no such a thing as stronger athlete plus the level is really volatile i mean sometimes somebody is like the top and then he'll be down and then a year ago some new guy comes and it's it's no no strongest outfit there is no strongest outfit okay do you have a favorite book favorite book uh recently i read think and get rich i can't say that it's my favorite but it had some influence on me it's it's probably not that famous among the calisthenic athletes but it's more on the finance world but i i found some connection with the sport that can help me see the sport not that plane not that confined but to see that there are more possibilities it's not all about uh going to competitions competing or posting videos you can do much more you just need to believe in yourself visualize think that's true it's a really really good book it's uh already over a hundred years old um yes one yes one of the best-selling books worldwide um so yeah really world life it's a bit cliche i can say it's a bit cliche people and it's it's like the the reference for uh for self-improvement book yeah yeah wow and there are a lot of mindset things in it work harder than people expect from you that's also that's one thing that i think that if you implement them also in the sport will help you it's not all about uh get rich and think and get rich it's also think and get stronger or you can you can look at it from from other point of view that's true we will put it in the description thinking grow rich from napoleon hill um and yeah a question that is always asked i usually ask it in the beginning but now i ask it here your height and weight uh 170 height and weight i dropped from 70 71 to 65 right now first because of an injury and second probably because of not proper nutrition recently i don't have that much time to prepare my food uh how i should and yeah but but it's totally okay it's it also helps me a little bit get uh lighter skills because the lighter you are the better it is that i'm really trying not to drop 265. okay that's important for me do you have a favorite calisthenics event that you've visited calisthenics events uh well my most favorite events are my workshops yeah and the second uh world of war heroes i really liked the vendor hype the system the judging system which in my opinion is the most clever since now also from the competitions that i took part street workout ultimate battles especially 2017-17 again i can also add moscow what the world federations competitions were where my my initial steps in the in the competition started yeah and then last question if you can only do one planche variation for the rest of your life which one would it be maltese okay nice yeah then we're coming to an end uh how can people get in touch with you how can they um ask you stuff instagram my instagram page always drop one message and i have time in a day usually i do it two times a week where i check all people ask me and answer them great so same here then with training consistency and patience so if somebody writes you he shouldn't expect an answer in the next 10 minutes yeah no of course not in the next 10 minutes and usually i answer him and the next time i will answer him will be in the next two days because if i wait him to answer and then i answer it it's getting uh unlimited conversation and i usually have 20 people today who who write me and you know uh i need to save my time some kind i get a lot lot of things to do makes sense again for all the people who want to really learn from you and who really profit from your experience in in workout uh they have the possibility to get your planche programs for beginners and the new one for uh intermediate for uh professionals yeah with 10 discount with coronation code yes so everything is in the description coronation 10 saves you 10 percent and thanks victor for your time thanks for watching pleasure thank you so much for the invitation really it means a lot to me to the people and uh yeah wishing you all the best wishing the best for your mother for everything for your whole family for the christmas time and um yeah thanks everyone for listening and thanks for supporting this series give us a thumbs up a comment if you liked it and viktor you can end the episode and say goodbye to the community bye we show the best and always train clever