Hi. I'm Ryan from Gold Medal Bodies. In this video, I would like to cover some progressions
to help you to get the front lever.
[Music]
Now first off, I would like to say there are many, many different ways to get the front
lever. Many different progressions and each person is going to be a little bit different.
The progressions that I' m going to show you today are just a suggestion, a way that
I feel that might help you to get towards the front lever. But like any skill, the most
important part is focusing on the basics first. So that' s why no matter what you do and
what you get out of this video, make sure that you get the basics down first. Make them
very solid and that will help you to get you to be on your way to nail the front lever.
Let's get started.
[Music]
First of all I would like to go ahead and take a look at our arm position in the front
lever. This is going to be very important and so in the very beginning, we're going
to use what I like to call a pulling prep. This is simply where we focus pulling our
shoulder down and keeping our arms straight.
I'm going to show you here on the side. So from here, I'm going to keep my arms
perfectly straight and pull the chest up as I pull my shoulder blades down and also focusing
on pulling them together.
That's what I like to call the pulling prep. When we're actually performing the front
lever, of course our body is going to be horizontal and so we will actually be pulling this way.
However in the very beginning, this pulling prep is really going to help us focus on scapular
strength, the straight arm strength that's necessary for the front lever. So this is
what you should start on from the very beginning.
[Music]
Next, we're going to go ahead and take a look at increasing our range of motion and
working on our strength with this pulling prep, but we're going to pull our chest
up even higher. I realize that you can't see my legs but with this angle, you will
be able to see how I'm focusing on pulling my legs, part of me pulling my chest up as
I keep the straight arm, pulling the shoulders down and back.
Keep your feet on the ground in the beginning. You can use them as training wheels and then
you can gradually work on actually pulling your feet up off of the ground. So it's
in a sense like a pull-up. However, your arms are straight and you won't be pulling to
the very top.
Now do this with your arms straight from here. We will pull and we will focus on pulling
the chest up, shoulder blades down and back, pulling up. Now, something else is happening
here that we need to discuss because this is really going to help us with the front
lever and that is I'm not just pulling the chest up and pulling my shoulder blades down.
I'm also actively pulling down into the rings, bracing the core and having everything
come together. So it's this action when I'm performing and that, this is the key
point for our front lever progressions that we want to do here.
I'm going to show you this one more time and notice the hands as I'm focusing I'm
trying to pull down into the rings here and working on pulling up as high as I can. Lead
with the chest up as you're performing this.
[Music]
For our next progression, we're going to take that pulling prep that we practiced and
we're going to add in a knee raise. So instead of lifting with the chest front here, we're
going to keep the chest neutral. We're going to focus on pulling the knees up in order
to work on our core strength.
So I'm going to hang from the rings here and start on my toes. I'm going to do my
pulling prep and then I'm going to work on pulling my knees up as high as I possibly
can and first just performing repetitions.
Now don't get too hooked on the number of repetitions. You just want to be able to basically
be able to get up into an inverted hang with arms straight, so that you're not bending
your arms like this to get upside down.
You want to keep the arms straight, perform a pulling prep, pull down into the rings,
pull your knees as high as you possibly can and work on getting into that inverted hang.
[Music]
All right. So we're talking about the importance of the pulling prep, keeping the arms locked
out, pulling the shoulders down and back. We lifted up our chest to work on the strength,
to help us with that pulling prep and then we focused on bringing our knees up, working
on that, so that we can get into the inverted hang.
All of those are the prerequisite for what we're going to be doing now. A lot of tutorials
you will see where a person will say, OK. You start with the front tuck. The front
tuck lever. OK? But the thing is, is what about before that?
The stuff that's before that, what I just showed you, is actually what I feel to be
the most important part because if you don't have that strength down, you're going to
have trouble progressing on to the next levels or it might just take you a very, very long
time to eventually get there.
So really focus on those basics, getting those down and if you do that, you're going to
be good and ready to start the next progression, which is the front tuck.
So what we're going to do is we're going to use that pulling prep that we did earlier
and bring our knee up so that we're in an inverted hang here. You don't need to extend
your legs. Keep your legs tucked. Hands go forward. You're going to pull the pulling
prep where you pull your shoulders down and back. Then you're going to work on this
lowering your rear end.
Your head goes back as if you're putting it on a pillow, pushing against the pillow
and you're just going to work on holding this position. Keeping your arms straight,
you're going to lower your knees. All right. So that is our front lever tuck progression.
Again, I don't want you to get hooked up on numbers. OK? Sets, reps, seconds, things
like that.
When you're learning the skill, just perform the skill as much as you can. Work on it with
good form. Focus on the form and when your form deteriorates, that means that your time
is done for the day. OK? Come back to it later, the next day or the day after, and then you
can work on it fresh and keep going and keep progressing. That's what we want.
[Music]
All right. So we looked at the front tuck and great, great, great movement that we want.
It's the first time that we actually get to start working on the front lever. Remember
to pull the shoulders down and back, so we lower the butt.
Once you get that solid, you can start opening your legs just slightly into the open tuck.
Let me show you this quickly. So as I pull up, from here, I'm going to perform the
front lever but start to open up so that my tuck is obviously open. That's why it's
the open tuck.
Now something else that you can start working on is you're performing the open tuck. As
your form starts to deteriorate and you get tired, pull your knees in, so that you're
going back to that tuck. What this will do is it will allow you to keep training with
good form but you just go down a level.
This is how you can train any skill. You perform that skill at the level, your highest level,
and as you start as that starts to get difficult, you go down one level. You go down
one level again. That's the way that you can continue training it.
[Music]
Yeah. I will show you something else that you can do with the tucks. These are tuck
repeats. So you will go from an inverted hang to the tuck position and back into inverted
hang. Here, pull up. I will go tuck, back, and so each time, I am really focusing on
where my shoulders are in relation to my front lever and that pull, so that I'm keeping
my arms straight. I'm pulling down with the hands, keeping my shoulders pulled back
and down. So that is another progression that you can use to help you for the front lever.
[Music]
So as I mentioned earlier, there's many, many different progressions that you can use
for the front lever. You can use ice cream makers. You can do inverted hang full, inverted
hang lowers. OK. You can do it from a tuck. You can do it from a straddle if you would
like.
I'm going to show you what we always call the can opener and basically one leg
is tucked and one leg is extended. Now the reason that I like this is because when you
lower, the one leg is extended but the other leg you can actually use variations between
a full tuck and an open tuck.
So you're getting closer but you can kind of make adjustments. So you can continue working
on that can opener with one leg straight. But as you get tired, you can gradually bring
the leg in closer, the bent leg in closer to your body, and continue to work on the
can opener. So let me just show this to you.
Quickly again we will start here. Pull in. So I'm going to keep one leg tucked. I'm
going to extend one leg and I'm going to keep my shoulders pulled down and pulling
to the rings and I'm just going to lower and just hold as much as I can.
Now, you noticed that was pretty high. But you can work on lowering little by little.
So like maybe you only get to here one day and then relax, take a break, go back and
focus on going lower and lower. The thing is, make sure that you do both legs. So if
you do the right leg first, then make sure you do the left leg next.
All right? So that's an example of the can opener and I'm going to show you how you
can make this little adjustment with a tight tuck and an open tuck to allow you to continue
to progress. So here I'm extended. It's more of an open but I can pull in. My knee
is closer to my body to make a little adjustment to make it easier so that I can either hold
it longer or can later continue to do more attempts of my front lever work.
[Music]
OK. So those are just a few progressions of what I think you could use to help you to
get the front lever. Once again, there are so many different ways to get the front lever.
However, always focus on the basics first. Make sure you get your pulling prep down,
focus on your core strength, and each time that you perform front lever whether it be
in a tuck, a can opener, a straddle or a full front lever, when you lower into it, make
sure that you're focusing on getting your mechanics, the technique, down so that you're
going to have a solid and beautiful front lever.