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- [Girl] Listen!
- What's up guys, it's Chris Heria.
Welcome to another video of OFFICIALTHENX.
Today, I'm gonna be showing you guys how to back lever.
Now why do you wanna learn this move?
Well, after you master the basics,
the back lever is one of the first fundamental static moves
to learn in order for you to gain the core strength
that will allow you to move on
to more advanced calisthenics moves.
For example, the planche, just like the back lever,
you need to be protracted in the shoulders.
You need to have that abdominal and lat muscle connection
as well as connecting and contracting all your muscles
as a whole in a linear, horizontal line.
When you're in a back lever, your hands are behind you
and you're in a hanging position.
In this position, it's the same muscle connections
that you use when you're in a planche.
The only difference is that your hands are in front
and it's a pushing force instead of hanging.
When you're holding a back lever,
you're activating your scapulas, your back,
your lats, your abs, your chest,
your biceps, your triceps, your forearms,
your glutes, even your calves
and you need to be conscience of activating
all these muscles simultaneously
and working together to hold this move.
And before you begin to learn these five steps
that I'm about to show you to master your back lever hold
you must be able to pass the requirements.
For this exercise you need to be able
to hang on the bar for at least 20 seconds.
You need to be able to do at least 15 high knee raises,
ten pull-ups, and a hanging L-sit hold
for at least ten seconds.
If you got all these and you can do them comfortably,
with perfect form, then you're ready
to start learning this move.
Alright, so let's get started.
So there's many progressions, many steps,
to learning how to back lever.
I've broken it down into these five basic progressions,
the same steps I used to learn how to back lever
and the same steps that I teach in my workshops.
And if you master these five steps
this is gonna be the most efficient way
for you to master your back lever.
So the first progression I have for you is skin the cat.
Let me show you what that looks like.
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Alright, so this move right here,
stems off of the exercise of the high knee raise.
So that's why that was a requirement
before starting to learn this exercise.
So if you guys are having trouble with this exercise,
you need to go back and practice those high knee raises.
And they should be looking like this,
so really tight, slight over-grip, tight tight grip,
squeeze that core already, squeeze those hands already,
feet tight together, knees up.
Bring it up by leaning back,
and then bringing those hips up.
Straight come back down.
Always keep that core tight,
always keep your hands tight; perfect form.
So, knees up, start to lean back,
you're gonna feel it in your shoulders.
Almost like a lat pull-down.
Actually, exactly like a lat pull-down.
One more time guys, let's do a couple reps.
Knees up, lean back.
Pull your hands down, lats come down.
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So when I'm doing that move,
I'm not just bringing my knees up, but I'm also leaning back
and trying to bring my hands to my waist line.
Alright, so, master that exercise right there,
you should be doing skin the cat.
And before moving onto the next step,
you wanna make sure you can do the skin the cat
comfortably, with perfect form, for at least five reps.
Let's go for a quick five reps right now.
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Alright, so this next step, very similar to skin the cat.
We're gonna go for a tucked back lever hold.
It looks like this.
(electronic music)
So as you can see, this move stems off of the skin the cat.
When you do a skin the cat, you lift through your arms
into an inverted position where your back is flat.
When you do a tucked back lever,
that's the position you're gonna try to hold.
Doing this exercise, make sure you have a really tight grip,
it really helps if you have an over-grip on it
and as you're going over,
you wanna already start looking forward.
Try to already spot the wall as you're turning over
before you even reach to that tucked back lever position.
Once you get to that tucked back lever position,
you wanna re-squeeze your body again,
re-squeeze your hands, your core,
everything as tight as possible
and then you're gonna try to hold that position
staring at that wall, keeping that core tight,
breathing, you're gonna try to hold that as long as you can.
So let me show you one more time what that looks like.
So, shoulder width apart, that tight grip,
feet together, knees up, come over,
now I'm going to already start to spot the wall.
Keep it tight, and I'll have a slight lean forward too.
And this is the position right here, alright.
So you wanna be able to hold that position right there,
for at least 15 seconds.
Alright, so once we've mastered the tuck back lever hold,
this next exercise is gonna introduce
that straight line position from a back lever.
We're gonna go for a back lever upside down hold.
Let me show you guys what that looks like.
(electronic music)
Alright, so that move looks pretty simple,
and it is, this shouldn't be too much
of a harder progression, a harder step,
to take after that tuck back lever hold.
But this progression is setting you up
for the next step, which is actually holding
that straight line so you wanna be able to at least master
holding a straight line straight upside down.
You wanna have a really tight grip
when you're doing this exercise
and just like the back lever hold,
now you're activating your body
as a whole in a linear position.
You wanna be able to hold this move right here
for at least 20 seconds, get really comfortable
with this move and it's gonna make
the next progression a whole lot easier.
So one more time, let me show you guys what it looks like.
You wanna have a slight over-grip,
shoulder width apart, really tight grip always.
Straight lines, feet tight, tight, tight together,
core tight, feet straight up, then straight up,
and you wanna be as straight as a pencil,
keep everything tight, tight, tight,
and start pushing your chin forward,
straight down to the ground,
looking straight in front of you.
And keep everything tight, squeeze those glutes,
squeeze those calves, keep those feet super tight together.
And make sure you're breathing.
Now we're gonna come back down, just like that.
So master that move, and you're ready to learn
one of the last steps to mastering your back lever hold.
Alright, so now we're gonna be moving
into single leg back lever negatives.
This is step four to mastering your back lever hold.
Let me show you guys what it looks like real quick.
We're gonna go into that upside down hold position.
One leg in, start looking for the wall.
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So there we have a single leg back lever negative.
So going over this exercise, you wanna start off
with a really strong over-grip.
And as you go over you wanna make sure
that you're already in a straight line.
And that's extremely important before you begin to descend,
you need to make sure that your body
is already super, super tight
and you really have that locked liner position.
What's really gonna help you keep that locked position
is the angle of your face, like I said,
you need to start pointing that chin up,
and starting to look in front of you as hard as you can.
Really start to point that chin as you start to come down,
you also want to start pointing your toes
as hard as you can.
Point those toes and keep them real, real tight together,
as if they were bound together with rope.
If you're stressing on the two opposite ends
of your body, your toes and your chin,
that's what's gonna help you keep that straight line
muscle connection throughout the rest of your body.
So if one of those positions is not straight,
or is lacking, that's gonna reflect on your form,
and to keep it real tight in the middle of your body,
you need to squeeze those glutes,
you need to activate those lats,
you need to activate your scapulas, roll them forward,
and you need to be squeezing those calves as well.
And all those muscles working together
and connecting is what creates this linear hold
and what makes a back lever so special and so beneficial.
So let me show you guys again what this move looks like.
We go up from the top, shoulder width position.
Now we wanna already get straight from here,
start looking forward, start pointing those toes,
squeezing the glutes, calves, everything, arms, grip.
We're gonna come one leg in, start looking towards the wall,
squeeze, squeeze those triceps,
squeeze the core, point the toes.
Come down slow as you can, next leg.
(electronic music)
One in, and come down slow as you can.
Now when you're first doing this exercise,
you're probably gonna be dropping down
pretty quickly and that's completely normal.
Body's definitely not used to being in this position
and holding this amount of weight,
as well as connecting so many muscles to be able
to hold this linear position for an amount of time.
So just focus on really squeezing,
really making that connection,
squeezing all the proper muscles,
using the proper form to come down
and eventually you're gonna be able
to come down slower and slower.
So you wanna make sure you can do this exercise
comfortably with perfect form at least five on each leg
before moving on to this last progression.
And the last progression I have for you
is back lever negatives, the same progression
we just did, with two feet.
(electronic music)
Back lever negatives.
In some cases, this progression is even harder
than actually holding a back lever.
And to achieve the strength to perform this progression,
you wanna make sure that you're training
all the progressions that I just showed you.
You can incorporate them into your workout regimen.
For example, back day would be a perfect day for this,
abdominals, for your technique day
would be a great time to train these.
So the way that you actually get
from the back lever negative to actually
holding a back lever is by doing the back lever negative
over and over and over again
until it gets extremely comfortable.
Just like the back lever negative with the single leg,
you're gonna drop fast at the beginning,
eventually you're gonna get better at it,
you're gonna hold a straighter line,
you're gonna start coming down
a whole lot slower and more controlled.
The same thing is gonna happen
with these back lever negatives with two feet.
At the beginning, you might be coming down pretty quick,
but the more you do them, you're gonna have
a better control, you're gonna gain more strength,
and you're gonna start to come down slower and slower,
and eventually you're gonna be able to come down so slow,
that instead of going all the way down,
you just stop and you hold it right in the middle.
Let me show you guys what that looks like.
(electronic music)
And that's what'll eventually happen,
that's what happened with me.
By the time I was able to do 10
back lever negative comfortably,
I was able to come down real slow
and just lock it right into that horizontal position.
Thank you guys so much for watching.
If you guys practice these progressions,
incorporate them into your workout routines,
then it shouldn't be too long until you unlock
and master your back lever hold.
So smash that like button if you enjoyed this video,
share it with a friend that you think is up
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So comment down below, let me know
what you want the next video to be about,
and before I go I'm releasing my new song,
it's my first single called On My Mind.
You can pre-order it right now at ChrisHeria.com
and it'll be dropping September 6th.
Here's a little preview of the track
And I'll see you guys next Sunday, mad love, peace out.
♪ Got you on my, give you all my time.♪
♪ Wanna make you mine, show you that I'm trying ♪
♪ So you know she's fine, we do this all the time ♪
♪ Wanna make you mine, show you that you're mine ♪
♪ Girl you know I'm trying, I can show you things ♪
♪ All around the world, I'm saying ♪
♪ Do you know we fight? ♪
♪ Together all the time, all the time ♪
♪ Open up her eyes ♪
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