(hip-hop instrumental music)
- What's up, it's Chris Heria, welcome to another vlog.
Today I'm gonna be showing you how to unlock
your front lever hold step-by-step.
The front lever like the handstand, human flag,
and full planche is one of the fundamental static exercises
when it comes to mastering your body weight.
And being able to hold the front lever position
for time will develop an enormous amount of pulling,
core, and back strength, allowing you
to develop the ultimate physique,
while building a lot of strength and muscle.
When I had first seen the front lever
it looked pretty easy to me, but when I had tried it,
it was actually a lot harder than I thought.
And depending on where your fitness level is currently,
the front level hold could take you
a couple months or even up to a year to master.
But just like the human flag, the full planche,
and the handstand without the right training regimen,
without training the right progressions,
it doesn't matter how strong you are,
you're likely to never unlock
the front lever, at least with proper form.
And that's why so many people struggle
with mastering this movement.
So, today I'll be showing you step by step
the same exact routine and exercises
that I use to unlock my front lever.
So, if you're ready to get started,
all you'll need to do is download the Heria Pro app
in the App Store or Google play store.
Open up to the YouTube workout section.
You should be able to find this routine.
Smash the like button on this video.
And we're ready to get started.
Now, the front lever is
an intermediate to advanced exercise.
So before you start learning how to front lever
you want to make sure that you have the proper foundation
and required strength so that you're able
to focus on your form and technique
as you're learning every progression and exercise.
So you're not struggling or stressing
through every exercise or progression,
which will also allow you to unlock this move
in the fastest amount of time possible.
So, to make sure you have enough strength
to start learning the front lever,
you first want to master the requirements.
That's gonna be at least 10 to 15 pull-ups
with perfect form, at least a 20 second hanging L sit hold,
15 hanging leg raises with perfect form,
and at least five to 10 L-sit pull-ups with perfect form.
If you've got all that down, and you're ready
to start learning the front lever,
the very first progression, toes to bar.
I'm gonna go for 10 reps, show you what it looks like.
Basically, you're gonna start off
just like hanging leg raises from a dead hang position
with a tight grip, core tight, and your feet tied together.
Without any momentum you want to raise
your legs into an L-sit position.
Then, you want to lean back and continue
to raise your legs until your feet touch the bar.
The more you're able to lean back and engage your scapulas,
the easier it's gonna be to get your feet to touch the bar.
It's also super important that you maintain perfect form
and control the movement coming back down.
Core engaged, descending as slow
and controlled back to starting position.
All right, so there we have the toes to bar.
Now, I've actually broken down this movement exactly
how to train for it, how to unlock it step-by-step.
Check out my video on how to toes to bar.
I'll link it down below.
You don't necessarily have to be
extremely flexible and fold like a pancake.
You can actually just stay in that L-sit position.
Lean back, and your feet will be able to touch the bar,
even if you're not that flexible.
And doing it this way will actually be more beneficial
for the front lever, as this is the same back
and lat activation that you'll be using
as we move on through the progressions.
Now, before moving onto the next progression,
you want to be able to master the toes to bar,
being able to do 10 reps, consecutively, with perfect form.
For those of you that may be struggling
to increase repetitions when learning this movement,
you can always do one or a couple of them
every minute on the minute for about 10 to 20 minutes.
So, for example, if you can only do one rep,
you're gonna do one rep every minute on the minute.
And in 20 minutes you would have done 20 reps.
Whereas, otherwise you wouldn't have done
anything or just burnt out after two.
And after training like that for some time,
eventually, you'd be able to do two every minute
on the minute, and so forth, increasing your repetitions.
So keep that in mind with every single progression
that we're gonna be covering with today.
That's how you want to train them.
Especially if you can only do one or a couple of reps,
you also want to be training
drop setting your progressions.
So, starting off with the hardest progression
that you can do, maxing that one out,
and then going to an easier progression.
So, for the toaster bar, for example,
as soon as you finished completing your reps
you can go straight into leg raises.
Now, getting into the next progression.
We're gonna be doing a tucked front lever hold.
I'm gonna hold it for 10 seconds
and show you what it looks like.
You want to get into it like
you're getting into a knee raise.
You want to bring your knees as high
as you can squeeze them towards your chest.
Drive your hips up as you lean back.
And once you've raised your body completely flat
and horizontal, arms straight,
you want to maintain constant tension on your hands.
And make sure that you're not holding your breath.
But you're actually breathing the whole time.
All right, so there we have the tucked front lever hold.
And at the end there I extended it
a little bit more, just to show you
that there's a more advanced way to hold it.
And you can actually make it harder
once it gets easier for you.
And that's gonna build you more strength and allow you
to get closer to your front lever hold.
So, the tighter you are and the closer your knees
are to your chest the easier it's gonna be.
And the more extended your knees are,
and the more you're spread out, the harder it's gonna be,
as it's applying more resistance to the exercise.
And another tip I'll let you know right now
that's gonna be helpful along your front lever journey,
especially when you're holding the front lever
is to twist your wrists up as you grip as hard as you can.
Push the bar as far away from me.
And rev up at the same time as I try
to bring my palms to my waistline.
Not everyone does it like this or uses this technique,
but it's personally helped me over the years
keep my arms straight and locked out,
and my body as straight as possible in a front lever hold.
If you want to unlock the real front lever,
that's gonna be super important.
You may see a lot of front levers out there on the internet.
But if the arms aren't completely locked out
and your body isn't in a completely straight line,
then it's actually not a front lever yet.
Even if it has the smallest bend in the hips,
that means you're not engaging
your lower back or your lats properly.
And that's also not our front lever.
So, as we go through every single progression
it's super important that you're engaging your lats,
lower back, and even your glutes properly,
so that by the time we get to the front lever
hold you should know what it feels like
and what it looks like to have perfect form.
Before moving on you want to make sure that you can hold
the tuck front lever for at least 15 seconds
with perfect form and proper engagement.
Now we're ready to move on to
the next progression, upside down deadlifts.
I'm gonna go for five reps, show you what it looks like,
(hip-hop instrumental music)
All right, so there we have the upside down deadlift.
I did the first two reps with full range of motion
to show you that you can add the toes to bar
into this movement and make it harder.
But if you're just getting started I want you
to do them like how I finished the rest of the reps,
not going all the way back down.
And conserve your energy so that you can really focus
on the main portion of this movement.
Getting into this move actually starts
at the top of a toes to bar.
Once your toes have reached the bar with no momentum,
maintaining perfect form, you want to push your hips
through and up while squeezing your glutes
and your grip, keeping your arms straight.
You want to be thinking of the motion of a deadlift.
As you start driving your hips in and lengthening
your body out, you want to make sure
that the bar rides along your body the whole entire time.
The further away your body becomes from the bar
as you're raising, the more gravity
is gonna want to just tear you back down.
So, make sure that you're staying close and tight
to the bar, as you raise your hips up and coming
into a perfectly straight inverted line upside down.
And as you reach the top, getting
into that straight line, do not get lazy.
You want to feel your body pressing against the bar.
And you want to feel those hips driving through.
That's the same activation that's gonna be
required to hold your front lever.
So it's very important now that you start mastering that.
So, as you start to come back down
you can start leading with your hips first.
Bring your feet back down to the bar.
And then drive right back up.
Once you've mastered this move,
you've made some significant progress.
And you're actually halfway
to mastering your front lever hold.
You want to be able to do this for at least
10 reps consecutively with perfect form.
And then you're ready for the next progression.
And that's gonna be front lever drops,
the most important progression to mastering
and unlocking your front lever hold.
I'm gonna do it with one leg first,
show you what that looks like, and then do it with two legs.
As I mentioned before, in the upside down deadlift
when you reach the top of the inverted position
you want to make sure that you push
and thrust your hips all the way through.
And that's where this progression begins.
You're not gonna descend or drop down
until your hips have been all the way pushed through.
That's gonna help you maintain
your form and your straight line.
Don't forget, as you're doing your front lever drops
to gaze right past the pull-up bar.
Don't be looking all over the place
because that's gonna break your form.
Once you've engaged your lower back
put it into the right position.
You have a strong grip, strong core, engaging your lats,
constant tension in your grip and in your arms,
just like a puck front lever.
Then, you can begin to descend nice and controlled.
And no matter what, as you begin to come down
do not break that lower back engagement.
At first, you're gonna drop down really fast.
The more you do this the stronger you're gonna get.
And eventually you're gonna be able
to drop down slower and slower.
All right, so there we have the front lever drops.
This is when you really need to make sure that you're using
that perfect hip thrust, lower back engagement.
And your front lever really depends on it.
If you don't have that proper lower back
engagement your body is gonna bend.
It's not gonna maintain that straight line.
And you're gonna be doing it wrong the whole entire time.
That's why this step is the most important
and most crucial step when it comes to the front lever hold.
If you're trying to keep your body straight
by your feet you're always going
to be neglecting that lower back area.
And you're never gonna have a straight line.
With your lower back properly engaged,
the rest of your lower body can rest on that engagement.
So, basically, that lower back engagement
is gonna allow your body to stay as a single unit line.
And that's why you should practice
this with a single leg first.
That's gonna alleviate some of the weight
and get you closer to dropping down slower and slower.
Once you can do it for six reps on each leg consecutively,
then you can start training with both of your legs together.
This was actually the way I first unlocked my front lever.
I was training this exercise so diligently
that eventually I just came down so slow,
and when I got to the 90 degree line
I was able to just stop like one or two seconds.
But, eventually, I was able to grow on that
drop setting the other progressions,
doing this every minute on the minute,
and eventually being able to go right
into the front level hold position
or combining it with other exercises.
And even taking the front lever hold
to the next level with some front lever pull-ups.
And by the time you can do these front lever drops
for 10 consecutive reps with perfect form,
you should definitely be able to have the strength
to come down slow on one of them.
And just hold that front lever position.
Now, I'm gonna show you one last progression.
This is really gonna help you solidify the front lever.
That's gonna be front level raises.
And just like the last progression,
you can start off doing this as single legs,
build some strength, and then eventually doing it with both.
I'll show you what they look like.
(hip-hop instrumental music)
All right, so there we have the front lever raises.
This is the last progression.
And you want to make sure that
you're practicing this progression last.
Because this one really requires the conscious effort
to engage your lower back to do this exercise properly
and maintain your body in a straight line.
A lot of times people start training this exercise too early
without knowing the lower back engagement technique
and do front level raises
with their body bent the whole time.
Because they're not properly engaging their lower back.
So, it's crucial that you do not raise
from your feet when doing foot lever raises
and you actually are raising by leaning back,
engaging your lats, engaging that lower back activation,
squeezing your core, glutes, and your grip,
and maintaining that straight line as you lift
your lower body from the very beginning.
So, watch very closely as I start to engage
when doing the front level raises.
First, I engage my scapulas.
Lean back on them.
Raise, raise, raise from my lower back, not from my feet.
This can either really help you or can set you back
if you're not doing it properly.
So, start off doing this exercise with one leg first,
build up the strength.
Once you can do at least six to seven reps on each leg,
then you can move on to start training them with both legs.
And you want to train this combined
with the front lever drops because this movement alone
is not gonna have you unlock the front lever.
So, make sure you really master the front lever drops
before moving on to the front level raises.
And make sure you practice both of them diligently
to unlock your front lever hold.
So, if you follow the workout regimen
and you master every single move step by step
you should definitely have unlocked your front lever hold.
Now, I'm gonna give you one last bonus technique
to help build your strength and your front lever even more.
That's gonna be ice cream makers.
I'm gonna go for a couple of reps,
show you what it looks like.
To perform the ice cream makers we want to get
to the top of a pull-up with your feet tied together,
your core engaged, and a tight grip.
From there you want to hold that locked position.
You're gonna push the bar away from you.
Raise the rest of your body with your hips
into a front lever position.
And you're gonna bring the bar right back to your chest.
And rock back and forth from a front lever pull-up position.
All right, there we have some good
old-fashioned ice cream makers.
This was another exercise I used way back in the day
that really brought me some significant strength
and leveled up my front lever, eventually got me
into front lever pull-ups and so much more.
So, if you enjoyed the video
definitely smashed that like button.
Leave a comment down below.
Let me know if you were able to unlock the front lever.
Or if you need any other further help I'll be down
in the comment section below trying to help everybody out.
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That's gonna be it for today.
Thank you so much for watching.
Let me know what you want to see
in the next video in a comment down below.
I'm gonna be checking all that out.
And I will see you next Thursday, 2:00 PM USA Eastern time.
Mad love, and peace out.
(hip-hop instrumental music)
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