Front Lever Tutorial - Different Methods of Progression & Conditioning Exercises

In this video tutorial I'll show 3 different methods of progression as well as the best conditioning exercises to be able to do a front lever.

From a biomechanical point of view the front lever is a type III lever, which is bad news for us because it means we are at a mechanical disadvantage as the effort is much larger than the load. The amount of effort you need to overcome the resistance also depends on the distance between the fulcrum and the center of mass, the greater distance, the bigger the efforts required.

There is some misconception about the front lever being mostly a core exercise, when in truth the bulk of the work is done by the back muscles, with the assistance of the deltoids and the triceps.. There is of course an important core activation, in the abs, lower back, and glutes, but it is only secondary.

So the first requirement for the front lever is having a strong back. A good way to test this is through your pulling strength. If you can lift 1.5 times your own bodyweight, or alternatively, do 8 to 12 pull ups with an extra 30% of your bodyweight, you will probably have enough strength for the front lever. So if you weigh, say, 160 pounds you should be able to do at least one complete pullup with an extra 80 pounds, which means you’re lifting a total of 240 pounds.

Let's now have a look at different ways of progression. The first one only requires your own body weight. I'm not going through too much in detail because you have probably seen this progression in other tutorials.

The main concept behind this type of progression is to add resistance by gradually stretch the legs out so to increase the distance between the fulcrum and your center of gravity. Remember that the more distance between the two, the harder the exercise will be.

The second method involves the assistance of resistance bands to remove some of the load. This is way of progressing that I particularly like because it allows me from the very start to train in the exact same position as in the front lever. It requires a little bit of work for the setup but once is done it's very easy to implement.

For this you'll need 4 resistance bands with carabiner ends and 3 ankle straps or pieces of rope. First, attach a strap or a rope around a pull up bar and make sure its properly fixed and it's safe to use, as remember, it will have to support all of your body weight. Then, you take the resistance bands and pass them through the 2 others ankle straps and fix then to the strap attached to the bar.

Here try to pay attention to the parts of your body that receive the most tension. Which muscles do you think that is more under stress? Is this your lats, shoulders, arms, or core?

After that, the progression is pretty straightforward:: as you improve your strength and stability in the position you will remove one elastic band each time until you will use just one band. Ideally you should remove the band once you're able to hold the position for at least 15 seconds. If you feel you're still not ready for the full front lever you can try, instead of removing the band all together to place another one of lighter resistance.

The third method requires a bit of a more complicated set up, but it is also the most precise of the three, because it allows us to know exactly how much is left to reach our goal.. It involves using a counter weight to support part of your body weight The amount of assistance you are receiving equals the amount of weight you are using as a counterweight.

So what type of work out and which exercises you need to train for the front lever?

There are three things you need to work on in order to achieve the front lever. The first, as I mentioned before, is strength in the back muscles. Second is scapular stability and activation of the lower and mid trapezius . This will allow you to keep your trunk stable and in the horizontal position . Last but not least is body alignment , which in this case, it requires core strength and stability .