Tutorial Front Lever

f you want strong lats and phenomenal core strength, then the front lever is an exercise for you. More than likely, if you can do a front lever you’ll have a great six-pack. This isn’t just because you’ll have strong abs, but the less bodyweight you have the easier this will be.

Why the Front Lever Is So Difficult

I don’t think I’ve ever seen an overweight person pull off this move! (Though it’s certainly not an impossibility.) But it’s not just how much you weigh, but how tall you are that plays into the difficulty of this movement. As a leverage exercise, one additional inch in height adds many foot-pounds of pressure that you must resist. Personally, at 6’2” and 185lbs, I’m not the standard gymnast size. But that’s no excuse for not being able to achieve this move if you’re willing to put in the work.

The front lever is somewhere around two to three times more difficult than the back lever, at least in my experience. It’s not just about holding your body out parallel to the ground, but also about using your lats to lock yourself into place. In the front lever the lats are at a much more disadvantageous position than in the back lever, making it significantly harder.

I’ve even heard it said that the front lever is tougher than the one arm chin-up, but I think this will depend on the person and their focus. In either case, there will be some carryover between the two.

Six Steps to the Front Lever

In this article, I’ll give you six steps you can use to work up to the full front lever. You may notice these are different than what I advise for the back lever. In my own training, I discovered that this set of progressions worked better for me for the front lever. For example, I found that when I tried to do straddle front levers, there was a likelihood of a pike in the hips, which you want to avoid, but this is easy to avoid with the one-leg versions. That doesn’t mean you can’t do alternate progressions if you want, but this is what has worked for me and for many people I have observed.

Tip: One thing that helps on this exercise, regardless of the step you’re on, is to not only pull down on the bar, but to also pull apart your hands. This action can help stabilize the scapula allowing you to hold the position better.

Tuck Front Lever

Grasp the bar within overhand grip. Pull your legs and hips up, at the same time leaning back. Your back should be rounded and your body tucked up into as much of a ball as possible. Although rounded, you want your back approximately parallel to the ground.

Advanced Tuck Front Lever

Start in the tuck lever position. Instead of rounding your back, now you're going to straighten it. It should form a line approximately parallel to the ground. At the same time, pull your shoulder blades back in retraction. Open the legs up slightly so your thighs are perpendicular to your body. This opening up increases the leverage.

One Bent Leg Front Lever

From the tuck lever, start with both your legs tucked in hard. Now extend one leg out, but keep the knee bent. The lower leg will be perpendicular to the ground, but your hip will be opened up completely. It may look like an odd position, but it’s not difficult to get into, and is an important step in the progression. Make sure to alternate legs between your sets.

One Leg Front Lever

Start in the tucked front lever position. Extend one leg out completely straight. Your back, hips, and the extended leg will all be in one line, parallel to the ground. It’s okay if there is a slight bow, but you should be mostly straight. The other leg will be tucked in hard to the chest. Make sure to alternate legs on your sets.

Advanced One Leg Front Lever

Start in the tucked front lever position. Extend one leg out completely straight. The other leg is partially un-tucked. The foot will be in line with the knee of the other leg. This halfway open position increases the leverage dramatically. Once again, your back and the straight leg are parallel to the ground. Alternate legs.

Front Lever

Starting from the tuck lever position, keeping both legs together, gradually extend them out at the hips and knees, until they are completely straight. Your entire body will form one straight line parallel to the ground. Pull down hard with the hands and the lats, as well as working the pulling-apart action to assist in stabilization.

Tip: Alternatively, you can pull up into this position from standing, although this is harder to do. These front lever pulls can be a great dynamic exercise, even without holding, to do in addition to the regular progressions of holds.

In the interest of being forthright, at the time of this writing I haven’t achieved the full front lever hold yet. Not for more than a split second anyway. But I am close, having accomplished several seconds in the advanced one leg front lever. And these are the progressions I’ve used to get there.

In the beginning you may progress quickly through this series as your body becomes adapted to the front lever position. As you reach the last three steps, you’ll find things slow down. Understand that it can take months to go from one step to the next. An additional second here and there is great progress. And, as needed, you can do additional in between phases of these exercises.

Best Tutorial Planche ever

Planche guide

The planche is a fundamental gymnastics skill in which the body is held parallel to the ground, supported only by the hands and arms (with the feet raised). This requires an incredible amount of strength and balance.  

You will regularly see the planche featured in competitive gymnastics but it's also a popular exercise for recreational athletes in bodyweight and calisthenics movements. 

The body positioning for the planche is outlined in the table below -

Learning the planche

Unless you're a trained gymnast or have been training dedicatedly for the planche skills it's unlikely that you're going to be able to perform the hold straight away. You need to work through the planche progressions to build up the required strength and skills. 

It's important that you approach planche training with the correct mind set else you're bound for frustration. Learning the planche is typically not a quick process and in most cases you're looking at a minimum of 6 months training, but this varies considerably depending on the person in question and their current abilities, and can often take longer. 

As with most advanced bodyweight exercises the two most important facets of your training are patience and dedication. Improvements will come consistently, but incrementally.

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Planche progressions

There are four main progression exercises recommended for the planche, these are; the frog stand, tuck planche, advanced tuck planche, straddle planche and finally onto the full planche.

Planche training notes

• Hold each progression for as long as comfortable and in good form. 
• Combine each set until you have 60 seconds of overall hold time (however many sets this may take!). 
• Master each progression before moving onto the next (60 second consecutive hold) and repeat the process.

Planche progression exercises

The progressions below are assuming a base level of fitness and you should have a solid physical foundation through planks, push-ups, pull-ups and dips before moving into the progressions. 

1. Frog Stand - This is the starting point of planche training.  Assume a full squat position and place your hands on the ground, in front of the feet. The knees should be resting against the elbows for support. Lean forward, taking weight onto the hands. With training you will be able to remove the feet entirely from the ground. Practice this position until you hit your 60 second hold time before moving to the next progressing as described in the training notes above.
2. Tuck planche - A similar position to the frog stand except the knees are pressed into the chest so your straight arms are entirely supporting your body weight. Practice consistently, aiming to lift your hips to shoulder height. Move to the advanced tuck planche when you can sustain the standard hold for 60 seconds with raised hips and straight arms. 
3. Advanced tuck planche - The main difference with the advanced tuck planche is back positioning. Whereas the standard tuck planche is performed with a curved back the advanced tuck planche is straight. Extend the hips up and behind you until the back straightens out and move one when you can sustain the straight back hold for 60 seconds. 
4. Straddle planche - You're almost there! The straddle planche builds on the tuck planche position by extending the legs out, held straight from the body. When in the tuck planche position, slowly move the legs out from the chest behind you (you will need to learn forward to counter balance the shift in weight). The wider the legs the easier it is to balance, strive to bring the legs closer together as you progress. 
1. Aim for ten second holds with the straddle planche due to the increased difficulty.
5. Full Planche! Congratulations, you're mastered the planche!

Once you've fully mastered the static strength planche you can start training for some dynamic movement to the exercise and introduce planche push-ups for increased intensity. 

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Planche tips

• Strive to hold the hips level with the shoulders.
• Ensure elbows are straight (bent arm planches will hinder progress by lessening the intensity).
• Be consistent. Train the static progression holds every day for maximum effect. 
• Be patient. Make small, incremental progress. 
• Each workout, strive to increase position hold time or the extension of the position.
• Even minute changes in body position can seriously increase the difficulty of the exercise. 

Birmingham to host Gymnastics World Cup in March 2018

Arena Birmingham will host the British leg of the 2018 World Cup in March.

The six-discipline men's event will take place on Wednesday 21 March with the women taking centre stage over four disciplines the following day.

The World Cup consists of four competitions with United States and Germany also hosting legs before the finale in Japan.

Birmingham has also been chosen over Liverpool for England's bid to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

RESULTS – KENGURU PRO STREET WORKOUT WORLD CUP 2017 STAGE IN BARCELONA

RESULTS – KENGURU PRO STREET WORKOUT WORLD CUP 2017 STAGE IN BARCELONA

Results – Kenguru Pro Street Workout World Cup Stage in Barcelona, Spain.

Place, name, surname, Instagram, represented country:

1.Tomas Casero, @tomascasero_tcrew02 (Spain)
2.Julito Mieza, @chicanskulls (Spain)
3.Jowi Truch, @acrew_jowii_suave(Spain)
4.Luis Becker, @luis_beckergarnier (Spain)
5.Gabriel Aguirre, @sw_gabriel (Spain)

Organizers: Spanish street workout federation “OESWC” and “WSWCF”.

Spanish organization ”FESWC” has changed the name to ”OESWC” and they are the only one recognized by the @WSWCF