This is gold man. Thanks a lot for putting this together. This video will live for a last time and will help millions. So refreshing to watch so much work and passion in a single video. Cheers! - Gabo
@@FrinksmovementTV till the very end brother :) actually I was surprised no one has ever made such a video about front lever touching on points that goes beyond the usual information, but the answer is clear: effort and passion are required for this to happen. Respect to your work! RUclips just recommend me the press to handstand one hehe exited to see what’s that about and it will probably reveal why presses are so easy for me 😂 the same why this clearly revealed why front lever is so damn hard for me 😂 keep it up mate! - Gabo
@@SaturnoMovement Thank you so so much. Im so glad you discovered the videos, and decided to take your time to click an watch 🙏🏻 Sent you a message on IG btw.
Great video! From my personal experience and from training others people who learn the front lever quickly are those that are lighter & shorter (5 feet 2-5 as an example) where as heavier/taller people (5 feet 9+) take a longer time (years even) to learn the full front lever. Makes sense. Taller you are, Longer the lever, harder the hold
I think it is also genetics. Me for example. I am almost 90KG and 184 and have 1 minute front lever. And I got 20+ seconds in a couple of months. I see people train with far better weight and genetics then me train harder and more often and don’t have the FL.
And I can maybe do 3 seconds full planche and I train it for 5+ years. And I have a friend who could do maltese in a couple of months. Some people are PUSH gifted and some people are PULL gifted!
@@ThomasStuijfzand i just watched ur front lever vid. In my opinion you bending the hips and protracting too much. If you would hold it with perfect form your 1 minute hold would probably go down to about 5 sec.
@@ThomasStuijfzand Genetic is one of the main reason for your height. This video doesn't say that it's impossible above 180cm or 80kg, just that it is more rare to find people with these metrics that have a full front lever. I am like you 184, and after 3 years of training I have like 10 seconds of good form maximum. Height and weight plays an important role here but there is also work and training
I'd love it. I have trained SW for 5+ years, mainly handbalance aspect, and I am an undergraduated chemical engineering student: mostly have to deal with engine, mechanic stuff. This video pops up in my recommended made me satisfied. Thanks you ;) !
Wow..... now this is quality information, well explained, in good context, and definitely deserving of more viewership!!! First video I watch from you and already a sub keep it up bro!!! You’re doing something great here💯👌🏻
Loved this video! I feel much of front lever is training specificity. A month ago or so, I was stuck with a proper tuck one leg fr for max 8 sec and weighed at least 123 (would fluctuate but never below 123). Then, I took a week break off training and then I tried again. My weighted pullup has gone up as my weight has gone down and some strength gains, but they are much slower than my fr progress, where I went from 3 sets of 8 sec tuck one leg to easy 5 set 10 sec tuck one leg with 5 sec straddle halflay with slow and controlled straddle negatives. A month ago, I could barely do 3 reps of straddle halflay negatives, but now I can do good 4 reps of straddle negatives. The factors that have changed is my diet (which correlates to weight reduction) and leg training. I eat a lot less volume of food, before I would eat average 2300+ but now I eat under 2000 calories so I would in average weigh 120. Also, a month ago I had access to barbells so I would train legs (albeit not much as I had only started 2 months ago) but unfortunately I do not have access so I have not been able to train legs. However, I feel my weight reduction has had a more significant impact on my fr progress. Edit: The weight is in pounds and I am currently in the 10-30% group in weighted pullups.
Wow! Really deep and well explained content. I really appreciate that. To be honest, I was fairly surprised when heard about the correlation between deadlift and front lever. (0:00-0:13) Do you really think, that deadlifting can boost FL? Actually I have always avoided it, because I considered it as an exercise, which makes your lower body grow, damages pull-up strength and consequently affects front lever holds negatively (makes it harder). Of course I know there are people like Ranjit who excels in both but in my opinion, they are rather exceptions. Would be thankful for further explanation. Thanks once more. Greetings from the Czech Republic.
hey frinks, amazing video 😁 One thing I'm curious about that I rarely see discussed with the front lever is how grip strength can alter the angle of flexion to potentially change the difficulty of the hold. Removing the assumption that the COM must be below the bar certainly adds degrees of freedom and complicates the model, but I'm curious if training grip intentionally could help more people achieve this feat.
Hello Kyle, thank you! That is a very interesting and Im glad you've asked! Because yes theoretically if someone applied enough "twisting" force on the bar, that would alter the "COM of the body" in a sense that the angle would get modified. So the problem is that this would need to be force that I don't think any human would be capable of producing with his wrist extensors. In theory, this would make CTI possible as well (close to impossible). Its fun to test it for example being in swimming pull and grabbing to some kind of pole, there you can kind of feel that if you twist the pole you can alter your body position. Unfortunately, I don't think it would add any meaning on bars because our forearms are just too weak. Now up till this point I was not thinking too much about calculations, but the point is that in theory it could be the case, in practice I think its not worth to work on the grip specifically to alter this position because we will never achieve the meaningful effects. Thats my take on that right now as I read your question, thank you for provoking thoughts! I will update you if I have some new ideas on that.
@@FrinksmovementTV Thanks for the quick and detailed response, it makes sense that the force required to significantly change the angle isn't something that wrist extension can produce, so training grip wouldn't help much with achieving the front lever. I wonder however if cueing wrist extension could help with recruitment patterns, as I've noticed in my own training that this tends to improve my form. I was also very interested in the discussion of specificity, since though I agree that building bent-arm strength until the general requisite strength and muscle mass are achieved is the large base necessary before specific straight-arm training methods are used, I feel like there is still a large portion of athletes as evidenced by your survey that have the requisite strength and body proportion but could maybe utilize more deliberate, highly specific exercises to train their motor neurons for proper coordination in this complex isometric. As I stand at 195 cm with a current 1RM weighted pullup of around 40% BW, I'm not sure I'll ever achieve the front lever, but perhaps by continuing to build pullup/row strength and supplementing with progressions I'll get there some day.
With the cueing what we know from research is that external cues improve the coordination. And so external cue properly applied that suits individual is definitely something worth doing, I personally like "pushing away from the bar" cue but something like twisting the bar might be a very useful cue as well. You can listen about it more here: ruclips.net/video/NviWg5C_fio/видео.html Now regarding specificity. I think both are important. I would say that its difficult to say if people whose requirements are "enough" can't do front lever because they don't train it specifically OR they just need higher requirements because they are built this way (leverage aspect). I would say the best thing you can do is do your straight arm work where you apply cues and work on your form and supplement it with bent arm strength work where you are just striving for the raw strength gains. I still think that coordination will play much bigger role in dynamic exercises like handstand push ups, handstand presses, planche presses or muscle ups. However, it likely plays a role in statics as well. It is just that we cannot simply assess how much by measuring 1RM relative strength (because different body proportions will affect how much force some person needs to produce, despite his bodyweight). But front lever is much more complex than isometric forearm flexion test on dynamometer, and to say technique/coordination doesn't matter is definitely a huge stretch.
The front lever has way too many variables to get a consistent answer. The inconclusiveness of this video was expected. Great work. The most we can say is, long lower body - bad, big calves - bad, strong back muscles - good. etc Not sarcasm btw
I didn't realize I was lucky enough to be in the group that achieves it with just weighted pull-ups. However, I can't get out of the tuck planche no matter how hard I try
I'm an orthopedic doctor. I see mostly professional athletes and Olympic athletes. I've noticed in my clinic that patients with anterior tilt of the pelvis naturally take the load of squats in their glutes and hamstrings, whereas those with posterior tilt in their quadriceps. I wonder something similar might be happening with degrees of internal/external rotation of the glenohumeral joints (or the position of scapula) for making front lever harder/easier to perform than planche. After all, height and weight distribution doesn't change in one person when performing front lever vs. planche.
My story is kinda wierd. I was doing pull-ups since i was 12, then started doing a lot of muscle ups when i was 15. We went to the park 1 day with my friends when i was 16 and i tried a front lever. With not so good form, i held one for 3-4 seconds. Them i started improving my form. I got smarter with my training and now at 17 years old. 174 cm 71 kg i can hold a front lever for 11 seconds. Idk my one rep max on pull-ups, but i managed to do 20kg for a set of 8. That was mid-training so i will test it fresh next time to have a better understanding
@@FrinksmovementTV thanks for reading. I will be very thankful if you do one of these for the planche. Ive tried for a year now and can barely hold a tuck for 6 seconds
It's going to be a year since I started training the front lever, I was able to progress through one leg front lever and been stuck on that progression for about 8 months now, it's suck but I'm being patient. P.S I'm 6 feet and weight around 170lbs (183 CM, 77KG) my max pull up non-weighted is about 15-18 with weighted 40lbs vest (18KG) about 4-6 rep!
muy bueno el video, la verdad que si yerai, yo por ahora levanto un 50% de mi peso en una rep, peso 62kg y levanto 30kg en una rep, y por ahora no tengo el front, aun asi tengo advanced tuck por 12 segundos, tienes alguna recomendacion yerai?
Most people watching this probably wouldn't even notice the amount of quality put into it. Producing such informative and good looking documentary with only 2120 subscribers is unbelievable! Keep up the good work my friend!!!
My 165cm tall ex-gymnast friend with short limbs : "you just need to try tbh. Planche and FL are not that difficult, you should achieve them pretty fast if you keep training hard enough" Me, 195cm tall with chimpanzee arms and legs that cover 2/3 of my body : "I really have this ardent desire to punch you". Jokes aside, great video and great channel, I'm learning and having fun at the same time while watching your educational videos.
@@BOodidarma yeah man just wanted to write that. Me at 170 cm feel so frustrated when my tall friend tells me "yeah man I just tried it. Felt like i skipped a few steps but lol."
This channel is going to blow up, I know it for sure. This is some real high-quality content. There's nothing like this in the calisthenics community, so it's great to see such in-depth content! Also, as a content creator myself, I really appreciate how much work and editing went into this. The editing alone is mind-blowing, it must've taken AGES. Well done man!
@@FrinksmovementTV You're welcome! And hahaha I thought you might have come across my channel! I was getting nervous at the beginning when you said "there are dozens of myths on RUclips" because then you started pulling up all the thumbnails of popular front lever tutorials and I wasn't sure if mine would come up hahaha. There is SO MUCH nonsense out there when it comes to front lever tutorials, it's actually ridiculous. There are big influencers out there who have made front lever tutorials without being able to front lever, and it's insane. The really annoying thing about making a claim like that is that it's almost impossible to prove. However, if you've been training the front lever (and calisthenics in general) for a long time, you can tell whether someone has either genuinely held a front lever, or simply performed a front lever raise and screenshot the "front lever" at the top of the raise. There are big calisthenics/fitness influencers who have done this for the thumbnails of their videos. But I know you know all of this already :). I could tell from the choice of thumbnails you used when you were talking about this issue, and the way you spoke about the front lever really showed you'd done your RUclips research around the topic. The most annoying thing about these tutorials is that they spread misinformation that can injure beginners. I learned this the hard way myself after following front lever tutorials that claimed I could learn it "In 4 weeks", or that I could learn it "fast". I would injure myself repeatedly because I was trying to rush the progressions to learn it as quickly as possible. In the end, it took 3 years for me to learn lol. So thank you for contributing some high quality content to the calisthenics community. I feel like there's space for it and people really appreciate it. And again, well done on the editing - the amount of editing in this video is insane, and it's all so good.
frinksmovement.com/coaching/ - book consultation / apply for coaching / programming frinksmovement.com/contact/ - questions regarding coaching, cooperation/business, videos www.gornation.com - 10% Discount on Calisthenics Clothing & Equipment with the code "frinks" EDIT: Hey I just want to say the response to the video is just crazy to me, so many views, likes, shares etc.. So some of you pointed out the survey design in the video is poorly made and it probably is as i look now so - now its actually corrected forms.gle/PP5D8sNstHLsW7tL8 Im gonna implement all things to make the next surveys better and more reliable. Probably will ask someone with data analysis background for help. As always I upload rarely, but when i do I try to really provide value. I leave the comment below like it used to be, just wanted to say couple of words ;) Big thanks to everyone
So interesting because ( I am 180cm so not that small ) and I achieved 20 sec Full front lever with good form from a bad straddle in just of 3 weeks of grease the groove method! Guess I’m made for front levering ahaha
For me I was stuck at advanced tuck front lever until I actually started doing some advanced tuck pulls and straddle front level holds for time. It took a few months but today i just got a good 5 second front lever on my rings! I still need much more training though
Skip the tuck front lever it doesnt help. Do decline front levers instead. This way of thinking is also being found out by other cali guys for planche with amazing results!
Former average guy does a very nice scientific breakdown of this. If you are taller you basically need to increase your strength/flexibility to tilt the pivot point in your favour
Amazing work homie. This what the bodyweight community needs: no cookie cutter, non scientifically supported answers, but actual well thought out stuff. Absolutely loved the ending and how actually the question is left unanswered (obv on purpose), there's no "hidden technique/rep scheme/drill". The sooner people stop trying to hack their training, the sooner they will realize where the actual answer lies: in the training, in the repetition of what needs to be done and in the patience required to keep on doing it for a long ass time.
Thank you Davide. For your contribution, for everything. Im really glad its your voice that opens up the video. As im saying, always like to learn from you!
We agree on so many points bro 😮 your sense of analysis is brillant, and the video is wery well edited ! And how did you do the human model doing front lever ? This could serve me
Hey! So I made all the animations myself but I cannot do 3D rigging, so I just paid someone for an order to make it for me. Was not easy and lots of revisions were needed but it looks fantastic. Actually first time any 3D OBJ file animations for me, but it opens so much new doors.. If you need anything just let me know bro ;)
Immediately subscribed! I’m a med student here in the states and also love Calisthenics. I love your detailed explanations, anatomy descriptions, and use of data and surveys so awesome to see you apply all of this to body weight training. Now let me just master the front lever hahaha
1)Genetics : You forgot the importance of fibre type distribution. One with more type 2 fibres in back muscles are gonna find it easier. This also explains why even some tall guys are able to do full FL while some short guys can't. 2)Specificity : Training straight arm strength will improve straight arm scapular strength and bent arm strength will fade away after a limited period of time. 3) Some people are pull gifted : Some people are good at pulling strength overall while some at pushing, this is genetic. That's why for some planche is easier and for others too hard while FL being easier. These points explains why there is so much discrepancy in the survey. Consider them as well. But I am afraid any survey can predict these accurately. And at last, the MOST important thing - we don't know how they train, they should learn something from this channel and train more effectively. Thanks for reading. 😊
6:21 - Trap tightness = great video This was Absolutely AWESOME !! You putted in a crazy amount of work. I can't believe this is free haha. It's like taking calisthenics online classes.
I'm really happy that I got this recommended. Your explanation is very clear, and I can imagine how much time you put into making this quality content just by seeing the quality of this video. I'm pretty sure you will hit 100k very soon and Cheers to the calisthenics community all over the world 🍻
Amazing work. This type of content is what we need in the fitness community. I was just thinking how my FL game improved after I started doing weighted pull ups
wow men this is realy great. i've never seen a youtube video that dives did this much. thanks for sharing your idea. in my opinion...wheighted bodyweight rows work much better than the weighted pullup. due to the similar position of body alignment.
Thanks for the analysis, nice stuff. I'm a tallish heavyweight, doing 5s full front lever at 92kg and 183cm. I don't do weighted pullups but it took me about 2 years to get the FL. I found that working on scapular depression exercises was most important. Slow hanging tuck to tuck hold repetitions, 15s adv tuck holds focusing on scapular depression, etc.
Incredible analysis, sir! Here's my anecdote: I'm about 178 cm, 86 kg. Weighted pullups have done nothing for me, even at max 72% bodyweight. This may just have to do with an enjoyment perspective, but focusing on one arm pullups and explosive pulling has had more carryover for me. I initially unlocked full FL at ~80 kg by doing focused straight arm and bent arm work. I then tried to gain weight and did weighted calisthenics. I think I'm past the point where adding weight purely to increase 1 RM benefits FL, and focusing too much on weighted pulls was more regressive. I've been focusing on planche for about 3 months now with minimal pulling work, but can do straddle FL again for ~6 sec. I attribute this to the amount of scapular stability work I've been doing, thus greatly increasing deltoid and trapezius strength. I've gotten much better at keeping my scapula depressed. Additionally, just getting my body reaclimated to an extended position via weighted hollow holds (Dragon flags helped a ton in the past) has helped tremendously. Not from a core strength perspective but just general body awareness. So my takeaway is: maintain a general level of fitness, but focusing on weighted calisthenics might not work for everyone looking for FL. Very high specificity + ironing put weak points seems to work best for me, plus I get more out of it than a less focused approach (i.e. weighted calisthenics)
Thank you so much for the positive words! Very interesting! The scapula work - but definitely dragon flags may be the game changer - like you said from the body awareness standpoint. Very glad you wrote it sir, thank you!
Would you mind if I reference your survey on a video about front lever on my channel? My videos are all in portuguese, mostly for a brazilian audience (because I'm from Brazil), and I plan on making a tutorial about the method I used to get the full front lever, which was weighted pull ups + front lever progressions hold.
The survey is really interesting and truly goes in depth on the front lever. However, I believe you forgot to consider something that I have observed to be the determining factor for front lever strength. That is lat insertions. Me and a group of friends have been trying to achieve the front lever. Most of us can already perform it, but for me it took about 11 months with a previous year of calisthenics training while 2 of my other friends achieved it in a month of starting training specifically for it. Both of them have lat insertions that go very low. Another thing I need to mention is that I have been training the front lever with much more dedication and intensity than them and that is not why they have achieved such great results (my back is like twice the size of theirs as well).
Hey yeah someone already mentioned that! I think it really maybe the case since in pullups you support yourself with forearm flexors and upper back much more. Thank you for the insight it was really interesting to read!
Few years ago someone on GymnasticBodies forum posted a study that showed how back muscle insertions can vary so much that some people can have almost double the strength due to better leverage with same amount of muscle mass compared to the other men. And most likely this is the reason we can see bunch of guys with similar muscle mass and one of them is able to do 5 arm pulls ups while the other can barely achieve half rep OAP after years of training.
Talking about lats, there's a very interesting "variations" paragraph on the wikipedia page describing the lats: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latissimus_dorsi_muscle#Variations
interesting and well researched topic, now that i know i have an advantage just by being short and having a big head i'll start putting more effort into getting a full front hahahaaha
I love when people puts a lot of effort into something and provides quality content. Really loved the video, soon im going to start training FL and thanks to this, i can make my routine more focused on weigthed pulls. Thank you again, really liked the detailed information.
2 forgotten factors: Straight arm strength and hollow body strength.... SAS: I suggest training 180 degree front lever pulls start in full tuck and progress, as well as static FL holds, and negatives..... HBS: rounding your upper back and retracting your scapula reduces the lever distance and greatly improves your chances. A good exercise to start and finish your lever work are 'Hanging Scapula Retractions.' I like to do weighted pulls once every couple weeks also after the majority of lever work once muscle fatigue has already set in but dont see it as the best exercise. NO EXCUSES ABOUT HEIGHT....I'm 6'4 (193cm) 220LBS with large legs...I don't wanna hear it...keep working
Dude, this is one of the best videos I've seen, period. We need more content like this in the calisthenics community. Thanks a lot for your work. Peace!
In my opinion, the hardest part in Front-Lever is the scapula retraction, and most people ignore it. In this aspect - Planche is "easier" than every variation of Front-Lever, cause the muscle that doing the protraction is much bigger (and stronger for most people) than the muscle that doing retraction. In addition, it's clear that there is a correlation between people who are strong in Deadlift and people who are strong in Front-Lever. Both exercises "require" people with short legs and long arms. Weighted Pull-Up, on the other hand, requires short arms (shorter range of motion) and most people do not perform it with scapula retraction or abdominal contraction, as is required in a Front-Lever. So while Pull Up strengthens the back and forearm - it doesn't help to learn the Front-Lever technique.
Hey, I don't understand why people keep talking about retracted front lever. You basically take out the main muscles out of the movement, like running but you can't use your calves. Isn't it more motivating to just do protraction and hold it longer and feel stronger? I'm not a gymnast or anything and I didn't mean to critique you in any way, I just don't understand it.
@@TheDragonNixon Well, I would say apart from all the safety concerns, its more philosophical debate - what is more impressive, should we strive for the perfection? What is perfection? Is it worth it? Is it the case for everyone? etc. Very good question that i find hard to answer
@@FrinksmovementTV yeah, I agree. I guess people who say "he's so weak he can't do retracted FL" are just jealous and can't think of something else to do most of the time. Thanks for the reply, what you did for this video is amazing for a young person like you. Good luck!
Im 191 and I'm really hoping to do FL one day. Stuck with the advanced tuck. Now I am 16 yo, 70 kg... That feeling when you can't go to the gym and do calisthenics couse it's the only choice lol
As someone who has been stuck on front lever for almost 2 years, this was excellent. I already suspected my height was the biggest contribution to the lack of progress. Thanks for your time and effort with this video.
MAGNUM OPUS! I will repeat it till the day I die: this is the best Calisthenics channel on RUclips. It is an honour that my voice was included in this masterpiece. Now let me add something to the discussion. You forgot about one very important thing that can influence how hard the front lever is - muscle insertions. I remeber hearing Mike Israetel saying that very small difference in muscle instertions between individuals can make a major difference in force production of a given muscle. We have classic low and high lat insertions that affect aesthetics to high degree but what if it also affect front lever significantly?
I agree with you but like come on? yeah there would be a huge difference between a 180-190 cm, high lat insertion guy and 160 cm, ultra low insertion guy, lats almost connect to the glutes(those are the type of guys that get full fl by just doing bodyweight pull ups) but in the end, with same heights in mind, don't think it matters that much as your lats can only be attached so high- to a certain height(lets say mid back), unless you have some kinda genetic mutation where your lats attach even higher than that.
Good point. I had a similar thought about insertions. Different biceps insertions could cause differences in weighted pull-up strength while not having an effect on front lever strength because of the lack of elbow flexion.
Thank you Jakub. Always appreciate your words and always happy to learn from you and use your words to support my arguments. I actually did not mention internal forces - you are right. I also did not mention about 3 different ways lats attach to the scapula (or dont) But it will also affect pullups as well. Anyways, thank you so much!
@@FrinksmovementTV I have a question? Does bicep insertion also affect the performance of a ring specialist gymnasts? Which is more useful having a longer tendon but short muscle belly or having a short tendon but longer muscle belly? I'm still trying find the real answer to which of this insertions are going to help in terms of bodyweight training/calisthenics/gymnastics.
I think limb length is an important factor, the longer your lower body in comparison to your upper body, the better you will be a front lever because there is just less weight in legs than in your torso. The funniest thing in the video I found was the deadlift. I am relatively very good in deadlift due to my long arms and legs and also pretty good at front lever, but terrible at planche. 220kg deadlift 188cm and 82kg full FL 9sec
No duh, being shorter and having proportionally shorter limbs makes the front lever easier. Asians tend to have shorter limbs while African guys have longer limbs. So the perfect body type for front lever is a short Asian guy with short limbs, a huge upper body and tiny legs.
I knew all this before watching the video but it was still interesting to watch, so kudos for spending all this time making it a really good video with good data. However, not that I disagree but height doesn’t matter, it’s the body/weight to strength ratio, plus weight distribution (which is the most important point you make), so MORPHOLOGY and not HEIGHT is what MATTERS. Because if a body, whether short or tall, is proportionate in strength/height ratio, the difficulty will be fairly even. It’s like comparing two clones one short and one tall. We are comparing two humans, not an ant and a rhino because the ant can pull more than the rhino in terms of strength to size ratio. Again, morphology is what sets how hard it is going to be for you to pull a front a lever. It is going to tell you what areas of your body you need to change to compensate your « wrong » weight distribution and be able to perform the front lever easily.
Really detailed video good job man!! Btw it took me more than 1 year to learn full front lever from one leg front lever and it took me only 9 months to do a full planche
Subscribed after 5min of watching this. Really underrated channel. Honestly I feel so triguerred for not participating in this survey. Frontlever is my favortie exercice and I would have loved to fill up your survey to contribute to this masterpiece of a video. Well done and keep it buddy. Hard work always pays off :D
I think the reason why Front Lever is not easy for you is you bigger legs. You tend to accumulate fat on them. This also explains why you are good at pull ups and handstand push ups - the weight of your leg does not matter in those exercises like in the front lever. I have similiar problem PS. Are you from Poland?
I pesonaly have found very little carryover to front lever from vertical pulling movements. During the summer i trained for one arm pull ups and iron cross. By the end of summer i had achieved 6 OAP on the right and around 4 on the left arm, iron cross went from barely a hold to roughly 4 unassisted presses, side iron cross and press from it. Although my vertical pulling was very strong my front lever didnt budge at all and stayed at halflay. Currently started training dragon press just for fun but also to see how much it carries over to front lever. So from my experiance i'd say that if you want a certain skill you have to train it specifically and stop gambling your progress on carryover.
@@florincristian9818 Theres tonnes of people who excel at certain things but suck or are average in others, its normal. Yaad told a story about him meeting Yuri Van Gelder. He showed off his front lever to Yuri and he said "I cant do that". Granted he can pull from hang to inverted but his actual hold then was like 2 sec maybe more. Now compare his front lever with his iron cross. If you've seen him on rings you know what im talking about. Specificity in sports is very real and just because one is strong at one movement it doesnt mean he will get better at the other especialy when they have almost nothing in common except the muscles involved.
For me its Ab strength and i feel i have a unique experience with this. I trained abs solidly for 3 yrs twice a week, i was able to do dumbell leg raises with 22kg between my feet for 10 reps and i was able to do the front lever just from this without ever training it, i could hold it for ages to, i could also do the human flag from it, although i found it much harder. Then i took two yrs off training abs, i got lazy with ab training. Anyway i carried on training everything else, weighted pull ups which i do 70kg for 3 reps, legs, chest everything yet when i tried to do the front lever again i couldnt do it at all, i couldnt even launch my legs up! and human flag, forget about it. That was the wake up call to train abs again and within a month i could hold the front lever again. I really see abs as the key here, if your abs are strong enough you will be able to extend your legs and hold them and is holding the rest of the position really that hard? i personally dont think it is. Most of these guys wanting to be able to do this movement, they train most body parts apart from maybe legs, but how much direct ab training?? i bet its minimal, then they blame it on limb length etc. So for me strong abs is the key.
@@Luke-c weighted leg raises on a bench. So you stick a dumbell between your feet and lay down on a bench, hold the back of the bench behind you with your hands, then raise your legs, work on progressive overload. The other exercise i do its weighted crunches. I put my feet under heavy dumbells to hold my feet down, then i put a weight behind my head, not in front as many do as that is far easier but behind, then i sit up..this can be hard for some on the lower back at first so be careful, keep your legs bent with knees up doing this. Oh by the way i do 3 sets of each and i do them on separate days and train both twice a week
Thanks, appreciate the info. I tried weighted leg raises like this with some 5 kg ankle weights and it was too light. Struggled with 10 kg. I’d be nervous using a dumbbell, especially 20 kg! That’s serious strength anyhow. I’ll try the crunch variation too.
@@Luke-c At first it a little scary but you get used to it, i never feel now that i will drop the dumbbell on myself. But if you go to a gym you could always use the cable machine and do it too, but you'd need to buy ankle attachments that have a steel loop on them so you can use them for the cable machine, a lot of girls use them for kickbacks, they probably sell them on amazon etc. Then you just set it up with the bench like that.
The abs are actually much working harder than most people think during front levers. Yes the external shoulder flexion moment is much greater than the external trunk extension moment. But the lower lats connect to the pelvis. This means when the lats contract they produce an internal trunk extension moment. So the abs are not just working against the force of gravity on the legs and trunk. They are also working against the force of the lats at the hip so that the lats can produce force at the shoulder. So the harder the lats contract the harder the abs have to work.
I literally just become able to do front lever last weekend, after 6 months of training. I'm far from being a pro when it comes to exercise, but I do have a Ph.D. in physics, so I will comment from a physics perspective. For the record, I'm short and slim (BMI 18), 1RM about 50% of bodyweight. First, I think you should rethink the role of core strength. In a front lever, your only support for your body is your shoulder, hence when testing the 9:56 position, you should lie down supported by your shoulders/thorax, a bit more up than what is shown (what might require arms pulling to do). In other words, your abs might indeed be just fine, but there are more muscles involved that even if they do not lack strength, some degree of coordination might still be needed. Now, I personally can't do a back lever (yet), though I've been told it is easier (supposedly). It might have to do with the fact that my lower back has always been much weaker for me (100+ crunches are fine, but make it reverse and I struggle with 50). The first time I got to a pull-up bar was about 7 months ago, and the tucked front lever came as a natural and even fun movement to me. Searching my life memories, I can confidently say that I always had more affinity for pulling than pushing with my arms. And because we are essentially discussing a continuous torque output, I believe the relevant muscles must have/acquire the ability to keep enough tension for that, which may require some specific conditioning that may hold only a weak correlation with other tasks, like a pull-up. FYI, I just measured my grip strength today (47 kg), and it is about 4 kgs below my peak strength 2 months ago, and my limit was an advanced tuck. I'm saying this because we sometimes hear about "squeezing" to make it easier, which I honestly never understood the meaning of.
Just about all strength in a front lever adheres to the scapula; core is just a stabilizer, same with lats so no isolated raw strength is needed there.
I think many try the progression holds when it's easier to build foundational strength then incorporate bands and do front lever negatives until you slowly build the strength to hold on the way down.
I am currently on a front lever journey, and oh boy has it been a ride. Seen some little progress, got injured, couldn't train for 2 months, stopped training FL for literally 9 months, couldn't even do a controlled one leg negative, decided to start with it again with all my heart, and now it's been 2 months in and I feel the strength being there, 2 more weeks and I think I will be able to hold it! Currently holding it for 15s with the red (smallest) band! I learned some really helpful insights, and despite literally believing I will never get it, I am approaching the front lever gang. Coming back in few weeks to update, see you gorillas 🦍
@@sunny-kx1yh hahhahaha this is an interesting comment. I had a inguinal hernia during the whole process, and I got it a few years ago from doing dragon flags. The front lever was the only skill I shouldn't have done, and I did it anyway. I got to the point I wrote and then had to stop. I didn't even train for a whole year (2022), because it was a matter of health. Now I got a surgery and I don't have a hernia, but I will never do front lever again. Not the best story, but the true one.
It took me about 2.5 years of hanging leg raises (150 leg raises, at least 4 times per week). Only after 2.5 years did I manage to hold it for like 3 seconds. Also, my pull up PR is 50. 190cm 102kg
![Cody Johnson - I'm Gonna Love You (with Carrie Underwood) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/yy9PuYMU29g/mqdefault.jpg)
This is gold man. Thanks a lot for putting this together. This video will live for a last time and will help millions. So refreshing to watch so much work and passion in a single video. Cheers! - Gabo
Wow Gabo it's so surprising to see you here. Im glad you enjoyed, its such a nice thing to see people like you are watching 🙏🏻 Cheers
@@FrinksmovementTV till the very end brother :) actually I was surprised no one has ever made such a video about front lever touching on points that goes beyond the usual information, but the answer is clear: effort and passion are required for this to happen. Respect to your work! RUclips just recommend me the press to handstand one hehe exited to see what’s that about and it will probably reveal why presses are so easy for me 😂 the same why this clearly revealed why front lever is so damn hard for me 😂 keep it up mate! - Gabo
@@SaturnoMovement Thank you so so much. Im so glad you discovered the videos, and decided to take your time to click an watch 🙏🏻 Sent you a message on IG btw.
@@SaturnoMovement you guys are 🕉️🕊️🥰🤟🏼💫
As one of the consumers, I am so blessed to have your experience and expertise available for support 🙏🏼💞
Great video! From my personal experience and from training others people who learn the front lever quickly are those that are lighter & shorter (5 feet 2-5 as an example) where as heavier/taller people (5 feet 9+) take a longer time (years even) to learn the full front lever. Makes sense. Taller you are, Longer the lever, harder the hold
Thanks for sharing! Appreciate your comment man ;) Keep up your stuff!
I think it is also genetics. Me for example. I am almost 90KG and 184 and have 1 minute front lever. And I got 20+ seconds in a couple of months. I see people train with far better weight and genetics then me train harder and more often and don’t have the FL.
And I can maybe do 3 seconds full planche and I train it for 5+ years. And I have a friend who could do maltese in a couple of months. Some people are PUSH gifted and some people are PULL gifted!
@@ThomasStuijfzand i just watched ur front lever vid. In my opinion you bending the hips and protracting too much. If you would hold it with perfect form your 1 minute hold would probably go down to about 5 sec.
@@barschbubi yoo its from 1 year ago. Summer 2019. I think I can do 40 - 45 sec PERFECT form, and then the last 15 sec a little bent
@@ThomasStuijfzand Genetic is one of the main reason for your height. This video doesn't say that it's impossible above 180cm or 80kg, just that it is more rare to find people with these metrics that have a full front lever. I am like you 184, and after 3 years of training I have like 10 seconds of good form maximum. Height and weight plays an important role here but there is also work and training
I'd love it. I have trained SW for 5+ years, mainly handbalance aspect, and I am an undergraduated chemical engineering student: mostly have to deal with engine, mechanic stuff. This video pops up in my recommended made me satisfied. Thanks you ;) !
Thats great! Good to see you here!
Well done mate! I found it absolutely insightful. I'm stuck at the one leg FL for a while, thanks to you I have an attack plan now.
Keet it up!🔥
Awesome! Good luck!
Wow..... now this is quality information, well explained, in good context, and definitely deserving of more viewership!!! First video I watch from you and already a sub keep it up bro!!! You’re doing something great here💯👌🏻
Loved this video!
I feel much of front lever is training specificity. A month ago or so, I was stuck with a proper tuck one leg fr for max 8 sec and weighed at least 123 (would fluctuate but never below 123). Then, I took a week break off training and then I tried again. My weighted pullup has gone up as my weight has gone down and some strength gains, but they are much slower than my fr progress, where I went from 3 sets of 8 sec tuck one leg to easy 5 set 10 sec tuck one leg with 5 sec straddle halflay with slow and controlled straddle negatives. A month ago, I could barely do 3 reps of straddle halflay negatives, but now I can do good 4 reps of straddle negatives.
The factors that have changed is my diet (which correlates to weight reduction) and leg training. I eat a lot less volume of food, before I would eat average 2300+ but now I eat under 2000 calories so I would in average weigh 120. Also, a month ago I had access to barbells so I would train legs (albeit not much as I had only started 2 months ago) but unfortunately I do not have access so I have not been able to train legs. However, I feel my weight reduction has had a more significant impact on my fr progress.
Edit:
The weight is in pounds and I am currently in the 10-30% group in weighted pullups.
Wow! Really deep and well explained content. I really appreciate that.
To be honest, I was fairly surprised when heard about the correlation between deadlift and front lever. (0:00-0:13) Do you really think, that deadlifting can boost FL? Actually I have always avoided it, because I considered it as an exercise, which makes your lower body grow, damages pull-up strength and consequently affects front lever holds negatively (makes it harder). Of course I know there are people like Ranjit who excels in both but in my opinion, they are rather exceptions. Would be thankful for further explanation.
Thanks once more. Greetings from the Czech Republic.
Thank you! I think it all depends a bit, but what Davide was reffering to is the fact both have very simmilar activation and body cue
hey frinks, amazing video 😁 One thing I'm curious about that I rarely see discussed with the front lever is how grip strength can alter the angle of flexion to potentially change the difficulty of the hold. Removing the assumption that the COM must be below the bar certainly adds degrees of freedom and complicates the model, but I'm curious if training grip intentionally could help more people achieve this feat.
Hello Kyle, thank you! That is a very interesting and Im glad you've asked! Because yes theoretically if someone applied enough "twisting" force on the bar, that would alter the "COM of the body" in a sense that the angle would get modified. So the problem is that this would need to be force that I don't think any human would be capable of producing with his wrist extensors. In theory, this would make CTI possible as well (close to impossible). Its fun to test it for example being in swimming pull and grabbing to some kind of pole, there you can kind of feel that if you twist the pole you can alter your body position. Unfortunately, I don't think it would add any meaning on bars because our forearms are just too weak.
Now up till this point I was not thinking too much about calculations, but the point is that in theory it could be the case, in practice I think its not worth to work on the grip specifically to alter this position because we will never achieve the meaningful effects.
Thats my take on that right now as I read your question, thank you for provoking thoughts! I will update you if I have some new ideas on that.
@@FrinksmovementTV Thanks for the quick and detailed response, it makes sense that the force required to significantly change the angle isn't something that wrist extension can produce, so training grip wouldn't help much with achieving the front lever. I wonder however if cueing wrist extension could help with recruitment patterns, as I've noticed in my own training that this tends to improve my form.
I was also very interested in the discussion of specificity, since though I agree that building bent-arm strength until the general requisite strength and muscle mass are achieved is the large base necessary before specific straight-arm training methods are used, I feel like there is still a large portion of athletes as evidenced by your survey that have the requisite strength and body proportion but could maybe utilize more deliberate, highly specific exercises to train their motor neurons for proper coordination in this complex isometric. As I stand at 195 cm with a current 1RM weighted pullup of around 40% BW, I'm not sure I'll ever achieve the front lever, but perhaps by continuing to build pullup/row strength and supplementing with progressions I'll get there some day.
With the cueing what we know from research is that external cues improve the coordination. And so external cue properly applied that suits individual is definitely something worth doing, I personally like "pushing away from the bar" cue but something like twisting the bar might be a very useful cue as well. You can listen about it more here: ruclips.net/video/NviWg5C_fio/видео.html
Now regarding specificity. I think both are important. I would say that its difficult to say if people whose requirements are "enough" can't do front lever because they don't train it specifically OR they just need higher requirements because they are built this way (leverage aspect). I would say the best thing you can do is do your straight arm work where you apply cues and work on your form and supplement it with bent arm strength work where you are just striving for the raw strength gains.
I still think that coordination will play much bigger role in dynamic exercises like handstand push ups, handstand presses, planche presses or muscle ups. However, it likely plays a role in statics as well. It is just that we cannot simply assess how much by measuring 1RM relative strength (because different body proportions will affect how much force some person needs to produce, despite his bodyweight). But front lever is much more complex than isometric forearm flexion test on dynamometer, and to say technique/coordination doesn't matter is definitely a huge stretch.
Great Video bro
Glad you enjoyed!
The front lever has way too many variables to get a consistent answer.
The inconclusiveness of this video was expected. Great work.
The most we can say is, long lower body - bad, big calves - bad, strong back muscles - good. etc
Not sarcasm btw
Year 3. Still no FL. But is getting closer each time.
I didn't realize I was lucky enough to be in the group that achieves it with just weighted pull-ups. However, I can't get out of the tuck planche no matter how hard I try
I'm an orthopedic doctor. I see mostly professional athletes and Olympic athletes. I've noticed in my clinic that patients with anterior tilt of the pelvis naturally take the load of squats in their glutes and hamstrings, whereas those with posterior tilt in their quadriceps. I wonder something similar might be happening with degrees of internal/external rotation of the glenohumeral joints (or the position of scapula) for making front lever harder/easier to perform than planche. After all, height and weight distribution doesn't change in one person when performing front lever vs. planche.
My story is kinda wierd. I was doing pull-ups since i was 12, then started doing a lot of muscle ups when i was 15. We went to the park 1 day with my friends when i was 16 and i tried a front lever. With not so good form, i held one for 3-4 seconds. Them i started improving my form. I got smarter with my training and now at 17 years old. 174 cm 71 kg i can hold a front lever for 11 seconds. Idk my one rep max on pull-ups, but i managed to do 20kg for a set of 8. That was mid-training so i will test it fresh next time to have a better understanding
Thank you so much for sharing!!
@@FrinksmovementTV thanks for reading. I will be very thankful if you do one of these for the planche. Ive tried for a year now and can barely hold a tuck for 6 seconds
@@gornobaneca3296 I will! This is the new series I will continue from now ;)
It's going to be a year since I started training the front lever, I was able to progress through one leg front lever and been stuck on that progression for about 8 months now, it's suck but I'm being patient. P.S I'm 6 feet and weight around 170lbs (183 CM, 77KG) my max pull up non-weighted is about 15-18 with weighted 40lbs vest (18KG) about 4-6 rep!
"direct correlation" nice one.
Very useful video!
Glad it was helpful!
I just unlocked my first full front lever last week, and one thing I realized is that the stronger your grip the easier to hold front lever.
Interesting! Congrats!
great vid man
Thanks!!!
Great video boss
Great to see you here Tom. Glad you enjoyed ;)
@@FrinksmovementTV so you’re boss
Tom love you bro💕💕💕
Yes, great videp
Ey bOss i habe a seizure
11:25 so could i theoretically just grow a really big afro and soak it in water to achieve the front lever
Yeah I can totally see that as an option. But you gotta train your neck for that, so please progressively overload
How to get a front lever:
Step 1: Neglect Legs
Step 2: Train neck and be Mike Tyson
Pretty much... 😂
Step 0: Be small
@@AvB.83 I wish but my package weighs me down
@@hogabajoga Some of us have to pay a heavy price to get that Front Lever. You know what there is left for you to do brother...
@@saihinadir I agree. I must tape it to my neck
This was a fantastically well made video. Well done brother and thank you for sharing
Thanks for watching!!
Hi hamza
Hamzaa
The masculinity king also watches cali videos great to see that❤
Is hamza learning the front lever?
This is the best vídeo about front lever that I have ever seen, congratulations and thank you for the effort
muy bueno el video, la verdad que si yerai, yo por ahora levanto un 50% de mi peso en una rep, peso 62kg y levanto 30kg en una rep, y por ahora no tengo el front, aun asi tengo advanced tuck por 12 segundos, tienes alguna recomendacion yerai?
Thank you so much 🙏🏻 Appreciate the fact big yt people like you watch
what's up messiah?
No entiendo nada del vídeo pq no se inglés xd , ayuda
@@polar0552 Activa los subtitulos
Most people watching this probably wouldn't even notice the amount of quality put into it. Producing such informative and good looking documentary with only 2120 subscribers is unbelievable! Keep up the good work my friend!!!
I actually produced it having
@@FrinksmovementTV Would love to see more of that!!! Subscribed
Thanks!!
2.1k 3 days ago and now 4.7k
Looking good 🔥
way to 6K now, you're on recommendation front page RUclips for me, although haven't watched any vid on channel before. Alg works in your favor now.
the problem with front lever:
You can't do it.
;((
Well done YT for recommend me this.
Haha, its very nice to see this type of comment ;)
I'm glad It recommended it to me aswell ! :D
We need a planche version of this
Got it in my Ideas notebook ;)
@@FrinksmovementTV 🥵🔥
So true, the planche is still a mystery to me.
YES that would be awesome!
@@Ex0dus111 why?
My 165cm tall ex-gymnast friend with short limbs : "you just need to try tbh. Planche and FL are not that difficult, you should achieve them pretty fast if you keep training hard enough"
Me, 195cm tall with chimpanzee arms and legs that cover 2/3 of my body : "I really have this ardent desire to punch you".
Jokes aside, great video and great channel, I'm learning and having fun at the same time while watching your educational videos.
i feel you man i am 195cm too
lol nice. I wasted 2 years on FL with no progress- if you want, see the vid on my channel to avoid my mistakes
"2/3 of my body" man u just made my day, can't stop laughing
Just try bouldering, youll be really good if you can learn to use your feet.
@@BOodidarma yeah man just wanted to write that. Me at 170 cm feel so frustrated when my tall friend tells me "yeah man I just tried it. Felt like i skipped a few steps but lol."
Deep insight, great editing, valuable content, handsome boi...oh wait a sec... Anyway, GREAT JOB, humanity needs more YT channels like yours!
I could not agree more on a handsome boi part... oh wait a sec. I meant valuable content. Thank you Piotr!
Algorithm doing work because this was in my recommended
Feeling blessed haha!
Same, and I subscribed..quality video!🔥
This channel is going to blow up, I know it for sure. This is some real high-quality content. There's nothing like this in the calisthenics community, so it's great to see such in-depth content!
Also, as a content creator myself, I really appreciate how much work and editing went into this. The editing alone is mind-blowing, it must've taken AGES. Well done man!
Wow thank you soo much for this comment!!!
Just checked out your channel and i remind myself i actually came through one of your videos in the past already. Thank you once again Ashton!
@@FrinksmovementTV You're welcome! And hahaha I thought you might have come across my channel! I was getting nervous at the beginning when you said "there are dozens of myths on RUclips" because then you started pulling up all the thumbnails of popular front lever tutorials and I wasn't sure if mine would come up hahaha.
There is SO MUCH nonsense out there when it comes to front lever tutorials, it's actually ridiculous. There are big influencers out there who have made front lever tutorials without being able to front lever, and it's insane.
The really annoying thing about making a claim like that is that it's almost impossible to prove. However, if you've been training the front lever (and calisthenics in general) for a long time, you can tell whether someone has either genuinely held a front lever, or simply performed a front lever raise and screenshot the "front lever" at the top of the raise. There are big calisthenics/fitness influencers who have done this for the thumbnails of their videos.
But I know you know all of this already :). I could tell from the choice of thumbnails you used when you were talking about this issue, and the way you spoke about the front lever really showed you'd done your RUclips research around the topic.
The most annoying thing about these tutorials is that they spread misinformation that can injure beginners. I learned this the hard way myself after following front lever tutorials that claimed I could learn it "In 4 weeks", or that I could learn it "fast". I would injure myself repeatedly because I was trying to rush the progressions to learn it as quickly as possible. In the end, it took 3 years for me to learn lol.
So thank you for contributing some high quality content to the calisthenics community. I feel like there's space for it and people really appreciate it. And again, well done on the editing - the amount of editing in this video is insane, and it's all so good.
Once again thank you Ashton! Its an honour 🙏🏻 Keep doing your stuff ;)
frinksmovement.com/coaching/ - book consultation / apply for coaching / programming
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EDIT: Hey I just want to say the response to the video is just crazy to me, so many views, likes, shares etc.. So some of you pointed out the survey design in the video is poorly made and it probably is as i look now so - now its actually corrected forms.gle/PP5D8sNstHLsW7tL8
Im gonna implement all things to make the next surveys better and more reliable. Probably will ask someone with data analysis background for help. As always I upload rarely, but when i do I try to really provide value. I leave the comment below like it used to be, just wanted to say couple of words ;) Big thanks to everyone
So interesting because ( I am 180cm so not that small ) and I achieved 20 sec Full front lever with good form from a bad straddle in just of 3 weeks of grease the groove method! Guess I’m made for front levering ahaha
Awesome editing btw
Thank you! Yeah its such a multifactorial thing it seems!
Thank you so much Paul!
first vid I watched from you and this is awesome man! keep pumping these out and you'll blow up in no time
Damn ! I think the RUclips algorithm had a stroke of genius in recommending this channel to me !
+1 Subscriber directly
Wow thats so freaking nice. Thank you 🙏🏻
Saaame.
This was right after 2 rows that had the same video on each row. And here I was thinking my recommendations were broken.
For me I was stuck at advanced tuck front lever until I actually started doing some advanced tuck pulls and straddle front level holds for time. It took a few months but today i just got a good 5 second front lever on my rings! I still need much more training though
Man! Congrats for today!
Skip the tuck front lever it doesnt help. Do decline front levers instead. This way of thinking is also being found out by other cali guys for planche with amazing results!
Former average guy does a very nice scientific breakdown of this. If you are taller you basically need to increase your strength/flexibility to tilt the pivot point in your favour
@@dandogamer are you saying to just do the negative instead of tucking?
The problem with the front lever is that I can’t do it
Amazing work homie. This what the bodyweight community needs: no cookie cutter, non scientifically supported answers, but actual well thought out stuff. Absolutely loved the ending and how actually the question is left unanswered (obv on purpose), there's no "hidden technique/rep scheme/drill". The sooner people stop trying to hack their training, the sooner they will realize where the actual answer lies: in the training, in the repetition of what needs to be done and in the patience required to keep on doing it for a long ass time.
Thank you Davide. For your contribution, for everything. Im really glad its your voice that opens up the video. As im saying, always like to learn from you!
But arent bodyweight movements related to science?
Why do all the big calisthenics RUclipsrs comment on this? XD seems to be good stuff
Haha thank you. Feeling like a little kid amongst them 😂
As a 6'2 (189cm) male who trains every other day on rings for front lever, i can confirm it's pretty hard the taller you are lol
We agree on so many points bro 😮 your sense of analysis is brillant, and the video is wery well edited ! And how did you do the human model doing front lever ? This could serve me
Hey! So I made all the animations myself but I cannot do 3D rigging, so I just paid someone for an order to make it for me. Was not easy and lots of revisions were needed but it looks fantastic. Actually first time any 3D OBJ file animations for me, but it opens so much new doors.. If you need anything just let me know bro ;)
I love you
Haha! Thank you 🙏🏻🖤
Immediately subscribed! I’m a med student here in the states and also love Calisthenics. I love your detailed explanations, anatomy descriptions, and use of data and surveys so awesome to see you apply all of this to body weight training. Now let me just master the front lever hahaha
Awesome! Thank you!
Ehi bro, really good video, thak you for showing us your research😁
My pleasure!
1)Genetics : You forgot the importance of fibre type distribution. One with more type 2 fibres in back muscles are gonna find it easier. This also explains why even some tall guys are able to do full FL while some short guys can't.
2)Specificity : Training straight arm strength will improve straight arm scapular strength and bent arm strength will fade away after a limited period of time.
3) Some people are pull gifted : Some people are good at pulling strength overall while some at pushing, this is genetic. That's why for some planche is easier and for others too hard while FL being easier.
These points explains why there is so much discrepancy in the survey. Consider them as well. But I am afraid any survey can predict these accurately.
And at last, the MOST important thing - we don't know how they train, they should learn something from this channel and train more effectively.
Thanks for reading. 😊
Thank you for stating your opinion! Specificity was actually touched upon at the end ;)
The only tiniest nitpick I can give you is that Maltese is D on rings (as shown at 2:10)
Ahhh man i knew i messed up something haha! My bad!
F is pelican i guess
Zenatti is an F skill and pelican is alot easier so I think it should be lower
@@jonathanfisher7782 zanetti, zenatti is a singer lol
@@redditfm4578 wait how the pelican is very easy
How does this not have over one million views tho
Haha thats very nice of you 🙏🏻🙏🏻
6:21 - Trap tightness = great video
This was Absolutely AWESOME !! You putted in a crazy amount of work. I can't believe this is free haha. It's like taking calisthenics online classes.
Hahah exactly! Thank you man. Your attention and seeing you guys care is the prize
Skip leg day
My conclusion? Don't train legs
I'm really happy that I got this recommended. Your explanation is very clear, and I can imagine how much time you put into making this quality content just by seeing the quality of this video. I'm pretty sure you will hit 100k very soon and Cheers to the calisthenics community all over the world 🍻
Thank you very much!
Amazing work. This type of content is what we need in the fitness community. I was just thinking how my FL game improved after I started doing weighted pull ups
Nice man! And thank you so much for the positive words i truly appreciate it!
One of the best underrated channels I've EVER seen. Insaneuously good information
wow men this is realy great. i've never seen a youtube video that dives did this much. thanks for sharing your idea.
in my opinion...wheighted bodyweight rows work much better than the weighted pullup. due to the similar position of body alignment.
Thanks for the analysis, nice stuff.
I'm a tallish heavyweight, doing 5s full front lever at 92kg and 183cm. I don't do weighted pullups but it took me about 2 years to get the FL. I found that working on scapular depression exercises was most important. Slow hanging tuck to tuck hold repetitions, 15s adv tuck holds focusing on scapular depression, etc.
Thank you so much! And thank you for sharing ;)
Depression and retraction?
Incredible analysis, sir! Here's my anecdote: I'm about 178 cm, 86 kg. Weighted pullups have done nothing for me, even at max 72% bodyweight. This may just have to do with an enjoyment perspective, but focusing on one arm pullups and explosive pulling has had more carryover for me. I initially unlocked full FL at ~80 kg by doing focused straight arm and bent arm work. I then tried to gain weight and did weighted calisthenics. I think I'm past the point where adding weight purely to increase 1 RM benefits FL, and focusing too much on weighted pulls was more regressive. I've been focusing on planche for about 3 months now with minimal pulling work, but can do straddle FL again for ~6 sec. I attribute this to the amount of scapular stability work I've been doing, thus greatly increasing deltoid and trapezius strength. I've gotten much better at keeping my scapula depressed. Additionally, just getting my body reaclimated to an extended position via weighted hollow holds (Dragon flags helped a ton in the past) has helped tremendously. Not from a core strength perspective but just general body awareness. So my takeaway is: maintain a general level of fitness, but focusing on weighted calisthenics might not work for everyone looking for FL. Very high specificity + ironing put weak points seems to work best for me, plus I get more out of it than a less focused approach (i.e. weighted calisthenics)
Thank you so much for the positive words! Very interesting! The scapula work - but definitely dragon flags may be the game changer - like you said from the body awareness standpoint. Very glad you wrote it sir, thank you!
Gold content, hope I will do some good quality search like this one in the future. Thanks a lot!
Best of luck with that! Let me know when you do! ;)
Would you mind if I reference your survey on a video about front lever on my channel? My videos are all in portuguese, mostly for a brazilian audience (because I'm from Brazil), and I plan on making a tutorial about the method I used to get the full front lever, which was weighted pull ups + front lever progressions hold.
Of course ;) Let me know when you do
@@FrinksmovementTV Thank you! I will sure do!
@@OAmigodoTreino Fantastic! Good luck! ;)
Be born with shorter legs and better body proportions, got it.
The survey is really interesting and truly goes in depth on the front lever. However, I believe you forgot to consider something that I have observed to be the determining factor for front lever strength. That is lat insertions.
Me and a group of friends have been trying to achieve the front lever. Most of us can already perform it, but for me it took about 11 months with a previous year of calisthenics training while 2 of my other friends achieved it in a month of starting training specifically for it. Both of them have lat insertions that go very low. Another thing I need to mention is that I have been training the front lever with much more dedication and intensity than them and that is not why they have achieved such great results (my back is like twice the size of theirs as well).
Hey yeah someone already mentioned that! I think it really maybe the case since in pullups you support yourself with forearm flexors and upper back much more. Thank you for the insight it was really interesting to read!
Few years ago someone on GymnasticBodies forum posted a study that showed how back muscle insertions can vary so much that some people can have almost double the strength due to better leverage with same amount of muscle mass compared to the other men. And most likely this is the reason we can see bunch of guys with similar muscle mass and one of them is able to do 5 arm pulls ups while the other can barely achieve half rep OAP after years of training.
Talking about lats, there's a very interesting "variations" paragraph on the wikipedia page describing the lats: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latissimus_dorsi_muscle#Variations
18:36 was peak editing XD This must have taken a long time to make man, thanks for putting the work in!
Yeah, this particular segment took months alone.
Thanks Tyson XD Cool to see you here. BWSS1 Fan here
Droping a like b4 watching cause i know its top notch content as always
Thank you so much! 🖤
When I clicked on the video I was like : Oh man it's 25min
2 mins in : Oh c'mon it's only 25 min ?
interesting and well researched topic, now that i know i have an advantage just by being short and having a big head i'll start putting more effort into getting a full front hahahaaha
Hahah im glad I motivated you! Good luck!
This is incredible, thanks for your hard work and I’m hoping the algorithm pushes this video out to even more people. Excellent stuff man.
Wow, thank you so much!
I love when people puts a lot of effort into something and provides quality content. Really loved the video, soon im going to start training FL and thanks to this, i can make my routine more focused on weigthed pulls. Thank you again, really liked the detailed information.
Awesome, thank you! That is my goal!
2 forgotten factors: Straight arm strength and hollow body strength.... SAS: I suggest training 180 degree front lever pulls start in full tuck and progress, as well as static FL holds, and negatives..... HBS: rounding your upper back and retracting your scapula reduces the lever distance and greatly improves your chances. A good exercise to start and finish your lever work are 'Hanging Scapula Retractions.' I like to do weighted pulls once every couple weeks also after the majority of lever work once muscle fatigue has already set in but dont see it as the best exercise. NO EXCUSES ABOUT HEIGHT....I'm 6'4 (193cm) 220LBS with large legs...I don't wanna hear it...keep working
Dude, this is one of the best videos I've seen, period.
We need more content like this in the calisthenics community.
Thanks a lot for your work.
Peace!
Not one of the best...
It is "The best" video on calisthenics
There isn't a single person who gets the full front lever with perfect form in 2 months.
Maybe if you are a midget that already trained pull ups for a while.
Just achieving 90 degree angle in my hips took me 2 months
In my opinion, the hardest part in Front-Lever is the scapula retraction, and most people ignore it.
In this aspect - Planche is "easier" than every variation of Front-Lever, cause the muscle that doing the protraction is much bigger (and stronger for most people) than the muscle that doing retraction.
In addition, it's clear that there is a correlation between people who are strong in Deadlift and people who are strong in Front-Lever.
Both exercises "require" people with short legs and long arms.
Weighted Pull-Up, on the other hand, requires short arms (shorter range of motion) and most people do not perform it with scapula retraction or abdominal contraction, as is required in a Front-Lever. So while Pull Up strengthens the back and forearm - it doesn't help to learn the Front-Lever technique.
Very very good points man! Thank you for sharing!
Hey, I don't understand why people keep talking about retracted front lever. You basically take out the main muscles out of the movement, like running but you can't use your calves.
Isn't it more motivating to just do protraction and hold it longer and feel stronger?
I'm not a gymnast or anything and I didn't mean to critique you in any way, I just don't understand it.
@@TheDragonNixon Well, I would say apart from all the safety concerns, its more philosophical debate - what is more impressive, should we strive for the perfection? What is perfection? Is it worth it? Is it the case for everyone? etc. Very good question that i find hard to answer
@@FrinksmovementTV yeah, I agree. I guess people who say "he's so weak he can't do retracted FL" are just jealous and can't think of something else to do most of the time.
Thanks for the reply, what you did for this video is amazing for a young person like you. Good luck!
Thank you so much I appreciate it ;)
We need more people performing quality small scale research in their fields of interest.
Im 191 and I'm really hoping to do FL one day. Stuck with the advanced tuck. Now I am 16 yo, 70 kg...
That feeling when you can't go to the gym and do calisthenics couse it's the only choice lol
Feel ya bro. Good luck on your Front Lever journey!
You are fking 16.....Stick to it and you have it way before you reach 20 yo
lol nice. I wasted 2 years on FL with no progress- if you want, see the vid on my channel to avoid my mistakes
As someone who has been stuck on front lever for almost 2 years, this was excellent. I already suspected my height was the biggest contribution to the lack of progress. Thanks for your time and effort with this video.
How have u been progressing now?👀
@@mysterygamerkid192 still not there……. I can Straddle for a 10 second hold
@@kris955i2 that's still good can't do anything myself 😭
@@mysterygamerkid192 keep at it, you’ll get there 👍
@@matemindak384 6 ft 2 and no, still no full FL
MAGNUM OPUS! I will repeat it till the day I die: this is the best Calisthenics channel on RUclips. It is an honour that my voice was included in this masterpiece. Now let me add something to the discussion. You forgot about one very important thing that can influence how hard the front lever is - muscle insertions. I remeber hearing Mike Israetel saying that very small difference in muscle instertions between individuals can make a major difference in force production of a given muscle. We have classic low and high lat insertions that affect aesthetics to high degree but what if it also affect front lever significantly?
I agree with you but like come on? yeah there would be a huge difference between a 180-190 cm, high lat insertion guy and 160 cm, ultra low insertion guy, lats almost connect to the glutes(those are the type of guys that get full fl by just doing bodyweight pull ups) but in the end, with same heights in mind, don't think it matters that much as your lats can only be attached so high- to a certain height(lets say mid back), unless you have some kinda genetic mutation where your lats attach even higher than that.
Good point. I had a similar thought about insertions. Different biceps insertions could cause differences in weighted pull-up strength while not having an effect on front lever strength because of the lack of elbow flexion.
Thank you Jakub. Always appreciate your words and always happy to learn from you and use your words to support my arguments. I actually did not mention internal forces - you are right. I also did not mention about 3 different ways lats attach to the scapula (or dont) But it will also affect pullups as well. Anyways, thank you so much!
And yeah with biceps it actually makes sense now!
@@FrinksmovementTV I have a question? Does bicep insertion also affect the performance of a ring specialist gymnasts? Which is more useful having a longer tendon but short muscle belly or having a short tendon but longer muscle belly? I'm still trying find the real answer to which of this insertions are going to help in terms of bodyweight training/calisthenics/gymnastics.
your sense of analysis is brillant , very good quality video
Much appreciated! Thank you!
By far the best front lever video i've seen! It is all well covered in details, you did a great job 👍
Man for real! Thats super nice of you thank you!
I think limb length is an important factor, the longer your lower body in comparison to your upper body, the better you will be a front lever because there is just less weight in legs than in your torso. The funniest thing in the video I found was the deadlift. I am relatively very good in deadlift due to my long arms and legs and also pretty good at front lever, but terrible at planche. 220kg deadlift 188cm and 82kg full FL 9sec
Haha I know Davide has his point with the deadlift! And very good points 👍
No duh, being shorter and having proportionally shorter limbs makes the front lever easier. Asians tend to have shorter limbs while African guys have longer limbs. So the perfect body type for front lever is a short Asian guy with short limbs, a huge upper body and tiny legs.
I knew all this before watching the video but it was still interesting to watch, so kudos for spending all this time making it a really good video with good data. However, not that I disagree but height doesn’t matter, it’s the body/weight to strength ratio, plus weight distribution (which is the most important point you make), so MORPHOLOGY and not HEIGHT is what MATTERS. Because if a body, whether short or tall, is proportionate in strength/height ratio, the difficulty will be fairly even. It’s like comparing two clones one short and one tall. We are comparing two humans, not an ant and a rhino because the ant can pull more than the rhino in terms of strength to size ratio. Again, morphology is what sets how hard it is going to be for you to pull a front a lever. It is going to tell you what areas of your body you need to change to compensate your « wrong » weight distribution and be able to perform the front lever easily.
Really detailed video good job man!! Btw it took me more than 1 year to learn full front lever from one leg front lever and it took me only 9 months to do a full planche
That's awesome! Thank you for sharing and for nice words ;)
I reached a 6sec front lever at 190cm 85kg by greasing the groove, adding retraction exercises and not training legs
Oh thats interesting! Big height and still the full FL. Congrats!
Not training legs🤣🤣🤣 bro
Im 1,95 and am on the verge of getting it :)
@@antioeln Thats awesome bro keep going
@@drioustb9182 thx mate! Im at 90kg and trained it for ages, do you also think, that the back Lever is much more easy?
Subscribed after 5min of watching this. Really underrated channel. Honestly I feel so triguerred for not participating in this survey. Frontlever is my favortie exercice and I would have loved to fill up your survey to contribute to this masterpiece of a video. Well done and keep it buddy. Hard work always pays off :D
Fantastic! Great to hear! You will have chance in new year ;)
I think the reason why Front Lever is not easy for you is you bigger legs. You tend to accumulate fat on them. This also explains why you are good at pull ups and handstand push ups - the weight of your leg does not matter in those exercises like in the front lever.
I have similiar problem
PS. Are you from Poland?
me clicking on this video: "what is front lever?"
ten seconds in: "I don't think I need to explain front lever to anyone here."
rip
I'm amazed by the effort put into this video! Absolutely great and informative stuff! Hats off
Much appreciated!
I pesonaly have found very little carryover to front lever from vertical pulling movements. During the summer i trained for one arm pull ups and iron cross. By the end of summer i had achieved 6 OAP on the right and around 4 on the left arm, iron cross went from barely a hold to roughly 4 unassisted presses, side iron cross and press from it. Although my vertical pulling was very strong my front lever didnt budge at all and stayed at halflay. Currently started training dragon press just for fun but also to see how much it carries over to front lever. So from my experiance i'd say that if you want a certain skill you have to train it specifically and stop gambling your progress on carryover.
Thats a really interesting story. Thank you so much for sharing!
Is impossible to do 6 oap and iron cross and cant hold a front lever
@@florincristian9818 Theres tonnes of people who excel at certain things but suck or are average in others, its normal. Yaad told a story about him meeting Yuri Van Gelder. He showed off his front lever to Yuri and he said "I cant do that". Granted he can pull from hang to inverted but his actual hold then was like 2 sec maybe more. Now compare his front lever with his iron cross. If you've seen him on rings you know what im talking about. Specificity in sports is very real and just because one is strong at one movement it doesnt mean he will get better at the other especialy when they have almost nothing in common except the muscles involved.
Yeah i agree, its rare but definitely possible, and specificity will matter more as the difficulty raises
For me its Ab strength and i feel i have a unique experience with this. I trained abs solidly for 3 yrs twice a week, i was able to do dumbell leg raises with 22kg between my feet for 10 reps and i was able to do the front lever just from this without ever training it, i could hold it for ages to, i could also do the human flag from it, although i found it much harder. Then i took two yrs off training abs, i got lazy with ab training. Anyway i carried on training everything else, weighted pull ups which i do 70kg for 3 reps, legs, chest everything yet when i tried to do the front lever again i couldnt do it at all, i couldnt even launch my legs up! and human flag, forget about it. That was the wake up call to train abs again and within a month i could hold the front lever again. I really see abs as the key here, if your abs are strong enough you will be able to extend your legs and hold them and is holding the rest of the position really that hard? i personally dont think it is. Most of these guys wanting to be able to do this movement, they train most body parts apart from maybe legs, but how much direct ab training?? i bet its minimal, then they blame it on limb length etc. So for me strong abs is the key.
Interesting. What’s your ab routine for this?
@@Luke-c weighted leg raises on a bench. So you stick a dumbell between your feet and lay down on a bench, hold the back of the bench behind you with your hands, then raise your legs, work on progressive overload. The other exercise i do its weighted crunches. I put my feet under heavy dumbells to hold my feet down, then i put a weight behind my head, not in front as many do as that is far easier but behind, then i sit up..this can be hard for some on the lower back at first so be careful, keep your legs bent with knees up doing this. Oh by the way i do 3 sets of each and i do them on separate days and train both twice a week
Thanks, appreciate the info. I tried weighted leg raises like this with some 5 kg ankle weights and it was too light. Struggled with 10 kg. I’d be nervous using a dumbbell, especially 20 kg! That’s serious strength anyhow. I’ll try the crunch variation too.
Ok 22 kg - crazy!
@@Luke-c At first it a little scary but you get used to it, i never feel now that i will drop the dumbbell on myself. But if you go to a gym you could always use the cable machine and do it too, but you'd need to buy ankle attachments that have a steel loop on them so you can use them for the cable machine, a lot of girls use them for kickbacks, they probably sell them on amazon etc. Then you just set it up with the bench like that.
The abs are actually much working harder than most people think during front levers. Yes the external shoulder flexion moment is much greater than the external trunk extension moment.
But the lower lats connect to the pelvis. This means when the lats contract they produce an internal trunk extension moment.
So the abs are not just working against the force of gravity on the legs and trunk. They are also working against the force of the lats at the hip so that the lats can produce force at the shoulder. So the harder the lats contract the harder the abs have to work.
16:32, "don't skip legs kids"
I literally just become able to do front lever last weekend, after 6 months of training. I'm far from being a pro when it comes to exercise, but I do have a Ph.D. in physics, so I will comment from a physics perspective. For the record, I'm short and slim (BMI 18), 1RM about 50% of bodyweight.
First, I think you should rethink the role of core strength. In a front lever, your only support for your body is your shoulder, hence when testing the 9:56 position, you should lie down supported by your shoulders/thorax, a bit more up than what is shown (what might require arms pulling to do). In other words, your abs might indeed be just fine, but there are more muscles involved that even if they do not lack strength, some degree of coordination might still be needed.
Now, I personally can't do a back lever (yet), though I've been told it is easier (supposedly). It might have to do with the fact that my lower back has always been much weaker for me (100+ crunches are fine, but make it reverse and I struggle with 50). The first time I got to a pull-up bar was about 7 months ago, and the tucked front lever came as a natural and even fun movement to me. Searching my life memories, I can confidently say that I always had more affinity for pulling than pushing with my arms. And because we are essentially discussing a continuous torque output, I believe the relevant muscles must have/acquire the ability to keep enough tension for that, which may require some specific conditioning that may hold only a weak correlation with other tasks, like a pull-up.
FYI, I just measured my grip strength today (47 kg), and it is about 4 kgs below my peak strength 2 months ago, and my limit was an advanced tuck. I'm saying this because we sometimes hear about "squeezing" to make it easier, which I honestly never understood the meaning of.
Just about all strength in a front lever adheres to the scapula; core is just a stabilizer, same with lats so no isolated raw strength is needed there.
Step 1: Be short
Step 2: Be light
Step 3: Be top heavy
Step 4: Skip leg day
Step 5: Profit
Describes me perfectly
this channel's gonna blow up
Glad you think so ;)
I think many try the progression holds when it's easier to build foundational strength then incorporate bands and do front lever negatives until you slowly build the strength to hold on the way down.
Who knew storing more fat in your lower body has its negatives
I am currently on a front lever journey, and oh boy has it been a ride. Seen some little progress, got injured, couldn't train for 2 months, stopped training FL for literally 9 months, couldn't even do a controlled one leg negative, decided to start with it again with all my heart, and now it's been 2 months in and I feel the strength being there, 2 more weeks and I think I will be able to hold it! Currently holding it for 15s with the red (smallest) band! I learned some really helpful insights, and despite literally believing I will never get it, I am approaching the front lever gang. Coming back in few weeks to update, see you gorillas 🦍
update🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
@@sunny-kx1yh hahhahaha this is an interesting comment. I had a inguinal hernia during the whole process, and I got it a few years ago from doing dragon flags. The front lever was the only skill I shouldn't have done, and I did it anyway. I got to the point I wrote and then had to stop. I didn't even train for a whole year (2022), because it was a matter of health. Now I got a surgery and I don't have a hernia, but I will never do front lever again. Not the best story, but the true one.
Your channel has one of the most valuable content on youtube in terms of calisthenic and bodyweight ... Keep going mate. Greetings from Spain!
Greetings! And thank you, thats really nice of you!
It took me about 2.5 years of hanging leg raises (150 leg raises, at least 4 times per week).
Only after 2.5 years did I manage to hold it for like 3 seconds.
Also, my pull up PR is 50. 190cm 102kg
In Geek Climbers Video He Showed That Longer Arms Are Beneficial With Proof Whoever Tried It There Able To Do Easily Od Their Progression
this was produced really well!
thanks!!!
Thank you for that, this is absolutely incredible!
Glad you like it! Thank you ;)
First COMMENTTTTT!!!!
Yeah haha! Enjoy!