Front Lever

## Description

### Introduction

The Front Lever is a primarily Posterior Chain straight arm isometric exercise. It involves primarily the Lats, Rear Deltoids and the long head of the Triceps, responsible for maintaining the static position of the body during the skill, and the trapezius, rhomboideus major and minor, helping with scapular adduction(retraction). The Anterior Chain is also engaged in the Front Lever with the Rectus Abdominis acting to maintain the a straight body line. Other notable muscle groups include the Triceps to maintain straight arms and the Teres Major to assist in Lat function.

##### Origin

The Front Lever is a skill originating from gymnastics (hanging scale frontways) but has since decreased in popularity within the sport and therefore is often seen as a move mainly performed by street workout athletes. The frontlever is also popular among climbers as a feat of back strength.

### Movement execution

The athlete holds his body parallel to the ground while gripping a bar with both arms. The arms are kept straight to maintain a clean form and elbows are typically internally rotated. The scapulars are in an adducted and therefore retracted position and are also kept depressed. The pelvis is typically kept in a posterior or neutral tilt but a forward shifted pelvis is acceptable and is often used to reduce range of motion in Front Lever Pull Ups. The toes are either kept in Dorsiflexion or Plantar-flexion(pointed toes), however, Dorsiflexion is more uncommon yet considered to be the better foot position in this move.

 *Front lever by Alain San Photography: Leevan\_ns (Instagram)*

## History

The oldest footage found was from Leon Stukej performing an arched back front lever on rings in Berlin Olympic Games of 1936.

28/12/09 Cisco Gonzalez holds a one finger Front Lever with valid form for 27 seconds.

24/01/13 Jarryd Rubinstein holds a Front Lever with valid form for 30 seconds.

29/04/13 Roma Myagkov holds a Front lever for 39 seconds.

10/04/14 Lexa Steel sets a new record with a hold time of 40 seconds.

Lexa Steel breaks his own record three times eventually achieving a 54 second hold on 06/12/19.

Michal Urbanik made a new record of Front Lever hold with 62 seconds hold in acceptable form on 17/12/21 which was eventually broken in January 2022.

The current world record of Front Lever hold in clean form sits at whopping 69 seconds by ZeBlackTurbo, a 50+ years old black man. The video of this record is given on the following YouTube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-kEmXOq1Mc&t=47s

## Prerequisites

The following are optional prerequisites that one should achieve before learning the Front Lever to make the process as easy as possible.

An athlete should aim for 15-20 pull ups before starting serious Front Lever training unless body dimensions and other aspects of genetic predisposition allow for effective training before this. Progressions of the Front lever can be trained at around 10 pull ups or even less. Weighted pull up training also greatly helps to build up sufficient strength to progress faster.

A good amount of scapular pull ups (15-20) is also to aim before tackling the Front lever seriously. It will ensure scapular stability and satisfying form during the training, thus leading to better progress.

## Carry-over

The frontlever being one of the most basic posterior chain movements, it has some carry-over to plenty of skills: parallel bars victorian, dragon press, and frontlever touch. It is moreover considered as a basic prerequisites for those skills.

## Difficulty

A popular opinion classifies frontlever as an advanced calisthenics movement. However, performed without false grip, it is ranked 0,9 in the Burningate code of points, and is ranked A in the FIG code of points, which makes it a beginner move.