Tips For Faster Gains With Front Levers, Back Levers, Planches & Human Flags
The calisthenics world has so many eye-catching moves that when most people see them, even if it’s only in a random YouTube video, and want to try and train for them.
What follows is a series of ‘googling’; trying to find training tips and possible workouts to get these iconic static holds. 90% of Info on the internet will show you the following sequence:
- Tucked Lever
- Advanced Tuck Lever
- One Leg Lever
- Straddle Lever
- Half Lay Lever
- FULL Lever
Simple! Now all you have to do is hold these positions for 20-30 seconds and move on to the next one. You’ll have a Planche, Front Lever, Back Lever etc in weeks.
If only it worked like that……..
Those of you with any static calisthenic/gymnastic holds training experience will know just how hard it can be going from one level to the next. Take for example, the difference between a straddled (legs wide) and a FULL front lever. The difference in difficulty of the 2 is VAST. It’s easy to see how one would be stuck at a particular level for what seems like eternity, if they solely stuck to the restricted ‘hierarchy’ above.
A More Scientific Reason To Do More Than Just Static Holds
These infamous ‘levers’ – as they’re commonly known – require very specific joint angle positions. Check the images below. I’ve annotated the images to explain what joint/muscle actions are involved/required.
Front Lever: Shoulder extension. The lats are pulling the arms down towards the hips and the scapula retractors are used, as well as the rear deltoids and minor assistance from the core.
Back Lever: Shoulder flexion. The front deltoids, pectorals and biceps are working to push down towards the hips, while the muscles of the posterior chain are assisting to keep the body horizontal.
Note: You may be confused by these positions and say the shoulder angles are the other way round, but I’d like to clarify – I’m referring to the forces involved; the front lever uses muscles that promote shoulder extension as prime movers, and the back lever uses muscles that promote shoulder flexion.
The Human Flag: Much more complicated. This isn’t as much about the core as it is the shoulders (scapula). The bottom arm is pushing and the top arm is pulling. Meanwhile, the oblique muscles and gluteus medius are working to keep the body horizontal and in a lateral plane.
The Planche: Best till last and most certainly the hardest of all the big levers! This is not only strength orientated but also balance plays a role. Again, similar to the back lever, the muscles involved in shoulder flexion are the prime movers here; biceps, front deltoids, pectorals and the posterior chain muscles (glutes, lower back, hamstrings)
These are all isometric holds which means the muscle(s) involved aren’t changing length. Obviously the muscle(s) need to be strong in the exact position along the range of motion that these holds require, but what if you’re only reasonably strong in that position and nowhere else?
Research shows when only isometrics are trained, you develop strength in that range of motion and no more than 10-30 degrees outside of it. The implications of this are, one could be very weak outside of the 10-30 degrees these static holds require and never really address the issue, as they only train the hold itself.
The Best Dynamic Exercises For Each Move
I will list my favourite exercises in order of personal importance for each one. For the sake of simplicity, I won’t describe each move in detail. All moves suggested will be easy to find on google or YouTube. All of the following exercises will target the muscles involved in each hold through as big a range of motion as possible, ensuring no weaknesses in the strength curve.
Front lever
- Dead hang straight arm pull to inverted hang (at whatever progression you’re at) – pull from a dead hang all the way up to an inverted hang, WITHOUT bending the arms.
- Negatives/eccentrics – you’ll be able to use a higher progression here as you’re stronger eccentrically than concentrically. For example: you can hold an advanced tuck front lever but you can do straddled negatives from an inverted hang down.
- Front lever rows – usually you’ll need to use a level lower than your highest static hold level but these are so underrated in developing the scapula retraction aspect of the front lever.
- Front lever pulls – these are a ‘dumbed down’ version of the pull to inverted hang mentioned first. With this you keep the arms straight and pull to where the body is horizontal……rinse and repeat.
- ‘Ice Cream Makers’ – these are good as long as you do them with enough control. Assume the top position of a pull up and then lower down in a pendulum type motion to momentarily hit the front lever position, pause and use the momentum to return above the bar in a pull up position. These can be scaled accordingly also.
Back Lever
This move I’ve found much easier than the front lever and honestly didn’t have to work that hard for. The moves below have really strengthened my hold though. (Read more about how I achieved my first back lever HERE)
- Back lever pullouts – I only train these at an advanced tuck level and sometimes half lay but they have really improved my full lever. Lower down from an inverted hang while maintaining the level you can (usually lower than your best hold), and pause when you’re horizontal, keep the same body position and pull out to the inverted hang. Repeat for reps.
- German Hang pullouts – basically a back lever pullout with a larger range of motion. Relax into a German hang and pull out all the way to an inverted hang, while maintaining whatever lever level you’re using. Usually it will be quite low – sometimes just a basic skin the cat will be all you can manage if your German hang is deep enough.
- Negatives – I’ve only done back lever negatives a few times and didn’t really feel they did much for me. I can see that they would be a good idea. I guess, like me, experiment with them and see how your body responds.
Human Flag
This is very dependant on shoulder strength; I’ve seen a common pattern between those with strong handstands, handstand push ups and overhead presses finding this move easier than those that don’t. The important thing here is to train BOTH SIDES. Never be the one who can only do it on one side.
- Human flag kick ups – this is simply using your feet to jump up to horizontal, at whichever level you’re using (often times you can use a higher level than your actual hold here) and attempting to briefly lock the arms out and hold the position, before controlling it back down.
- Negatives – jump or climb up to an inverted position and attempt to lower down through the human flag position as slow as possible. Sometimes using a lower level and pausing at horizontal works well here, too.
- Human flag presses – you will need a decent base level for these but they involve pressing up from a loose/low flag position, up through the horizontal positon, to inverted to finish. Needless to say, you will have to use a level lower than your best static hold.
Planche
This really does separate the men from the boys. There’s lots of very strong people who have all the 3 aforementioned moves under their belt but cannot full planche. There’s many street workout athletes who boast ‘full planches’ but when you examine the technique, you see many flaws – piked hips, bent arms, banana backs and people claiming 0.5 seconds as an actual hold.
- Dynamic planche leans – people underestimate the value of planche leans; do this at your peril. With this move you are trying to achieve the strongest amount of lean possible. If it’s easy on the floor, the move can be progressed by placing your feet on a Swiss ball, which allows you to roll back and forth (just the idea) and vary the angle of lean.
- Pseudo Planche push ups – find a planche lean, maintain the lean and do push ups. The common fault you see here is people losing the forward lean as they push up. Don’t do this. Even if you’re only leaning a little, maintain it! These can also be progressed in a similar fashion to the planche leans; by elevating the feet.
- Planche push ups – these are an advanced variation of the pseudo planche push up and best done on parallettes, as you’ll achieve a greater range of motion. The biggest challenge with these is fully locking out at the top and protracting the scapula. Once again, these will probably have to be done at a lower level than your actual hold.
Wrapping Up
This post ended up longer than intended but I like detail. No apology. I want to reiterate: I am by no means saying static holds shouldn’t be trained. I’m saying to only train statics is foolish.
One more thing, weighted moves have their value with achieving static holds too. I just wanted to focus on dynamic variations of the moves themselves. To get into weighted options would’ve made a lengthy article longer.
Good luck with your training. Any questions please leave below or email me.
Categories
Calisthenics, Exercise, Fitness, Overlooked movements, Progress
JR @ Straight-Talking-Fitness View All
The 'brains' behind StraightTalkingFitness, a site all about discovery that leads to strength in all formats; fitness, mental, emotional and spiritual. Everything starts from within and projects outwards. Master the body, master anything and everything.
Nice post! In my own experience the planche progressions actually worked pretty well, and I’ve been able to work up to a solid straddle planche and a shaky full planche over about 2 years (coming off a powerlifting background). I’ve actually had more trouble with the front and back levers and found that assistance work has been more helpful there. That said, I was attacking the planche with a vengeance so my other isometrics lagged behind. I’d say another under-appreciated point is to cycle your training with these holds. I’ve found that *not* training an isometric for two or three weeks after a stretch of consistent training leads to coming back even stronger. Guessing this has a lot to do with giving the soft tissue time to fully recover.
That’s a real solid level for the planche! Nice. Did you not find the planche built the back lever? I’ve found my planche naturally got better as my back lever did, probably due to the similarities in muscles used. The point about cycling is golden and one that I think applies to training in general, not just static holds. Many of us (myself very much included), are so scared to train lower levels of certain moves but they have so much value.
What structure did you use for your planche isometrics – were they all the same length holds or did you vary the hold times relative to the progression?
Thanks for such a thought provoking comment!
Agreed on the value of regressions. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard in calisthenics is once you master a move, go back to the beginning and start over. No room for ego if you want to keep improving.
My hold times for planche definitely tapered off through the progression. My best straddle planche is probably around 8 seconds, and maybe 3 seconds for a full. When I started a couple years ago I could barely hold a tuck planche for 3 seconds though, and that position feel more like a warmup now. At the end of the day you just have to put the time in, be consistent and keep pushing for that next progression. And don’t forget to schedule those deload weeks 😉
That’s really interesting. Have you ever gone back and worked over the progressions again on anything? I suppose it takes something to truly master any move. Amen on the deload sentiments, that’s something I’ve really learnt the hard and slow way; I always struggle to see the value in higher volume, lower intensity approaches. But the battering I feel after too many sessions of high intensity is teaching me otherwise. How often would you deload in a planche training phase – every 4th week?
I’ve been following Steven Low’s mesocycle recommendation for about a year, generally taking a deload week every 6 to 8 weeks. It’s worked well so far and I always come back stronger and more focused after the dedicated recovery time.
With regressions, I try to work them into my training based on what my current priority movements/holds are. A good example is when I’m not targeting planche as a priority during a mesocyle, I’ll add flat back and straddle planche holds as secondary work, vs. pushing for the full planche like I would if it were my mesocycle priority.
These are super hard moves! My goal is to build up my back in 3 months before successfully completing a rep of front lever. How long did it take you to train your back towards performing front levers? Thanks!
I had a very decent base level of strength in pull ups before I even thought about the front lever. It really depends what level you’re at currently? One thing I would stress, is the importance of training your pull ups from a DEAD HANG. That built my scapula strength quite well. Thanks for the comment!
My current level of pull-ups (from dead hang) is around 3 sets of 6 reps… how far off I’m from a decent level of strength? lol
That’s pretty good. Are you getting fairly high over the bar too? I would say 3 sets of 8-10 with perfect form should allow you to perform a tucked front lever or maybe even advanced tuck/One leg. Have you ever tried a tucked Front lever?
I get my chin over the bar. And no, I haven’t tried anything remotely close to a front lever… my core strength and straight arm push down are not strong enough. Thanks for your advice, JR! Looking forward to back day tomorrow!
Awesome post! This is exactly how I have been training recently. I’ve been working on the planche leans and pseudo planche push-ups. My new year’s resolution has been to get a solid planche hold by the end of 2018. With my training I’ve been able to hold the front lever on the bar for just a few seconds. How would you recommend I build up the strength to be able to hold the bar front lever for longer? Finally, just curious, do you have any suggestions on one-arm pullups/chin-ups?
Thanks a lot! What level of planche are you currently on? An idea for front lever that springs to mind is using a very light resistance band and doing 5-10 second holds with it. You can also do half lay lowers from inverted hang and pull back to the inverted hang.
One arm chin up is harder than front lever. I’d say the best way to go about obtaining it is with slow negatives. By doing that you’ll see where you’re not able to stay slow and you’ll know where your weak spot is in the ROM. Once you know that you can do partials in the ROM you need – example being top half or bottom half reps.
I’m only able to do a tucked planche with my knees on my elbows. Working on slowly extending one leg at a time, but I have to touch the ground each time I try. Using the band is a great suggestion for the front lever. I’ll have to give it a try. I’ve been going a lot of negative pullups and working on my scapular strength for the one arm pullups. Thanks for the advice.
Im stuck in the normal tuck planche, how do i advance to the advance tuck planche.
https://asididivineshow.wordpress.com
How long can you hold the tuck planche for?
30 secs top
And you can’t advanced tuck planche at all? How tucked is your tuck planche and can you push your knees out at all?
I can push my knees out, I’m just trying to get my back straight, it’s always curved
Have you tried using resistance bands to help you find and learn the right position? That’s an idea that might serve you.
We don’t really have that much tools in Nigeria, I had to suffer through the wrist pain to get my wrist flexible enough for the tuck planche
For front lever how to incorporate dynamic exercise (tucked ice cream makers & dead hang to inverted hang) into the routine? I’m currently on 3 set x 25~30 sec tucked front lever.
Thanks.
Hey Kevin,
I’d say you probably should start working on advanced tuck front levers as your static hold level. I would do the dead hang pulls to inverted hang first and do something like:
3-5 sets of 3-5 reps focusing on the quality of the movement and feeling the entire range.
For the ice cream makers I’d go higher reps (5-7) for 3 sets and make sure you PAUSE at the lever position to eradicate any swing or momentum, even if you have to scale to a very low level.
Furthermore, I’d suggest working on all layers of calisthenics even if your main goal is front lever. Moves like the muscle up (strict) and the back lever all work well with each other.
What do you think about using Planche Presses for training Planche the same way you use Front Lever Pulls for FL?
I think it would work brilliantly but it would have to be used by someone with a pretty good base layer of planche strength as it takes a fair bit of strength to tuck press!
That’s also what I have found seeing I do struggle with the tuck planche press. I have begun using a different variation with the arms horizontal to the ground on 2 boxes while you press up from whatever progression you’re in into a handstand. Not exactly sure what this exercise is called but it seems work fairly well and is noticeably easier.
I know exactly what you mean, that’s like a tucked maltese press! The cool thing with that variation is you can still alter the body angle (i.e. tucked, open tuck, halflay, full etc).
I think that could work very well when used with planche statics and bent arm pressing like pseudo planche push up variations or even tucked planche push ups if you’re strong enough.
I will definitely be using many of the exercises described here and implement them into my programming. Thank you for all the tips and for writing this article!
This is such an amazing post. Thank you so much for sharing these alternative exercises to progress the big moves. I am using a few now in my workout and this just confirmed it to me that I am on the right track. Thank you brother! I will be knocking these out asap!
My pleasure, Shaun! What level(s) are you at with the levers? Keep pushing on and you’ll have the full holds soon enough.
For sure! I don’t just want to get them, I want to perfect them!
I’m currently on advanced tuck FL and advanced tuck BL. I find back Lever to be way harder for some reason. What is the key towards getting the head in line with the body?
That’s the attitude I endorse for everything as well! They’re nice levels to be on but it can be a big slog moving to half lay/straddle.
What’s your shoulder extension/German hang like? Does it feel like a big shoulder and chest stretch for you?