How to Front Lever | Progressions, Tips, and a Little Bit of Physics

Disclosure: This article may contain affilitate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Just grab onto the bar and hold your body parallel to the ground. How hard can it be? Pretty difficult it turns out. What makes the front lever (and other lever exercises) difficult is the concept of moments. A moment is a force multiplied by a distance and represents the rotational force around a specific point. In this case, the force is gravity, the point of rotation is your shoulders, and the distance is from your shoulders to your center of gravity. So not only are you holding your full weight, you're also tensing your whole body to keep it straight while using your pulling muscles to keep your body from rotating.

With all that considered, the front lever is definitely a challenging feat. That doesn't mean it isn't achievable. In fact, it is a great goal to work towards, as the end result is impressive and you can develop your pulling and core strength along the way. So, how do you get there? The short answer is pretty simple: by using progression exercises. However, not everyone starts in the same place and there are many different ways to build the strength needed.

Where are you at?

Everyone's level of fitness is different, and the difficulty of the front lever is greatly impacted by your height and weight (more height and more weight = larger moment). In the sections below, we'll go through the options for progression exercises, starting with easiest all the way up to the front lever and beyond. Check them out and see what the best starting place is for you. Be sure to be realistic and not rush ahead. Your tendons will thank you.

A Quick Note on Balance

Keeping your opposing muscle groups balanced is important for long term health. While this article focuses solely on the front lever, which is a pulling exercise, it is recommended to do some pushing exercises as well. Working towards a pushing skill, like a planche or one arm push up is a great way to stay balanced.

Building a Foundation (Beginner)

This is a great place to start if have not done much strength training before. If you can already do pull ups with added weight, you can most likely skip to the next section. Otherwise, you're in the right place. As a beginner, we'll start by building basic pulling and core strength using some non-lever calisthenics exercises.

Pulling Strength

These should be done for 3 sets of 5-8 reps. Once you can do 3 sets of 8 reps of inverted rows, you can start working on pull ups.

Inverted Row : A great foundational back exercise. If the standard version is too difficult to do 5 reps with, bend your knees rather than keeping your legs straight.
Pull Up Negatives : Helps bridge the gap between full pull ups and rows. Doing just the eccentric portion has a similar training effect to doing a full pull up.
Pull Up : Continues strengthening your pulling muscles. These can be weighted and you can continue to use them in conjunction with lever training.

Core Strength

These should be done for 3 sets of up to a minute long. Once you can do 3 sets of planks for a minute each, you can start working on doing the same for hollow holds.

Plank : A great foundational core strength and stability exercise. Focus on keeping a neutral spine.
Hollow Hold : The next step that pretty closely mimics the position that front lever puts you in. Make sure to keep your lower back touching the ground throughout the entire hold.

Some Notes on the Progressing within the Progression

All of the exercises recommended in the sections going forward are modifications of the full front lever and they all involve changing the positioning of your legs. By moving your legs closer to you, your center of gravity is moved closer to your shoulders, thereby reducing the moment and making holding your body parallel easier. However, there can be a significant jumps in difficulty between some of the positions. There are several ways of dealing with this.

The first is by slightly adjusting each of the positions to make it easier or harder. For example, in the tuck front lever your legs are tucked to your chest, while in the advanced tuck lever they are held vertical and the knees bent. So, if you're having difficulty moving from tuck to advanced tuck, you can position the legs somewhere between the two positions to help bridge the gap.

The second is by using negatives, rows, or raises in addition to just holding the position. Negatives are easier than holds, holds are easier than rows, and rows are easier than raises. For example, if you're trying to move from tuck to advanced tuck you could perform negative advanced tucks, or work on some tuck rows.

Negative: From an inverted hang, lower yourself down under control while keeping your arms straight. Try to stop yourself when your torso is parallel with the ground, then continue lowering yourself under control until you're just hanging normally.
Hold: The standard version. Hold your body parallel to the ground with straight arms.
Row: From the hold position, pull yourself up to the bar by bending your arms. Be sure to keep your body parallel to the ground.
Raise: From a hang, pull yourself to an inverted hang while keeping your arms straight.

The third option is by simply working on holding each position for longer. However, at a certain point, this develops muscular endurance moreso than strength. While muscular endurance is certainly a good thing, if your goal is to achieve a front lever, all the muscular endurance in the world isn't going to help if you don't have the strength to hold it. That being said, extending your holds to 30 seconds or so will continue to improve strength and may help you make the transition between two positions. As an added benefit, working with lighter weights for longer can help your tendon health.

How many sets? For how long? How many times a week?

Anywhere from 3-5 sets for 8-16 seconds 2-3 times a week. This keeps the focus mainly on strength, while not going too intense in order to give your tendons time to adapt. As for the 2-3 times a week, both are good. It just depends on your other fitness goals and schedule. Recovery is important, so be sure to rest at least a day in between each session. To progress within a position, try to hold it for longer each session. Once you've been able to hold a position for a couple sets of 16 seconds, you'll likely be able to move onto the next position. If not, that's where the above options come in.

As you become stronger, you might need to change to a more intermediate or advanced training routine. Rather than trying to progress each session, you might want to have one session where you focus on doing more volume (reps or hold time) with an easier progression and another session where you focus on less volume but with a harder progression.

How fast should I be progressing?

Everyone is going to progress at a different rate, as many factors besides training play into the development of strength. Also, as mentioned earlier, height, weight, and how you are proportioned change the difficulty of the front lever. As a rough estimate, achieving a full front lever is possible within about 2 years for the average beginner.

What are those numbers next to some of the exercises?

Those numbers are what percentage of the moment of a full front lever that the body position creates. It's a good way to gauge how hard each position is compared to the others. You can find more info on this with the Lever Moment Calculator. You can also use it to see what your specific moment is for each of the positions by entering your height and weight.

Tuck Levers (Novice/Intermediate)

For those of you who can already do pull ups with added weight, we'll get right into doing some modified lever holds. The modifications all involve changing the positioning of your legs. By moving your legs closer to you, your center of gravity is moved closer to your shoulders, thereby reducing the moment and making holding your body parallel easier.

Tuck: (66.8%) As the full front lever, but tuck your knees to your chest. Try to maintain a neutral spine, as this can help your form during later progressions.
Advanced Tuck: (77.3%) Position your legs so that they are vertical with your knees bent 90 degrees.

Straddle and One Leg Levers (Advanced)

If you've already done some lever training or can do weighted pull ups with a good amount of weight added, you can likely jump right in to some of the harder progression exercises. That being said, if you've never done any lever training before, it's a good idea to train some of the easier progressions for at least a few sessions.

Straddle: (76.5%-?) The straddle is a great progression tool for those with the mobility for it and might be the best way for some trainees to get all the way to the full front lever. By straddling wider or tighter, the difficulty can be changed. That being said, it can be somewhat difficult to track your width, which makes progressing not quite as straightforward. A wide straddle (135 degree angle between the legs) is about the same difficulty as an advanced tuck. A more moderate straddle (90 degree angle between the legs) is about the same difficulty as the one leg tuck.
One Leg Tuck: (83.4%) Extend one leg straight while keeping the other one tucked to your chest. Alernate which leg is extended between sets.
One Leg Advanced Tuck: (88.6%) Extend one leg straight while keeping the other one vertical with the knee bent 90 degrees. Alernate which leg is extended between sets.

Half Lay and Full (Advanced+)

If you can do weighted pull ups with half your body weight added or have been practicing levers for a while already, you might be close to a full front lever already. As before, if you've never done any lever training before, it's a good idea to train some of the easier progressions for at least a few sessions.

Half Lay: (89.6%) As the full front lever, but bend both legs 90 degrees at the knee.
Full: (100%) Extend both legs straight and keep them in line with your torso. Arms should be kept straight, shoulder blades pulled together and make sure not to pike at the hips.

Above and Beyond

Okay, so you've already pulled off a full front lever with perfect form. What's next? Well, in addition to rows and raises, there is also:

The One Arm Front Lever: Just like the front lever, but with only one arm. This is on a whole other level. In addition supporting the full moment on one shoulder, you now have to keep your body from rotating on another dimension as well. To start working on these, you'll likely have to start back at the tuck position.
Weighted: Weight can be added in a number of ways. Ankle weights, dip belt, resistance bands, and weight vests to name a few. Just remember that where the weight is on your body affects the moment it creates. A light ankle weight can have the same effect as a much heavier weight vest.

Wrapping it Up

The front lever is an impressive skill that requires serious back and core strength. It is a tough, yet achievable goal that you can build up the pulling strength for by using progression exercises. Work your way up through the progressions and you'll be holding a full front lever before you know it.

If you're looking for a way to track your front lever progress, check out our workout tracking system. It will automatically calculate and track stats like the moment of the progression that you're doing as well as your Strength Score, a normalized rating that lets you compare your pulling strength to nearly anyone. Remember how the difficulty of the front lever is based largely on your height and weight? The Strength Score takes this into account.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, let us know by following the link to our contact page in the footer below.