Front Lever

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In gymnastics, the front lever is a common and fundamental skill. That doesn't mean it's easy though. The front lever requires an advanced level of pulling strength as well as a good amount of core strength. For most people, obtaining a front lever will take a significant amount of training. Fortunately, there are ways to make it easier that allow the front lever to be a great progressive exercise that requires minimal equipment and can build an extremely high level of strength.

The Basics

The front lever is primarily used as a strength exercise. It is classified as a horizontal upper pull movement. It is more generally classified as a upper pull movement. Since it involves significant activation of multiple muscle groups, it is considered a compound exercise.

Form

Set Up

• Grasp the bar with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder width apart.
• Option 1: Inverted Hang (Easiest)
• Tuck your legs to your chest
• With straight arms, pull yourself to an inverted hang
• Straighten your legs, engage your back and abs
• Lower yourself until your body is horizontal
• Option 2: Ice Cream Maker (Harder)
• Do a pull up, but stop at the top of the rep
• Straighten your legs, engage your back and abs
• Lean back and straighten your arms at the same time so that your body ends up horizontal and arms straight
• Option 3: Raise (Hardest)
• Straighten your legs and engage your back and abs
• With straight arms, raise and rotate your body until it's horizontal

The Hold

• Keep your arms and legs straight
• Keep your shoulderblades pulled down and slightly back
• Engage your abs, pulling your hips to your ribs so that your back is straight
• Your upper back should be rounded and your lower back straight
• Think about pulling your hands down and in towards your body
• Point your toes

Common Mistakes

Arching Your Back

Allowing your back to arch and legs to drop down is a sign that you need to improve your core strength. Work on actively pulling your hips to your ribs to maintain a straight line.

Piking at the Hips

While piking at the hips makes holding the front lever easier, proper form calls for maintaining a straight line. As you try to hold your front lever, pay attention and make sure your legs are staying in line with your torso.

Bending Your Arms

Just like piking at the hips, bending the arms makes holding the front lever easier and is not proper form.

Fully Retracting Your Shoulder Blades

Unlike some of the other mistakes, this one actually makes holding the front lever harder. You want your shoulder blades to be slightly retracted as this puts your back muscles in the most advantageous position.

Additional Info

Height and Weight

How difficult the front lever is going to be for you depends in large part on your height and weight. You've likely held a long object, like a broom or even a barbell. If you've ever tried to hold it parallel to the ground, you probably chose to hold it so the weight was balanced on either side. This is because if you hold more towards one end, the other end is pulled down more and you have exert more force to stop it from rotating.

This is essentially what is happening in the front lever. So if you're taller, it's like you're grabbing the object farther from the center, making it even harder to hold.

As for weight, take the broom and the barbell again. You can probably hold a broom parallel to the ground from one of the ends, but the barbell is obviously a different story.

You can check out our Lever/Planche Moment Calculator to see how hard the front lever and some of its easier positions will be for you.

Progression

The front lever requires an advanced level of pulling strength. If you're not there yet, you can still train the front lever by using one of its many progression steps. For a more in depth guide to working towards the front lever, check out this article. Otherwise, all of its progression steps are in the Related Exercises section below.

Related Articles

• How to Front Lever | Progressions, Tips, and a Little Bit of Physics: The front lever is an impressive skill that demonstrates serious pulling and core strength. Whether you can do inverted rows or a half lay, the full hold is a challenging yet achievable goal and we can help you get there.
• Front Lever Progression | A Comprehensive Guide: Everything you need to know (and more) about how to go from a beginner to holding your first full front lever. This guide has every progression position, optimal hold times, variations for advanced trainees, as well as personalized standards and progress tracking.

Related Exercises

Reviews

Performance Standard Ranks

The ranks assume that you are generally healthy, with no underlying health conditions or injuries and have the mobility to perform the exercise correctly. You can determine your rank by comparing your numbers to the tables below. Your rank is also tracked automatically when using our Workout Log feature.

Strength Standards

The tables show the one rep max* in pounds needed to reach each rank at different body weights (also in lbs). The 1RMs on the table are based on world records, balanced ratios, and the average time needed to attain each rank. To see personalized strength standards for every exercise, check out the Strength Standards page. You can also find your Strength Score to see how you rank as part of our Fitness Score System.

*Added weight if positive, assistance if negative. The planche and levers are also notable exceptions as they show the moment at the shoulder, not weight. For more info, check out the Moment Calculator page.

Muscular Endurance Standards By Body Weight

The tables show the reps or isometric hold times (in seconds) needed to reach each of the muscular endurance ranks at different body weights. The reps on the table are based on world records, ratios, and the average time needed to attain each rank. To see personalized standards for every exercise, check out the Muscular Endurance Standards page.

The amount of weight used to test for muscular endurance of some of the exercises is a percentage of body weight. The percentage was chosen to be memorable and to require a Novice to Intermediate level of strength so that most trainees could reasonably use it while not having to do an excessive amount of reps.