Most of you know by now that I’ve been working on my gymnastics skills as a way to challenge myself and keep learning new skills.
And as someone with zero gymnastics background and pretty much the exact opposite of the idea gymnastics body type, let me tell you, it hasn’t been easy. But I’ve had a TON of fun along the way, and have undoubtedly made progress towards my goals.
So to continue my own pursuit of becoming superhuman, I’m super excited to have Sean Maples, a strength and conditioning coach from movestrong.club showing us how to do an incredibly difficult gymnastics exercise, the front lever.
If you’ve never heard of them before, front levers are a really advanced exercise that require incredibly strong lats and super strong core strength.
It’s an exercise that you’ll definitely see a lot of gymnasts doing, but rarely people at a regular gym, because they’re really hard! Also, the taller and lankier you are, the more difficult this exercise will be (as I found out when trying this exercise).
Yet that doesn’t mean they’re impossible. There are several logical steps to building up to front levers, and just like anything else, with time and consistency you can get there. Yet even if you don’t make it your lifelong goal to do a full one, working on the various progressions is still a great way to build a crazy strong back and core.
Note: We’ll be using rings to work on the progressions today, but you can also use a regular pull up bar to practice these progressions.
Watch the full demonstration video above or browse through the short clips below to see how far I got in the progressions (not very far…) and see Sean demonstrate them for us: