If you’ve been training towards the full front lever and are struggling with form, you aren’t alone. Thousands of people who attempt to learn the front lever often get stuck at a progression for weeks or months seeing little to no progress. While there can be many different reasons why a person is struggling to learn the front lever, we want to emphasize that the front lever is an achievable skill for almost everyone willing to put in the time and effort to learn it.
Getting stuck in a front lever progression when first learning the skill is very common. The most common progression to get stuck at is the advanced tuck front lever. While many front lever tutorials will recommend the straddle or single leg as the next progression, we want to shed light on another approach. Resistance band full front lever holds!
Understanding Common Issues When Learning The Front Lever
The front lever is one of the most impressive and challenging calisthenics exercises. For many athletes, unlocking the front lever is a long-term goal, often accompanied by plateaus that can hinder progress. Fortunately, resistance bands offer a versatile and effective solution to help you learn the front lever faster and overcome those frustrating plateaus. In this article, we’ll explore how resistance bands can be your secret weapon in mastering the front lever.
Before diving into the benefits of resistance bands, it’s essential to understand what makes the front lever so challenging. The front lever is a static hold where your body is suspended horizontally with your arms extended straight above your head, gripping a bar or gymnastics rings. Unlocking and holding this position requires immense strength in the lats, shoulders, core, and lower back, along with full body control and spatial coordination.
Why Use Resistance Bands When Learning The Front Lever Or Fixing Your Form?
Resistance bands allow you to build the necessary strength and refine your technique gradually, without overwhelming your muscles. By using resistance bands in your front lever training, you can hold the exact front lever position helping you build strength in the exact exercise. By neglecting the use of resistance bands to support the full front lever, many people often get stuck at the advanced tuck or straddle progression. This is due to not building the bodies nervous system to activate the right muscles for the full front lever.
By using resistance bands as assistance in the full front lever, you will get stronger and more efficient at the full front lever. If you’ve never used resistance bands in your training before, they are sure to help you progress and even fix a bad form front lever.
When progress stalls, it’s easy to become discouraged. Resistance bands can be the perfect tool to push through these sticking points. By providing just enough assistance to complete the movement with good form, bands allow you to continue training effectively, even when unassisted holds or reps become too difficult. This helps you build the strength and endurance needed to overcome plateaus and continue progressing.
Bands Allow You To Progressive Overload During Front Lever Training
When starting your front lever journey, a heavier band offers more support, reducing the load on your muscles and enabling you to hold the position or perform repetitions with proper form. As your strength increases, you can gradually transition to lighter bands, decreasing the assistance and increasing the challenge. This incremental progression is crucial for continuous improvement, allowing you to advance toward an unassisted front lever more quickly.
While the front lever is a very strength intensive skill, it isn’t just about raw strength — it’s also about maintaining the correct body alignment. If your hips are sagging or you aren’t perfectly horizontal, you are not doing a full front lever. Resistance bands can help you focus on form by reducing the intensity of the lever, allowing you to concentrate on keeping your body straight and avoiding common mistakes like sagging hips or bent arms. With the assistance of a band, you can work on maintaining the ideal horizontal position.
How Can You Create A Front Lever Program That Uses Resistance Bands
When fixing or unlocking the front lever, staying consistent with a program is a great way to see progress. Everyone has different starting points, strengths, and other advantages like height and body fat percentage but the exercises to learn the front lever remain the same. If you are struggling to improve your front lever or are learning it for the first time we have created a program for you. To keep things fun, we even turned it into a challenge.
Learn The Full Front Lever In 30 Days
While the full front lever may feel several months away, if you have the required prerequisite strength, you could learn it in less than 30 days.
Prerequisites For Learning The Front Lever
- 10 Strict Form Pull Ups
- 1 Minute Dead Hang
- 10 Second Tuck Front Lever Hold
- 5 Hanging Leg Raises To L sit
If you are able to do these 4 things, there is a good chance you will be able to improve at or learn the front lever in just 30 days.
Front Lever Training Split
To learn the front lever in such a short amount of time, we will be utilizing a very front lever-specific program. During these 30 days we recommend a 3 day split between high intensity hard exercises, low intensity easier exercises, and a medium intensity exercise day. However, rest days can be taken at anytime and are encouraged to avoid injury. If you feel pain at anytime, stop the exercise and seek professional medical help.
By using a hard/light/medium intensity split focused on the front lever, you will accumulate plenty of volume throughout the 30 days and fast track the adaptations needed to learn the front lever. Even if you have already learned the front lever and are looking to fix your form, we are confident you will see results after the 30 days if you stayed consistent.
Here is an example of what the split would look like:
If you are able to perform each day consecutively with no rest days in between, we recommend taking a rest day on day 4 to allow your muscles to recover from such a high volume. In addition to these exercises, those looking to learn or fix their front lever should also incorporate grease the groove training into their daily lives.
What Is Grease The Groove And How Can It Help You Front Lever
Grease the Groove, also called GTG, is a way to get better at a skill by practicing it a lot without getting too tired. Instead of doing a few really hard sets, you do lots of easier sets spread out during the day. This helps your brain and muscles get used to the movement, making it easier to do over time.
When it comes to learning the front lever, Grease the Groove can be super helpful. By practicing a little bit several times a day, you can build the strength and coordination needed without getting too tired or sore. Over time, this method helps you get stronger and better at holding the front lever position.
This technique is great because it helps you stay consistent and improve steadily. By focusing on quality practice rather than pushing yourself too hard, you can make progress faster and with less frustration. If you’re stuck trying to learn the front lever, Grease the Groove might be just what you need to finally get it right!
You can use any progression of the front lever when doing grease the groove, as well as you can perform full front lever attempts with a band for assistance.
Download The 30 Day Front Lever Challenge Program
If you are serious about learning the front lever in just 30 days, follow this highly specialized program we have put together for free. No purchase, no email signup, nothing just click the button at the end of this article to download the full challenge PDF. In the PDF file is the same exercise program you saw above as well as additional exercises, a further explanation of grease the groove, challenge rules, and more.
If you don’t want to download the entire PDF that’s fine too. At the end of this front lever article we have included screenshots of each page in the PDF. To learn more about calisthenics skill training and bodyweight fitness check out our calisthenics blog.
