My front lever progress, may help some trying to get there

[Ricky Dawson]

Hi All,

thought i'd try and give something back to a site that has really helped me of late. I dont think that its by chance my training has come together since this site was launched. Seeing the 'new' exercises alone are enough to keep me motivated even if i'm nowhere near ready (Manna).

So, i've never been able to get passed the advanced tuck on the front lever. After being inspired by the 'front lever pulls' and 'front lever pull ups' i started adding them to my workout mainly to imporve my pulls ups and thinking it would be a bonus if it progressed the FL too.

I hardly worked the front lever static holds at all, maybe once every 4 workouts. After a few sessions of doing the FLP and FLPU's i could lower into a one legged front lever and hold for a good 5 seconds on both legs.

I do not have the room to work straddle so a week later i started working the FLP (ice cream makers) with one leg extened... really struggled on the first one and thought maybe i had jumped to early...

Went on to GTG with this for the next two nights only trying one rep. By the end i could do 3 reps and was very happy. had a few days off and went back to it, felt very strong. So strong that i could do 3 sets of 5 reps... feeling extra confident i decided to have a couple of days off and see how far away i was from a full FLP (both legs extended).

Last night i tried this and hit it for three reps, form wasn't perfect on the first set... but seemed 'ok' for th esecond two and manged three reps in all sets. It felt amazing, my biceps and triceps burning, quads felt like i had been stabbed and that a sumo wrestler was jumping on my abs!!

I LOVE THIS EXERCISE!!!

Tried for a forth set and my tri's screamed a big NO at me, so called it a day. Wanted to share my 'sucess' story as i know hearing results and knowing what 'real' people do to get there can help alot.

dont feel i have the strenght to lower into the front lever yet but now feel like its not a million miles away. Also, will probably need to work the 1 leg extended pull up before the full as i've not even tried this yet.

I wish the planche would come this 'easy'!!!

Thinking of trying a differet approach to this now too.

Hope someone finds this helpful and/or even interesting.

Regards, Ricky

[George Launchbury]

Thanks Ricky,

Helpful, interesting and inspiring. A lot of people post here asking for help, but few post back with their results - which is a shame. Thanks for taking the time to let us know.

Keep up the good work.

Cheers,

George.