Knees Obstacle to Full Ascension in Tuck Front Lever Pull-up

[Andrew Flach]

Greetings, as usual.

Concerning the Tuck Front Lever Pull-up, as presented in Building the Olympic Body (Dragon Door article), the accompanying photograph shows the knees of the trainee bent to his chest, at the pinnacle of ascension to the bar, thus presenting the knees as an obstacle between his torso and the bar itself.

That is, although the movement begins in the Advanced Tuck Front Lever position, with a flat back, it finishes in the standard Tuck Front Lever attitude, as the name suggests.

Is it not possible to maintain the Advanced Tuck Front Lever position throughout the movement, such that the knees do not stand as an impediment to the trunk making contact with the bar? Granted, the level of difficulty would increase, and the name of the exercise would, in such case, have to change.

Cheers,

Andrew

[Gregor]

If you are strong enough, you could do even a pull ups in a front lever hold(straight body) :wink: .

[Coach Sommer]

Or you could just perform them on the Xtreme Rings and avoid the entire issue.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Andrew Flach]

Thank you, both, kindly.

But, before I can perform the full Front Lever and accompanying pullup, I must advance through the Tuck Front Lever Pull-up as well as the other progressions listed. And, indeed, the rings would circumvent the issue in question, but I don't own them, yet, and haven't the means to purchase them, at this time.

In the article, it is stated that, during the Tuck Front Lever Pullup, the hips will have a tendency to rise during the descent and lower during the ascension. Is the latter the reason for the assumption of the tuck position at the top of the ascension?

Here's what I don't grasp: since it's called a "Tuck Front Lever Pullup," why is that position not maintained throughout the movement? In other words, why does it begin in the Advanced Tuck Front Lever position?

Could an "Advanced Tuck Front Lever," in which the entire movement is carried out in that position, not act as a nice progression between Tuck Front Lever Pullups and Straddle Front Lever Pullups?

Andrew

[Richard Duelley]

I believe you just use which ever variation you can do. If you can hold an 'advanced tuck front lever' then do that at the bottom of each rep, and if you can only pull up with good from in a 'tuck front lever' then as you pull up transition to the 'tuck front lever.'

For example when I do Yewkies I start in a half lay (which is as high as the p-bars go) and as I pull up I transition to an 'advanced tuck front lever' for the top of the position because I cannot hold a half lay front lever. One of my goals of my current training cycle is to transition to a straddle front lever at the top of the movement.

The whole idea of the different tuck, straddle etc positions is to give the athlete the option of scaling the movement to his/her own abilities/equipment.

And about the hips rising question, I see it as something that the body needs to do in order to keep balanced. Just like when you do a dip with a single bar behind your back you tend to rotate around and under the bar during the rep.

-Ricky

[George Launchbury]

...here's my take:

The difference between the tuck front lever and the adv.tuck front lever is the flatness of the back (in the latter). I don't think there is any specification that the hip joint is at a certain angle, and the height that hip flexibility allows you to tuck your knees up with a flat back will vary. This flat back position is made easier by having the legs more tucked, and harder by having them less tucked.

However, as you lower/untuck the legs from the chest, the ROM available for pulling becomes shorter. The worst case being when your knees contact the bar and there would be literally inches of movement in the pull. To avoid this, you would go into a full tuck at the top position, which is not ideal, but better.

Once you progress to holding a hip position where your knees clear the bar, say [degrees]90[/degrees] for argument's sake, then you get to use a full ROM pull, and maintain the same position throughout.

Does that make sense?

George.