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Back lever issue


Guest ilove2workout28
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Guest ilove2workout28

I want to be able to do a back lever, but I have a fear of going from an inverted hand into the BL. Any thoughts? I usually just try to position myself in the end part of the BL, however I doubt I'm getting the full benefit.

Daniel

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The end part of the BL, the BL, isn't super easy by any means.

Work a skin the cat as that starts in hang, pulls through FL, inverted hang, BL into the german hang and then reverses the movement.

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Guest ilove2workout28

Halluites (hope I spelled your name right), you're right about that. I just use the pull up bar that goes right over the top of a door frame, and I"m nervous that it will fall.

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Guest ilove2workout28

I finally did a back lever.... even though i asked my girlfriend to assist me just as I go backwards. :) after that, I was able to do it without a spotter, but I can only do it in a tuck so far. Is it common for the back lever to stress the biceps?

Daniel

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If you have your palms facing your feet you will get much stress on biceps. If palms face head, then this will take stress off.

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Joshua Naterman

When you are in the back lever position your palms can face up towards the ceiling, or down towards the floor. Your biceps are doing much more work in the palms down position. Palms down is when your thumbs are pointing to the outside, and palms up is when your thumbs are pointing towards your body.

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Yes, if you are doing them right. Palms down is the only thing that will prepare you for planche.

This is good to know...

I did the WOD the other day with the german hangs and was happy at my ability to pull out of the full extension back up into a pike. I'm only at a tucked BL at this point, when I extend my legs I still point down at quite an angle...

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  • 1 year later...

Hi. I just want to be clear on the palms up versus palms down for the back lever. I have been doing the back lever for 5-6 months and am now doing the half lay. I've been following the pictures in the book for the position of the palms.

In the book, I have just noticed that the hand positions for the stages progression change:

-Tuck and flat tuck - Rings are parallel - Palms pointing to the person (this is hand position I use) - Is this palms up?

-Straddle, half lay, and full - Rings are pointed outwards - Palms pointing behind person - Is this palms down?

The palms actually look down in both cases, so I'd like clarification.

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Joshua Naterman

The palms should always be down. Ideally you should always have palms down from the beginning, but realistically there will be SOME turning of the hands towards the body at first for most people. You want to have palms down as soon as possible so that you are building up your elbows.

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Thanks for your response! Oh wow! That is frustrating! This means that I have to start all the way back at the tuck lever with the palms down.

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Joshua Naterman

Or wherever you can hold, if you find that 60s with tuck is and 60s with advanced tuck is easy even with palms down then you should probably spend a good 3-4 weeks with advanced tuck just to let your elbows get used to it, and then another few weeks with straddle, and then you should be ok in half lay. If you want to be safe, spend 2 months in straddle. Unless you have a huge problem with elbow strength that progression should almost feel like it is too slow and unnecessary.

The book shows perfectly correct palm positioning for straddle,half lay and full lay. If you are already using that position then there is no need to go back.

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I'll definitely take that advice. As I said, I've been doing the BL progression with palms up (now up to half lay). I'll do the following:

-German hang with palms down (4 times a week as part of static warmup). If I feel it gets really easy so that I can go to 60s in one hold, I'll move to the next hold and so on.

-Half lay with palms up - 2 times a week for sets to get to 60s just to maintain the strength I gained

I tried the German hang with palms down this morning, and it certainly has a different feeling. I did 6 sets of 10s just to be conservative. I felt some strain on the shoulders and upper arms but am hoping that will go away fast.

Thanks for your detailed response!

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