Back/Front Lever question

Hiya!

Two questions:

Back Lever- I read that the palms should be face-down or pointing towards the feet as opposed to pointing towards; Before I go into a Tuck-BL, should I make sure my hands are in a chin-up orientation?

Front Lever- Because I'm still a fatty, my abs can't sustain doing a tuck front lever yet. What I found however, is if I lean my legs against my elbows, I can hold the position..Should I continue to do this until I can practice a proper tuck FL or should I do static inverted hangs and work on gradually lowering my legs down?

thx!

Yeah, I was actually doing that upon coming back. Or you can just work an L-hang.

I used to have to rely on a little assistance to for my tuck FL. I can now hold my tuck FL freely although just a little too high. What helped me progress was some nice hollow holds for 60s.

Yeah, I was actually doing that upon coming back. Or you can just work an L-hang.

Isn't L-hang way harder than tuck front lever? I'm not even close to an L-hang and can do 20-30s of flat tuck front lever.

Uzeeh said:

Yeah, I was actually doing that upon coming back. Or you can just work an L-hang.

Isn't L-hang way harder than tuck front lever? I'm not even close to an L-hang and can do 20-30s of flat tuck front lever.

Tuck L Hang.

Ah, I see. Yes, Tuck L hang would be fine before front lever.

To answer your BL question, yes, your palms should be facing your feet if you want to strengthen your bicep tendons and elbows for future gymnastic static holds. I grip the rings with a pull-up grip and rotate the palms to face my feet as I'm lowering into the BL. I don't think it's wrong to hold it with a chin up grip, but you will have to jump into the BL, because with a chin up grip, you won't be able to do a front pull to get to inverted. However, given your current strength level, you're probably jumping into it anyway.

Long story short - practice with the pull up grip and attempt to pull yourself into the inverted position. Keep jumping into it while you're trying to gain strength.

For your BL question, if you are working them on a bar, you will need to position your hands in a chin up grip and roll your feet through your arms to go into your tuck BL. If on the rings, I also reccomend you do what rmandawg1 said. You have to learn to allow your wrists to move naturally. Work on going from a hang or an inverted hang (normal pull up grip), to a german hang (palms down, your chin up grip) very fluidly turning the wrists back and forth every rep.

If you can't do an L-hang...you should be working an L-hang first. Same with L-support. Basics first.

Sorry to steal the thread but while FL/BL is being discussed I was wondering if anyone knows of a good lower back exercise for FL/BL? I can hold advanced tuck for 30 secs, but my lower back and tensor fasciae latae tend to get very angery with me and cramp. So any exercises or stretches that will help with this weak point would be very helpful.

Nick

That's interesting, never felt that in the FL. But, if you have the book there is an entire section for lower back that is packed full of awesome stuff. I would just do weighted variations of archups (feet locked, thighs supported, belly down, lift upper torso to an arched back position), RLL (HeS lower toes to ground and lift back to HeS is one variation), and supermans (lay on the belly and lift arms and legs and hold). And drink more water!!