Front Lever Tuck Questions

Hello GB forum!

I have been reading this forum and the articles by Coach Sommer attempting to digest as much information as possible as I wait for my copy of BtGB to arrive by mail. I have started practicing the 2 basic FSP in the first article (frog stand and front lever tuck) as well as the L-sit. My max holds for the frog stand and (edit PB L-sit) give me a lot of hope as a beginner! (60s and 42s respectively), but my front lever tuck makes me feel weak and humbled. When I keep my arms straight, I can not even get my body in the horizontal position, and can only hold that weakened position for about 14s. If I bend my arms slightly I can lift myself up and back into the horizontal position, but I can only hold that for a max of about 10s. Also, after performing the max (or the half max to 60s total progressions), the front of my shoulders (rotator cuffs?) hurt quite a lot! So I have a few questions regarding the front lever tuck:

1) are there any prerequisite exercises to this FSP?

2) should I keep my arms straight and only get halfway to the horizontal for my static holds? or bend them slightly to get to the horizontal position?

3) is my shoulder pain normal?

Please feel free to add any advice that I may not be asking for in my questions!

You should be lowering into FL from inverted hang at first, not pulling up from a regular hang! That's WAY harder.

If you need to keep your hips a bit high at first that's fine, as you get stronger you can slowly lower into the correct position.

Shoulder blades should be retracted and depressed. That means shrugging your shoulders towards your hips and squeezing them behind you at the same time. You should not be upwardly rotating. Use google to make sure you know what that all means if you aren't sure, it will probably take care of your shoulder issue as well as help you get much stronger.

slizzardman said:

You should be lowering into FL from inverted hang at first, not pulling up from a regular hang! That's WAY harder.

Huh, even when beginning I always sort of "jumped" into it. Now I pull from a normal hang, but not really a full hang - it's a doorway pullup bar

slizzardman said:

You should be lowering into FL from inverted hang at first, not pulling up from a regular hang! That's WAY harder.

If you need to keep your hips a bit high at first that's fine, as you get stronger you can slowly lower into the correct position.

Shoulder blades should be retracted and depressed. That means shrugging your shoulders towards your hips and squeezing them behind you at the same time. You should not be upwardly rotating. Use google to make sure you know what that all means if you aren't sure, it will probably take care of your shoulder issue as well as help you get much stronger.

lol I feel a little dumb for not figuring out I could lower myself into that position.

I was also not retracting my shoulders, and I think that was the cause for my shoulder pain because I tried it with my shoulders retracted and it felt much better. Thanks for the great advice!

Excellent! Keep us updated!

actually, when I retract my shoulders durin FL, I canˡt get Tuck FL, only the Adv Tuck FL..My back just flattens and Iˡm unable to keep my back rounded..is this normal or am I doing something wrong?? Itˡs much harder that way (with retracted shoulders)..so, should I put shoulder retraction aside for now (at least while Iˡm in Tuck FL position), and focus on that only with Adv Tuck FL?? Iˡll apreciate any advice on this subject..tnx in advance..

What about pain at the back of the shoulder? Is it likely that it is just my rear delt cramping up?

Sorry to hijack your thread a bit but you've posted a Great question, i created an account on her to ask the very same thing!

p.s I am also retarded to to think of going from an inverted hang....

there is nothing bad about going from inverted hang to FL.

ivan30 said:

actually, when I retract my shoulders durin FL, I canˡt get Tuck FL, only the Adv Tuck FL..My back just flattens and Iˡm unable to keep my back rounded..is this normal or am I doing something wrong?? Itˡs much harder that way (with retracted shoulders)..so, should I put shoulder retraction aside for now (at least while Iˡm in Tuck FL position), and focus on that only with Adv Tuck FL?? Iˡll apreciate any advice on this subject..tnx in advance..

Your lower traps are inactive. When you arch your back you are using middle and upper traps, not lower traps... it is a compensation pattern much like when people arch the back really hard during a military press because their shoulders are weak and they need their chest to do the heavy lifting!

It feels like taking a step backwards at first, but you need to learn how to use your retractors without arching the back. It IS hard, at first, but that leads to much greater strength gains in the long run!

Tnx, Slizzardman for your response..Iˡve learnt so much from your posts and videos here..now, back to subject..do you think itˡs smart idea to get to the inverted hang, retract my shoulders in that position, and then slowly lower, not all the way down (body parallel to the ground), but only to the point where I can keep my shoulders retracted (itˡs about 45 degrees or half way down) and then hold that position for prescribed period of time?? As I become stronger I would try to lower the body untill itˡs parallel to the ground..tnx in advance..

Yes. That's what I did!

Great! Thatˡs what Iˡll do..It would be interesting to know did you have any additional exercises for scapula strength (Iˡm doing Idoˡs scapular mobility routine on daily base) and what were they?! I guess they would help developing shoulder and scapula strength in retracted position..