Assisted One Arm Back Lever

So on the side of my ring training I've been doing a little barwork. One thing I have been starting to develop is a one arm BL. Ever since I saw a photo of Jasper Benincasa do one, I have been hooked on the idea of achieving one. He is the only man I've ever heard of achieve a OABL, and I think it's a sick strength move. I attached a photo of him doing one on the bottom of the topic.

Anyway, here is my progress thus far, pretty preliminary stuff but I'll remove my assistance arm, and continue to post, as I get stronger.

And set #2:

Comments? Criticisms? Anyone else training this?

One arm back lever is not as mythical a move as most people think it is.

I know several people that can do it, and I just hit one on the rings recently. The better way to go into it is to slowly lower from a flag or reverse meathook

you are going to need more room than your iron gym allows for, because to truly hold this with one arm, your legs are going to have to twist a little bit towards the arm.

Just be careful, it's really easy to mess up your shoulder doing these type of skills if you are not prepared

Ok thank you for the tip! Maybe I'll find that entering the BL from a reverse meathook would make it easier, doing it this way though, do you use a pronated or supinated grip? I wanna do a palms down version. And I am being cautious but I think I have enough shoulder girdle conditioning to train this. At least I hope so 8)

What would you guys say are prequisites for training the one arm back lever and how long of a two arm back lever hold should you have prior to working for this? How would this also compare to one arm side levers and one arm front levers in terms of difficulty? Thanks! I assume it would be easier than a one arm front lever since front levers are harder than back levers.

I'd love to see a video Yuri! Not because I don't believe you but because I think a visual would help me.

So while training OABL's on rings today I discovered a potent exercise that can be applied to victorian training. Think I'll post

About it under the ring strength section of the forum. Essentially, you set both rings very uneven, with one about maybe 2 1/2 feet higher than the other. Then you mount into an awkward sort of inverted hang/shoulder stand and initially what I would do was to lower into a OABL with one arm on the lower ring still assisting. Then I realized that if I laid out the other direction, I was in a sort of an assisted one arm Victorian. I've been training VC for awhile now and this exercise really seems to work the proper muscle groups. I can post a vid if necessary in 'ring strength' and will see if this helps me with my Victorian.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100877239961004

Yuri is right. The one arm back lever does works differently than when supported like you do. Going into it from a reverse meathook/flag is the way to go. From there you release out slowly into the position. Your body needs to twist towards the arm to maintain balance. It is actually not as hard as it would seem, but it does take very specific strength which isnt really trained by the two arm moves. As for prerequisites, i think you should have a strong flag as well as good back levers. Also being able to do back lever-flag(with 2 arms)-back lever, should be easy. A great exercise is to release just a bit from flag and pull back in to get the feeling of which muscles are working. The way Yuri does it in his clip is basically the best way of learning it. He releases slowly, stays slightly straddled, and he keeps his legs a little diagonal. The diagonal hip/leg position solves itself with time as you get stronger and more comfortable in the position.

Keep in mind that it feels very different than a normal back lever. There is much less chest involved since the centre of mass is moved and twisted to the side, and the latissimus works hard to keep the arm pulled towards your side.

You also want to keep the palm facing up at least in the beginning, mostly because it is uncomfortable to do a meathook with the hand the other way.

If you look at this clip you get a good idea how it works. If you want to see a more aestethical view of it, look up igor zaripov.

The guy in the clip, Kevin Lorant is crazy. Check out some of his other videos for some creative ways of ripping your arm off.

Thank you guys so much for your informative responses! It's great to have such a helpful forum to turn to.

These two guys do some really interesting skills

Thanks very much for posting those vids. Great stuff there and the Ian at the beginning of the second vid really got to me. I've only achieved a flat tuck Ian so I have mad respect for that guy.

Yea those videos have also inspired me a lot. I've recently added Ians, a one arm pull over and a one arm back lever to my goals.