Translated from French to English - www.onlinedoctranslator.com FRONT LEVER • Complete program • Technical explanations PROGRAM TRAINING By Flolit ДАВАЙ CALISTHENICS davaicalisthenics.com ДАВАЙ CALISTHENICS 1-PRINCIPLES BASIC PRESENTATION The front lever is a fundamental element of calisthenics. It is a strength move that mainly requires the strength of the back (latissimus dorsi, trapezius, teres major, rhomboids, etc.), triceps, and posterior deltoids. Like any straight-arm strength move, it is difficult on the human body and potentially dangerous if performed or trained incorrectly. So make sure you have good muscle and joint conditioning before moving on to a higher stage. To prevent injuries I advise you to always have a very good warm-up. I also recommend that you take breaks from time to time. If you have pain appearing or you feel very tired, don't be afraid to stop training it for 1 or 2 weeks. This will help your body recover and you may even progress. STATE OF MIND Like many elements of calisthenics, the front lever is a stressful and difficult element for the human body; but that's no reason to think it's impossible! Keep in mind that this movement is easy if you train it correctly. The most important thing is to have fun and believe in what you're doing. If you do something that you don't like or that you subconsciously believe is unnecessary, it's not going to work. Do the things you love and believe in. And with every rep of every set you do, remember your end goal, and push as hard as you want to achieve that goal. TECHNICAL To begin, it is important to define together the correct positioning of the body during a front lever: • The front lever is a static element where the body must be kept horizontal. • The legs should be straight and aligned with the body. • The arms also must be fully extended. • Generally, the distance between the hands on the bar should be similar to the width of the shoulders. • The upper back must be positioned in scapular retraction: the shoulder blades must get closer, by “bringing the shoulders back” so that the body can use as many back muscles as possible. 2 ДАВАЙ CALISTHENICS 1-PRINCIPLES BASIC LEVELS This program is divided into 4 different stages. They will help you understand where you are in your evolution. Be careful to do the workouts that correspond to your current level. If you do not respect this, it will be useless or dangerous. Level 1 : 0 to 15 pull-ups (You just started calisthenics, you need to build strong foundations and muscles). Level 2 : 2.Level 2: front lever tuck to advanced front lever tuck (You have a good foundation, you are ready to start learning the front lever). Level 3 : advanced tuck front lever to front lever bad form (You are able to do an advanced tuck front lever, you want to learn how to hold your first front lever). Level 4: front lever bad form to front lever (You are able to hold a bad form front lever for a few seconds, you want to make it clean and increase your time). 3 ДАВАЙ 2-METHOD CALISTHENICS TRAINING METHOD AND PRINCIPLES: • There are many ways to learn a movement: make attempts regularly (GTG), do max reps/holds, do combinations, do isolated exercises, train with additional weight or on a machine, reduce the intensity with rubber bands, reduce the intensity with more variations simple, etc. All these methods and principles are more or less useful, secure and difficult; and their effectiveness is not the same depending on each person, each element, each exercise, and your progress in your progress. • However, it is very important to do everything by varying the ways of training; and Above all, don't neglect or even prioritize the exercises/methods that you don't like (they are often revealing and correlated to a weak point). Indeed, working in a varied way will make it possible to solicit your muscles differently and thus create several nervous paths favorable to taking power. It is important to understand that each time your body undergoes something unusual, it will force it to progress and generate an additional strength gain to the other parallel reinforcements. • Following this logic, I also recommend working with different widths (tight, normal, wide) and to vary the grips (pronation, supination). • Even if it is not necessary when you start, I advise you to work with a false grip from time to time. Take care to always stretch your wrist and forearms well. The work in false grip will strengthen your forearm muscles and thus avoid injuring you in the rest of your evolution. • Then, to progress you will have to push your limits. Your body has no reason to be better if you do things to him that he already knows how to do. Unlike other elements of calisthenics (plank, hefesto, etc.), the front lever requires very large and very powerful muscles (latissimus dorsi). In addition, the gestures/technique associated with this movement being relatively simple, the very intense and regular work has only a very low impact on fatigue and the risk of injury. The secret of progress for this movement therefore lies in repetition and intensity. This applies as much to the scale of the week, the month, and even the training: decrease the rest between training days and between sets. This allows you to provide a large volume of work and to accustom your nervous system to this figure. 4 ДАВАЙ 2-METHOD CALISTHENICS Indeed, this movement must become natural for your body. The front lever is one of the rare calisthenics movements that can be trained at a very high intensity without taking the risk of causing excessive fatigue and injury. So, keep in mind that the progress will be proportional to your amount of work. But beware ! This is not an absolute truth valid all the time and for everyone. Sometimes progress requires more or less time and depends on many other more or less controllable factors (food, sleep, state of mind, work, etc.). So even if you don't progress all the time, don't give up or skip the steps! • Working in the way mentioned above is all the more interesting as it will allow you to develop very good endurance, which is essential for front lever. The end goal would be for you to be able to do a front lever any time during your session. Thus, during pull combinations where the management of the breath is essential, the front lift must be a "rest" movement, or at least the least costly energy possible. • However, you cannot push your body to the maximum continuously, especially that you risk, by starting this program, to pass from an isolated work to the unit, to a work of quantity by the means of the combinations. I therefore recommend that you take a few weeks during which you will work at an intensity equivalent to approximately 80% of your capacities between each transition period. This way, your body will have time to get used to the new type of effort. A transitional period corresponds to: - a change in the type of training - the passage of a stage of the program - switching to a more advanced variant of an element. • Arrange your work rhythm according to your feelings. The ideal is about 5 days per week but this is highly variable and subjective. Sometimes you may still not be tired after a week of training; and other times you need a week of total rest. You will have to manage the intensity of your work according to your form felt in the moment. Do not hesitate to take 2 to 3 consecutive rest days when you consider it necessary, part of the progress is in the right pace of work and rest. If after 4 days of rest, you don't really feel better, maintain the rest period for a little while, and resume with a reduced rhythm and intensity that will allow you to keep a stable rhythm. 5 ДАВАЙ 2-METHOD CALISTHENICS • Never stress your body on a movement involving pain! Pain is a message, listen to your body and don't hurt it. We can reasonably work on sore muscles, because it is an inevitable consequence of this particularly intense sport. However, at the slightest other pain, I would ask you to change your way of doing things if it is possible, if not, to stop working on the movement in question. • If you injure yourself, consult a healthcare professional. The osteopath, able and authorized to make a diagnosis, and often to solve the problem by himself, trained on muscle, bone, tendon or nerve issues, will be of great support to you throughout your sporting life. The general practitioner can prescribe an appointment with the physiotherapist. However, physiotherapy will not be able to help you on all levels, since practitioners are not authorized to make a diagnosis, and they only know how to treat some of the problems you may encounter. Finally, if no health professional knows how to diagnose or cure you, refer you to your doctor who can prescribe medical imaging (x-rays/scanners). ADAPTATIONS The following workouts have been designed to be the most complete and easy to implement by everyone possible, so they are only bodyweight exercises. However, it's not personalized coaching, so it's possible that you can't do some exercises for different reasons (you don't have the equipment, you're injured, you don't like it, or you just want it change). It is also possible that you have additional equipment (dumbbells, ballast, etc.). For this, the table below allows you to choose the exercises you need. The exercises are classified from top to bottom respectively from the most to the least effective, and you will find indicated at the bottom the levels to which they correspond. Here is the list of all the exercises you can use in your workouts. This is not an exhaustive list of all exercises, these are just the main and most effective ones. Remember that almost all can be performed with additional weight (pelvis, ankles, bag, jacket, etc.) or with a rubber band. 6 ДАВАЙ 2-METHOD CALISTHENICS LEGEND Exercise 1 DIFFICULTY The red zone represents the levels to which the exercises correspond. In the example opposite, this exercise can be done when you are at level 2 and 3. FRONT RAISE TUCK DIFFICULTY ADVANCED TUCK / OL DIFFICULTY FULL DIFFICULTY VARIANTS VARIANTS FRONT LEVER HOLD TUCK DIFFICULTY ADVANCED TUCK / OL DIFFICULTY FULL DIFFICULTY FRONT LEVER PULLUPS NEGATIVE ADVANCED TUCK / OL DIFFICULTY FULL DIFFICULTY TUCK DIFFICULTY ADVANCED TUCK / OL DIFFICULTY FULL DIFFICULTY TUCK DIFFICULTY ADVANCED TUCK / OL DIFFICULTY FULL DIFFICULTY DRAGON FLAG VARIANTS VARIANTS DIFFICULTY FRONT LEVER RAISE/PULL NEGATIVE VARIANTS VARIANTS FRONT LEVER PULLUPS TUCK TUCK DIFFICULTY ADVANCED TUCK / OL DIFFICULTY FULL DIFFICULTY SWEATERS? DIFFICULTY TOES-TO-BAR DIFFICULTY CHINUPS DIFFICULTY LEG RAISE DIFFICULTY AUSTRALIAN PULLUPS DIFFICULTY L-SIT DIFFICULTY 7 ДАВАЙ 3-VOCABULARY CALISTHENICS VOCABULARY Tuck : legs together, knees close to the torso One leg/OL : one leg in "full" and the other in "advanced tuck" Advanced Tuck : legs together, thighs perpendicular to the ground Full : legs tight, stretched 8 ДАВАЙ 3-VOCABULARY CALISTHENICS bad form : incorrect body shape and positioning technique. During training, bad form is tolerated to a certain degree in order to facilitate movement. Touch : horizontal body, pelvis glued to the bar australian : body aligned, inclined, with feet on False grip : put your wrist on the bar/ ring to hold with more strength and reduce leverage (at the level of the hands) the ground 9 ДАВАЙ 3-VOCABULARY CALISTHENICS Support : on parallel bars, arms stretched along the body (vertical position) Deadhang : the body that hangs vertically Protraction : horizontal translational Retraction : horizontal translational movement of the shoulder blades to the movement of the shoulder blades towards the sides (shoulders forward) center of the back (shoulders back) 10 ДАВАЙ 3-VOCABULARY CALISTHENICS Slow : slow, controlled PA : partial amplitude Negative : from the final position, gently control the movement towards the initial position Superset : chain 2, 3 exercises without rest. Dropset : chain 2, 3 exercises from the most difficult to the simplest without rest hold : hold an isometric position (without moving) Reps : let's repeat Max r : do as many reps as possible Max s : last as long as possible BW : bodyweight DESCRIPTION OF THE EXERCISES / ADVICE Attempts : In general I recommend that you start your training with “attempts”. It can be just a move or a combo. Here are some ideas of what I mean by “attempts”, which you can draw inspiration from (from the easiest to the most difficult): • Tuck front lever hold 6s • One leg front lever raise with elastic • Negative one leg front lever pull to advanced tuck front lever hold 7s • bad form front lever raise to one leg front lever hold 5s to 3 tuck front lever pull ups • 8 advanced tuck front lever pull ups • 3s front lever hold to 5 advanced tuck front lever pullups Front lever hold : keep your arms straight and your body horizontal. Hold as long as possible and stop when the shape degrades too much. Front raise raises/pulls : start in a deadhang/front rise position, pull your body to the vertical position, making sure to keep your arms straight and your chest, pelvis and legs aligned throughout the movement. Front lift pull ups : start in a front lift position, pull your body upwards, making sure to stay horizontal, keep your arms straight and your chest, pelvis and legs aligned throughout the movement. Try to go as high as possible. The ideal would be to go as far as the touch front lift. 11 ДАВАЙ 4-EXERCISES CALISTHENICS Front raise raise/pull negative : start in a vertical position, control the fall of your body towards a deadhang/front raise position, making sure to keep your arms straight and your chest, pelvis and legs aligned throughout the movement. Try to go as slowly as possible, or hold your maximum when your body approaches horizontal. Front lift pull ups negative : start in the front lift touch position, control the fall of your body towards the front lift position by ensuring that you remain horizontal, keep your arms straight and your chest, pelvis and legs aligned throughout the movement. Try to go as slowly as possible. dragon flag : Hold on to a bench or bar close to the ground. Make sure that throughout the exercise, only the upper part of your back (shoulder blades) is in contact with the floor/ bench. Start with the vertical body. Control the descent of your body until it is as horizontal as possible. Hold your maximum or do repetitions by returning to the initial position without bending the body. Pull-ups : Start in a hanging position with your arms straight. Next, pull your body up until your chin reaches the level of your hands. You can do it with extra weight (hips, bag, ankle, jacket) or with a rubber band. Chinups : concentrate as much as possible on the activation of the dorsals. Consider lowering your elbows rather than raising your shoulders. You can do this with additional weight (pelvis, ankles, bag, jacket) or with a rubber band. Australian pull-ups : From the front lift position with your feet on the floor, pull your body up. You can use a barbell, rings, or ropes. You can do it with extra weight (hips, bag, jacket). Toes to bar : Start in a hanging position with your arms straight. Keep your legs and arms straight throughout the exercise. Raise your legs until your feet reach the height of the bar. Be careful to control the negative phase well. Leg raises : Start in a hanging position with straight arms or straight arm support. Keep your legs and arms straight throughout the exercise. Raise your legs until they are horizontal. Be careful to control the negative phase well. 12 ДАВАЙ 4-EXERCISES CALISTHENICS L-sit : Stand in an outstretched arms support position. Keep your legs and arms straight throughout the exercise. Your legs should be horizontal, perpendicular to your bust. Hold on as long as possible. Dips : start from the outstretched arms position and descend until your shoulders reach the level of your elbows (arms bent at 90°); then shoot to go up. You can do it with additional weight (pelvis, ankles, bag, jacket). Pushups : try to go as low as possible. You can do it with additional weight (basin, bag, jacket). HOW TO TRAIN? Work pace and volume As explained above, the number of workouts per week, their duration and their intensity is variable. It is therefore mainly up to you to know how to listen to your body and adapt. On the other hand try to stay in an average of 5 workouts per week if your priority is the front lever. In the workouts proposed below perform 1 to 3 times the main workout (which is the most intense and effective); and add the 2nd and 3rd if you need to complete your training week. Rest and repetitions To progress in front rise it is essential to develop endurance. To work on it, especially when you are just starting out and during the simplest exercises, then add short rests of 1 to 3 minutes and make sure to perform about 10 repetitions/ 10s under tension at least for each series. On the other hand, when you have to train more difficult figures/exercises, do not hesitate to reduce the intensity. For example, for sets of 5 reps/5s under tension, take 3 to 4 minutes of rest between each to ensure that you produce an almost similar performance in each set. Keep in mind, however, that this is flexible and subjective. Indeed your sleep, your diet, your general energy, your previous workouts, your level, your desire, etc. vary your needs. 13 ДАВАЙ PROGRAM CALISTHENICS LEVEL 1 • MAIN ROUTINE • 2 ROUTINE • 3 ROUTINE YOU CAN GO TO THE UPPER LEVEL WHEN YOU ARE ABLE TO DO 15 PULL-UPS. 14 ДАВАЙ PROGRAM CALISTHENICS LEVEL 2 • MAIN ROUTINE • 2 ROUTINE YOU CAN GO TO THE UPPER LEVEL WHEN YOU ARE ABLE TO HOLD AN AD-VANCED TUCK FRONT LEVER FOR AT LEAST 10S. 15 ДАВАЙ PROGRAM CALISTHENICS LEVEL 3 • MAIN ROUTINE • 2 ROUTINE YOU CAN GO TO THE UPPER LEVEL WHEN YOU ARE ABLE TO HOLD A FRONT LE-VER BADFORM FOR AT LEAST 3S. 16 ДАВАЙ PROGRAM CALISTHENICS LEVEL 4 • MAIN ROUTINE • 2 ROUTINE 17 ДАВАЙ CHANGES CALISTHENICS FRONT LEVER VARIATIONS There are many variations of the front lever (front lever touch, front lever raise to touch, victorian, one arm front lever, front lever wide grip, dragon press etc). Before you start training them, make sure you have at least 10s of clean brow lift. If you start before, it will be a waste of time and you will have more risk of injury. When you are ready, you can start integrating specific exercises for these new figures at the beginning of your training: I advise you to perform these exercises in advanced tuck or one leg. You can switch to full when you feel comfortable (15s). Follow the same methods and principles as for the front lift. So don't hesitate to incorporate them into your combinations or to work on them in isolation as strengthening exercises. Front raise touch hold Pull by bending your arms to keep your pelvis as close to the bar as possible (at hand level). Throughout the exercise make sure to keep the body/torso horizontal, and aligned with the pelvis and legs. Hold as long as possible and stop when your stomach is about 20cm or more from the bar. 18 ДАВАЙ CHANGES CALISTHENICS victorian holding Place your forearms horizontally on parallel bars/boxes/chairs. Push your body up so it's horizontal and as high as possible (try to get your pelvis above the bars). Throughout the exercise make sure to keep your arms straight and your chest, pelvis and legs aligned. dragon press Put your fingers on the ground at the level of the pelvis. Make sure that throughout the exercise, only the upper part of your back (shoulder blades) is in contact with the ground. Push your body up so that it is horizontal and as high as possible. Throughout the exercise make sure to keep your arms straight and your chest, pelvis and legs aligned. 19 Legal Notice Any Sports practice involves risks, DavaiCalisthenics, as well as its entire team, cannot be held responsible, and hereby discharge themselves of all responsibilities in the event of an injury. 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