This is the natural partner to the planche, and uses primarily the upper body 'pull' muscles as opposed to the upper body 'push' muscles used by the planche. You need a horizontal bar (or gym rings!) at least at waist height and at least as wide as your shoulders for this. The front lever has a number of progressions - too many to show in the videos - so I show the easiest and the hardest. The easiest form, the tuck front lever is not too hard. Also included are some links to good tutorials where all the intermediate progressions can be seen.
Tuck Front Lever
This is not the greatest form, but it gets to the point and shows how my tuck planche looked when I got started. I suggest looking at some of the tutorial links to get an idea of the perfect form.
Full Front Lever
...and here's where we're aiming to get to. I picked this video because once again, it gets to the point - but it also illustrates that you can really improvise! It's pretty clear that this dude has spent so much time practising his front lever that he had no time to tidy his bedroom.
Dragon Door: tutorial on progressing through the front lever and planche. PowerAthleteMag.com: tutorial on progressing through the front lever.... Read more
You can work your abs pretty hard with this one, especially if you maintain good form. The guy in this video has it pretty well nailed. The important thing is to avoid swinging - a wide grip helps with that, but it also takes a lot of additional effort from the abs to control the downward movement. If you just let your legs drop under gravity, you will swing wildly.
Engaging the lats is also important with this exercise, as you can help to stabilise your body and power your hips upwards by squeezing them and also use them to control the hips on the way down.
How straight you keep your legs affects how hard this is - I find I must keep my legs at least slightly bent to do even one rep - and to do 10, significantly bent. Simply bend your legs as much as you have to for the number of reps you want to execute. When you are very tired - as this guys is towards the end of his set, you can pretty much move to knee-raises. Or if you prefer, just raise your legs only as high as you can get them.
I think this exercise, strictly speaking, should be done using gymnastic rings. I will find a video of this being done, but for now am focusing on the version that uses a bar, since that is what I do.
Using a Bar
This is the basic form using a bar - he does swing a little bit, but not enough to classify this as a 'kipping' muscle up (see lower down.)
Jump-Assisted Using a Bar
I don't have a video of this, but essentially this involves standing on a box under a bar and jumping into the movement so I can provide additional momentum to allow me to perform the muscle up. By reducing the size of the box, then the extent to which I rely on a jump, I hope to progress towards the unassisted version.
Swing-Assisted, Uneven Muscle Ups Using a Bar
This was how I achieved my first muscle up - by swinging and then doing an uneven muscle up so that my strongest arm took priority. In other words, I just did my damnedest to get up there. Now I can work backwards from here and try to tighten up the form.
Partial
These are a lot like dips - you start in the normal end position - arms straight. Find a wall or other platform and then get yourself into the position as if you had just done a successful muscle up on it. Then lower yourself as far down as you can go whilst still comfortably then pushing back to the straight-armed position. To progress, increase the depth to which you go before pushing up.... Read more
This is a great substitute for bent-over rows if you want to workout with bodyweight and/or cannot make it to a gym. Ways to make this exercise harder:
Raise your feet by placing them on something like a bench
Ask your training partner to put a weight on your chest
Any combination of these!
With Bar
This could be a barbell or smith machine bar in the gym (second video) or, as in the first video, any horizontal pole or bar at roughly the correct height.
Under Table
I started doing this version when I was in hotel rooms or at home. Here I am doing it in my apartment.
I love chin ups. Great for the biceps and upper back. To show the basic movement I picked a video that makes me laugh because the whole set-up is about as far removed as you can get from the kind of gym rat scenario normally seen in YouTube videos. Plus, her impromtpu oblique workout on the last rep is highly unusual!
This is considered to be a good mass-builder for the upper back and this video illustrates well how the muscles are engaged by the movement.
Barbell
You can vary the grip width and angle of the back to suit. I prefer to have my back as close to horizontal as possible. I believe that the wider the grip, the less the biceps are engaged and therefore the more you isolate the lats.
Single-Arm Dumbbell
I like this guy's videos. He just gets on with it. The only thing I would say is that he appears not to pull the dumbbell right into the base of his ribcage, which I find gives me a better squeeze.
I have not seen this elsewhere, so I have invented a name for it. No video yet - will have to take one of myself doing it.
It's a combination of a hanging leg raise and the tuck front lever. You hang from a bar as if you are going to do a tuck front lever. Slowly move into the tuck front lever by raising your legs. I can only do this if I tuck my knees tightly to my chest. Hold the tuck front lever for a few seconds, then straighten the legs and angle them so they are at an upwards angle of 45 degrees to the horizontal, then lower them as slowly as possible. It should get really hard as they approach horizontal - if you can hold them there for a while before lowering completely, then great. I cannot!... Read more
It's not often I get a chance to do this, but when I do, I find it an excellent upper back and biceps worker. You don't need much rope: you can just climb up and down as many times as it takes to achieve the desired level of fatigue...
This is one of the toughest abs exercises I have ever done, but the good news is that although strict standing ab rollouts are tough, there are many variations that allow a progression. Here are some videos and links showing what you can do.
This is an upper body exercise that also uses the biceps and rear delts. The first video shows strict, basic pull-ups with a roughly shoulder-width grip, followed by someone using a kettle bell to do weighted pull ups. The wider the grip, the less bicep recruitment. I am not a big believer in strict form on pull ups because our bodies were not designed for that. When climbing trees as hunters, we would have done what was necessary to get up as quickly as possible, not dangled our legs uselessly beneath. Next, videos of the inverted pull-up, a great variation.
Basic Pull Ups
Parallel-Grip Pull Ups
I guess this works the muscles in a slightly different way - I tend to only do these when there is no straight bar available, but since the grip is arguably halfway between a chin up and a pull up, I guess throwing these in now and again is a good way to mix things up.
Weighted Pull Ups
I use an old, sturdy belt which I loop through the handles of Olympic weights, but this guy is using a kettle bell with what looks to be the kind of belt you can buy specially for this purpose.
Inverted Pull Ups
Inverted Under-Table Pull Ups
This variation is great way to give your upper back and biceps a decent workout when you have nothing to hang from, but access to a sturdy table. Also works the abs. This is often my saviour in a hotel room situation and stops me having to stalk the streets at 7am looking for appropriate tree branches or street signs. This is a video of me doing a couple of reps under our table at home.
