Back Lever Tutorial | Biomechanics, Technique, Progression, Conditioning

In this tutorial I will show you how to do back lever .
The set up of the back lever consists first in getting to a face down hanging position with your arms extended behind you back. To reach this position you must get your hips over your head in a back roll motion. From there you can approach the lever in two ways: you either stretch your legs out from a tuck position, which is the easiest way, or you start with a fully extended stance from the upside down position and you bring your body horizontal, which is harder but surely more elegant.
In order to get into a good horizontal alignment, you must lift your head to avoid hunching of the upper back, and press your feet together to stabilize your lower body. But most importantly, you must obtain the protraction of the scapulae by pressing down your arms towards your back as hard as you can. Why is scapular protraction important? If a force is pulling the arms backwards, as in the case of the back lever, it will cause the scapulae, or shoulder blades, to move closer to one another and towards the spine. This is called scapular retraction. As you can see, this position of the shoulder blades leads to an excessive arching of the back which will put too much pressure on the intervertebral disks as well as creating an incorrect and akward posture in the back lever. To avoid this, you must push the arms to the opposite direction, driving the shoulder blades away from the spine. This is called scapular protraction and will help stabilize the trunk and keep the back, and also the rest of the body, more straight and aligned.
Let now have a look at the progression for the back lever. First of all, I would strongly suggest to use gymnastic rings to start out. As I’ve mention earlier, they’re safer to use than the bar, and will allow an easier grip.
The first step is to master the skin the cat exercise. If you feel uncomfortable with rolling upside down in the hanging position, start practicing the exercise with your feet on the floor. This will help you get the feel of the movement and assess your range of motion safely. Once you get more confident, bring the rings higher so you will be in the full hanging position without touching the floor. Begin by keeping a tuck position then straighten your legs once you build up enough strength and core activation. And finally you can do the same on a pull up bar, which is slightly harder because of the reduced space to pass the feet up through the arms.
From here, the most logical progression is to gradually increase the body length to the fully extended position, so to increase distance between the pivot point and the center of mass. Starting from the tuck position with your knees close to your chest... we move to half body length with the legs stretched down towards the ground. Following we lift the feet up and move the knees away from the chest. This is the advanced tuck position. Then we bring the body to three quarter of the full length. And of course, you can do the same progression using the straight pull up bar .
If you find yourself stuck at some stage in this progression, a good idea is to use some assistance to get past your plateau. It will also help you get the feel for the exercise in the fully extended position as well as strengthen the same body parts that are used in the back lever.
The training and conditioning for the back lever has to focus on improving those basic requirement I’ve discussed earlier. The first point is to maintain shoulder mobility through proper stretching. Here is a stretch you can do using rings to get the body accustomed to backwards extension of the arms that you’ll have in the back lever.
The skin the cat is a very good exercise, not just for the back lever specifically, but also in general to attain full range of motion in the shoulders, core activation, basic ring strength as well as control and coordination.
And as I’ve said earlier key to your progress in the back lever as well as in most gymnastics type exercises, is shoulder strength. A good way to work this is with dips. Start doing it with just your bodyweight, then progressively add weight as you get stronger. You can do them on both parallel bars or gymnastic rings, although rings has the advantage of adding instability which will make the exercise harder.

[@kydzs]

this is the best back lever tutorial on KZbin and i think ive seen them all. you are good man

[@bartkramer1611]

perfect form

[@bradradcliffe1878]

These are some of the best tutorials on KZbin. Thank you so much!

[@bcntrainingEng]

+Franklin Law Thanks mate:)

[@rohansharma104]

You have the best tutorials

[@bcntrainingEng]

Thanks!

[@pheckelmann]

as in your previous videos, with your newest, if give insights and progression tips not found anywhere else. My greatest respect and appreciation

[@bcntrainingEng]

+Patrick Heckelmann Thanks Patrick :)

[@pheckelmann]

looking forward to the human flag video

[@FirasOhio]

Excellent tutorial Thank you

[@max0ut2xl]

Thanks for the tutorial! Know I now I've been doing it wrong and was RETRACTING my shoulder blades when I should've been PROTRACTING! :)

[@bcntrainingEng]

I'm glad it did help:)

[@juanhowardwongfaber4410]

Excelente tutorial muy buena comunicación como siempre y calidad.Muchas Gracias.Saludos de Málaga España.

[@amrindersingh1508]

For me best tutorial

[@TheShorty0ne]

im on the 3/4...cant wait To get the full one

[@bcntrainingEng]

+TheShorty0ne Excellent mate!

[@noahmanji955]

Did you get it yet?

[@obadadaher6830]

great tutorials. All are perfect. I hope you do a handstand push up tutorial too.

[@bcntrainingEng]

+Obada Daher Thank you!

[@wolfa5151]

Amazing tutorial! thanks!

[@bcntrainingEng]

+Joe S Thank you!

[@bgfizz6601]

I can do front easy, but back make my head explode so I can't do it for longer than 3 secounds.

[@georgeb9285]

Back is waaaaaaaaay easier

[@bgfizz6601]

@@georgeb9285 1 year later i can do it too even tho i was able to do full front for 7 secs before do back for 3

[@willmackay]

Thanks for this- much appreciated!🙏🏼

[@bcntrainingEng]

Thanks Will, your comment is equally much appreciated!

[@parimaludapurkar597]

Doesn't over-protraction make it harder to straighten out your back?

[@91Sade]

BON TUTO MERCI !!

[@Robotomy101]

very nice video. you make it look for easy. I have a question, do the lats contribute to this element, since they flex the shoulder when the shoulder is in hyperextension? or is it mostly the anterior delts and pecs and biceps? I have heard some say lats are the primary mover for back lever.

[@ShaolinMonkster]

Best tutorial in the internet, it sucks you dont have a lot of subs. Maybe because you dont show your muscles XD. JK keep the quality content

[@dssherlyn5154]

When ever I do the back lever i can't breath is there anything I can do to fix this

[@courtaferta3896]

I'm stuck on the 3/4 for one month with no progress at all, but can hold a 5sec front lever. Any tips?

[@santiagotorres2343]

Great Video! Do a tutorial for the Human Flag :)

[@bcntrainingEng]

+Santiago Torres Will do soon :)

[@heydood1000]

Love your page man, its very helpful

[@bcntrainingEng]

+heydood1000 Thanks man!

[@yoyoana7533]

I have elbow pain during back lever

[@Lokus122]

Shoud I keep scapular protraction while cat skining ? It's really bothers me, maybe that is why i dont like this exercise.

[@bcntrainingEng]

You don't need scapular protraction for the skin the cat exercise, just with the back lever (help stabilize your trunk)

[@Lokus122]

Ok, thanks a lot

[@celinehajjar3212]

Great videos. keep it up

[@bcntrainingEng]

+Celine Hajjar Thanks!

[@sw_antoine]

is it not better to try to hold hollow body position to protect the lower back?

[@Rixtin-Physioletics]

For backlever pull-ups which grip type is the best

[@pablocity666]

I found your channel recently and it's really great and helpful. I want to ask, what is your pull bar made of, I mean what type of pipe is it, can I get it in normal shop with building materials?, I wanted to make it by myself and that is really great construction. Thanks in advanced and keep making such gorgeous content :)

[@bcntrainingEng]

Hi Pawel, I've bought the bar online, so I didn't build my own, anyway the material of what is made of is gauge steel, which I suppose you can find such a pipe in a building material store. I'm not sure how to fix it to the wall though: my best guess would be to stuck it in between two wall or between a pillar and a wall, but I'm no expert. Anyway the measurement of the bar are: length 121 cm x width 91 cm (distnce from the wall) x height 61 cm. You can find it here: www.lacertosus.com/en/for-wall-ceiling/4372-wall-pull-up-bar.html

[@Mlody91]

Is back lever easier than front?

[@nathaniel2990]

Yes

[@buffwinston4631]

No

[@ukaszwitwicki9637]

I've been traing this skill for a few months. Now I'm in "3/4" step but during it I feel a strong pain in my chest. I don't know to what I have to attribute it.. I believe that my chest is ready for this skill [ I do dips with additional weight of 20 kg(10 reps)]. Maybe it's about flexibility ? How can I overcome it?

[@bcntrainingEng]

+Łukasz W92 I don't think it's a problem of strength of your chest, the pain could be caused by the pressure on your pectoral tendons. It might be due to poor shoulder mobility. Check your degree of mobility when you do the skin the cat. If you can't properly extend your arms backward maybe that's the problem. In that case, yes, you should stretch your pecs and shoulders.

[@marchcyr]

Hi, @Lukasz I have had and dealt with a similar pain. Look up constachondritis to see if this is what you experienced. The condition is related to tendons and fascia coming into the sternum The condition occurs because of a variety of reasons. For me, I was missing several key components of ROM. I will bundle together the two key areas: 1) Thoracic Extension of Vertebrae between shoulders & Missing Shoulder Retraction PROBLEM: It created poor form. Namely my chest was not "proud" enough. I believe this was the main cause for the Constachondritis because of the effect it had on limiting my rib cage from hinging from the sternum. SOLUTION: Rest for 2 week to reduce inflammation. I worked on thoractic extension exercises and used the backpod:www.bodystance.co.nz/en/costochondritis/ For the areas closer to the neck, I also worked shoulder repositioning & repatterning extercises for retraction. Steven Lo has a banded retraction sequence that I added to my warmup. I re-introduced lighter loads back into my workout. Lastly, I returned to "full strength" after about 8 weeks. 2) internal rotation of the shoulder (specifically while the shoulder was in extension) PROBLEM: My shoulder extension by itself was quite good - I was able to hold a German Hang for 3X60s. Missing Internal Rotation put additional compensation stress on other muscles / tendons etc. that had to make up for ROM that I was supposed to have SOLUTION: - Rest for 2 Weeks to reduce Inflammation. - External Rotators Active Release Ball Massage & Progressive Loaded Sleeper Stretch. - More German Hangs (but playing with ext / int rotation). - Banded Bully & Towel stretches for internal rotators. - And most likely the single most important exercise: Reverse Plank - Focusing on full retraction & external rotation in a straight arm position. It took me sometime to overcome the 2nd issue around 3 months or so. After I returned to lighter loads of training, but with the rings wider than normal. Finally, I returned to normal loads of training. After that I had no more problems.

[@vexedev]

Can you talk a little bit about how you know your body is horizontally aligned? I find it hard to get perspective since you're flipped. Do you just record yourself doing it and watch your form? Cheers

[@janbielecki9245]

Looking up really helps

[@vexedev]

@@janbielecki9245 I think I tried doing that once, didn't feel natural on the neck, hurt a little bit. Is that a neck mobility issue you think?

[@skadiman282]

Nice tutorial! Really good video with helpful information. Friend, i have one question, does one leg back lever count as a progression? Atm i can do 30 secs with one leg but as soon i try the 3/4 my hips fall down, wich progression should i move on?

[@bcntrainingEng]

You can count as progression as it involves the same muscles at the same ratio of effort of the full back lever. So you are on the right track on this one. However, if you find a big drop in results with a slight extension of your leg, maybe strengthen your lower back/glutes and body alignment through reverse leg extensions (using angle weights ) might help.

[@skadiman282]

Thanks a lot for the fast answer. i will try it.

[@sniperlusen]

ciao ti chiesi giá informazioni per le trazioni zavorrate. Nel back sento di essermi bloccato al 3/4 e lo tengo poco. faccio tuck(20sec) avanzato, lo stesso ruotando(5rep) e poi 3/4 (4-5 sec)per 4 serie. faccio bene? aiutami plz

[@bcntrainingEng]

Hai provato a fare lo straddle back lever? Cioé il BL con le gambe divaricate? É un pó piú avanzato del 3/4 ma piú facile del full BL. Puó aiutarti a dare uno stimolo maggiore e di conseguenza maggiore supercompensazione, e questo puó aiutare a sbloccarti. Ciao!

[@sniperlusen]

si ha funzionato, grazie sei un grande!

[@AtgreatR9]

somehow for me front is easier lol

[@bcntrainingEng]

+AtgreatR9 it's uncommon, but definitely possible :)

[@razmeir4591]

AtgreatR9 me too lol

[@boostedbass4967]

for me 2

[@Simon-gx1wf]

It was for me as well, until I protact my shoulder on back and retract on front

[@adiheid3511]

bcntraining ur right its uncommon its sounds pretty weird, front lever might be easy, but how much easier would be to do a back lever.Most people have more stability with the back lever rather than the front lever i found it easier to do a front lever "at the beginning" back lever got easier than the front lever as i gained strenght

[@brollona3948]

"Which in gymnastic is called skin the cat" Are you frekin serious? Isn't it called German hang or something. Otherwise great video.

[@lah8102]

Skin the cat is the dynamic move, German hang is the end position when u hang