• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Breaking Muscle

Breaking Muscle

Breaking Muscle

  • Fitness
  • Workouts
    • Best Shoulder Workouts
    • Best Chest Workouts
    • Best Leg Workouts
    • Best Leg Exercises
    • Best Biceps Exercises
    • Best Kettlebell Exercises
    • Best Back Workouts
    • Best HIIT Workouts
    • Best Triceps Exercises
    • Best Arm Workouts
  • Reviews
    • Supplements
      • Best Pre-Workout
      • Best BCAAs
      • Best Testosterone Boosters
      • Best Bodybuilding Supplements
      • Best Creatine
      • Best Supplements for Weight Loss
      • Best Multivitamins
      • Best Collagen Supplement
      • Best Probiotic
      • Best Non-Stim Pre-Workout
      • Best Greens Powder
      • Best Magnesium Supplements
    • Protein
      • Best Protein Powder
      • Best Whey Protein
      • Best Protein Powders for Muscle Gain
      • Best Tasting Protein Powder
      • Best Vegan Protein
      • Best Mass Gainer
      • Best Protein Shakes
      • Best Organic Protein Powder
      • Best Pea Protein Powder
      • Best Protein Bars
    • Strength Equipment
      • Best Home Gym Equipment
      • Best Squat Racks
      • Best Barbells
      • Best Weightlifting Belts
      • Best Weight Benches
      • Best Functional Trainers
      • Best Dumbbells
      • Best Adjustable Dumbbells
      • Best Kettlebells
      • Best Resistance Bands
      • Best Trap Bars
    • Cardio Equipment
      • Best Cardio Machines
      • Best Rowing Machines
      • Best Treadmills
      • Best Weighted Vests
      • Concept2 RowErg Review
      • Hydrow Wave Review
      • Best Jump Ropes
  • News
  • Exercise Guides
    • Legs
      • Back Squat
      • Bulgarian Split Squat
      • Goblet Squat
      • Zercher Squat
      • Standing Calf Raise
      • Hack Squat
    • Chest
      • Bench Press
      • Dumbbell Bench Press
      • Close-Grip Bench Press
      • Incline Bench Press
    • Shoulders
      • Overhead Dumbbell Press
      • Lateral Raise
    • Arms
      • Chin-Up
      • Weighted Pull-Up
      • Triceps Pushdown
    • Back
      • Deadlift
      • Trap Bar Deadlift
      • Lat Pulldown
      • Inverted Row
      • Bent-Over Barbell Row
      • Single-Arm Dumbbell Row
      • Pendlay Row
Fitness

How to Build Up to the Back Lever

Besides looking awesome, the back lever is a whole-body exercise with emphasis on the back and core.

Logan Christopher

Written by Logan Christopher Last updated on Nov 22, 2021

The back lever is a challenging and impressive exercise. It’s one of the lower level exercises performed on the rings in gymnastics, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

Besides looking awesome, the back lever has many benefits. It’s a whole-body exercise with emphasis on the back and core. It also requires some strength and flexibility in the shoulders and arms, and in a typically untrained position. Variations of the back lever are widely done in the bodyweight and calisthenics movement. So, the aim of this article is to lay out a progression that can help you achieve this exercise.

Leverage and the Lever

As a bodyweight exercise, the main aspect of the back lever difficulty is due to the leverage involved. With your body held out horizontally, your core must support everything to stay in line, as your arms work to support your entire bodyweight. And since no one is going to start with the full movement, we’ll use the principle of leverage to create easier variations.

One other note before we begin with those progressions. This can be an awkward position to get into. In addition, when you are somewhat inverted you will often lose the feeling for where your body is in space. For that reason, it can be helpful to have a spotter who can not just assist you if needed, but indicate when you’re in the right place (i.e. back parallel to the ground). As you become more practiced in this exercise, you’ll be able to tell where you are on your own.

Skin the Cat: A Preparatory Exercise

The skin the cat is where you raise your legs up from a hanging position, thread the feet under the bar, and lower them down as far as you can behind you. Then you reverse the movement coming back up. There are several variations on how you can do this exercise, but purpose of the basic version is to build flexibility in the shoulders as they come to full extension. What’s more is that you hang your bodyweight from here, so it’s under load.

Skin the Cat Progression Pt.1

Depending on where you’re at now, you may need to start slowly with this move. The goal is to be able to relax in the back hang completely and also come up from that position. This gives you much more flexibility than you need for the back lever and its good to have that extra should you need it.

Tuck Back Lever

Grab the bar in an overhand grip. Jump or tuck up into a ball pulling yourself in a skin-the-cat manner. Lower yourself until your back is approximately parallel with the ground. You can stay tucked up tightly into a ball, with a rounded back, or allow your legs to open up slightly as is shown below. Hold this position.

Advanced Tuck Back Lever

Get into the same tucked back lever position. From here you are going to straighten your back. This opens up the hips, so that they are approximately ninety degrees from your body, thus increasing the leverage.

Legs Bent Straddle Back Lever

Pull yourself up until your head is facing the ground with your legs overhead. Straighten the hips out, but keep the knees bent. I like to keep my feet touching each other. Spread the legs at the knees as wide as you can. Keep this alignment lower until you are parallel with the ground and hold. Lowering into position in this manner is easier than extending into it once you’re horizontal.

Legs Bent Back Lever

Pull yourself up until your head is facing the ground and your legs are overhead. Straighten the hips out, but keep the knees bent. This time keep the knees together. Keep this alignment lower until you’re parallel with the ground and hold.

Straddle Back Lever

Pull yourself up until your head is facing the ground with your legs overhead. Straighten out the legs at the knees and the hips. Spread your legs as wide into the straddle position as you can. Keep this alignment lower until you’re parallel with the ground and hold. The wider your straddle the easier this will be.

Back Lever

Pull yourself up until your head is facing the ground with your legs overhead. Straighten out the legs at the knees and hips. This time keep the legs together. Your body should be in one straight line through your legs. Keep this alignment lower until your parallel with the ground and hold. Sometimes the body takes a slightly bowed position. This is equally fine, but if you’d like to avoid it, contract the abs more to enter a hollow position.

This simple progression can take months to go through for most people. Take your time, working through the steps and adding a second here or there to each position. I like to move onto the next position once a fifteen second hold can be achieved on my current progression.

Once you’ve reached the back lever, congratulations! Of course from here there are more advanced variations you can do. In my next article I’ll cover the opposite movement, the front lever, which is an even more difficult move.

Photo 1 by English: Cpl. Jennifer B. Poole [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Logan Christopher

About Logan Christopher

Logan Christopher is a physical culture Renaissance man. If it has to do with working out and using the body he’s at least tried it. Still he has a number of specialties: being one of the best kettlebell jugglers in the U.S., working on a wide range of bodyweight skills, and being a performing strongman. One of his most famous feats is pulling an 8,800lb antique firetruck by his hair.

He created the Peak Performance Trinity to help people get the most out of their physical training, health, and mental training. As a certified hypnotist and NLP Practitioner, he is also one of the leaders in the field of applying mental tactics towards achieving your goals in the gym.

You can find much more at his two main websites. Legendary Strength covers all aspects of physical training with lots on kettlebells, bodyweight exercise, and feats of strength. And at Lost Art of Hand Balancing you can learn how to do handstands, acrobatics, and much more.

View All Articles

Related Posts

Fergus Crawley 5K Run Tips Photo
Fergus Crawley Shares 5 Tips For Running a Better 5K
Actor Chris Hemsworth in gym performing dumbbell row
Chris Hemsworth Diagrams a Killer Upper Body Workout Fit For an Action Star
Hugh Jackman Deadpool 3 Workouts Spring:Winter 2023
Hugh Jackman Returns to Wolverine Condition in Workouts for “Deadpool 3”
Method Man Incline Dumbbell Presses December 2022
Check Out Rapper Method Man Cruising Through 120-Pound Incline Dumbbell Presses for 10 Reps

Primary Sidebar

Latest Articles

New Year’s Fitness Sales (2025)

XWERKS Motion BCAA Review (2025): A Registered Dietitian’s Honest Thoughts

Assault Fitness AssaultBike Pro X Review (2025): Assault’s Best Bike Yet?

13 Best Exercise Bikes for Home Gyms (2025)

Transparent Labs BCAA Glutamine Review (2025): The Key to Post-Workout Recovery?

Latest Reviews

Element 26 Hybrid Leather Weightlifting Belt

Element 26 Hybrid Leather Weightlifting Belt Review (2025)

Omre NMN + Resveratrol, Lifeforce Peak NMN, and partiQlar NMN on a red background

Best NMN Supplement: Fountain of Youth in a Bottle? (2025)

The Titan Series Adjustable Bench on a red background

Titan Series Adjustable Bench Review (2025)

A photo of the NordicTrack Select-a-Weight Dumbbells on a red background

NordicTrack Adjustable Dumbbell Review (2025): Are These Value Dumbbells Worth It?

woman lifting barbell

Be the smartest person in your gym

The Breaking Muscle newsletter is everything you need to know about strength in a 3 minute read.

I WANT IN!

Breaking Muscle is the fitness world’s preeminent destination for timely, high-quality information on exercise, fitness, health, and nutrition. Our audience encompasses the entire spectrum of the fitness community: consumers, aficionados, fitness professionals, and business owners. We seek to inform, educate and advocate for this community.

  • Reviews
  • Healthy Eating
  • Workouts
  • Fitness
  • News

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS Feed

© 2025 · Breaking Muscle · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy · Affiliate Disclaimer · Accessibility · About