Front Lever tips from GYMNAST with DAVIDE MOLINARO

Frinksmovement Podcast

Welcome to the first Frinksmovement podcast. Today i decided to invite my friend Davide who has a very interesting training history and background. From competitive swimmer, through calisthenics athlete to finally becoming a rings gymnast. Despite his unusual weight and height for gymnastics and bodyweight standarts, Davide has managed to achieve a true mastery in some respectable strength skills. We talked a lot about rings training, the main differences between calisthenics and gymnastics. The main focus of our discussion revolved around Front lever - a skill that i gotta admit - is my big weakness. Davide is a perfect person to discuss this topic with - considering his achievements regarding this skill (5kg pulls, 30+ seconds hold, FL rows) and the fact his ambition goes far beyond this movement (one of his long term goals is achieving Victorian cross on rings). We went over discussing common issues people have with training Front lever and anylising what may cause relatively worse performance in this element. We took some popular exercises (ice cream makers, FL raises) under microscope and questioned their effectiveness (you may be shocked with some of them). I asked Davide what is the "Perfect Front Lever exercise" and got a very clear answer. Some of things I asked him were his opinion on static holds (isometrics) and importance of mid section. After discussing Front lever for a good hour or so we transitioned to more mental/mindset related conversation. We expressed our opinions on social media, the influence it has on training results, and the difference between creating and executing mindset. A big moment was asking Davide about the movie "Moneyball". He was basically convincing me for months to watch the movie and formulate my own opinion - and transition that to training philosophy. It turns out this movie played a huge role in Davide's attitude towards training and life in general.

0:00 - Davide's training background, transition from bodyweight to gymnastics 7:35 - 9:43 - Do you need a coach/proper facility to train rings properly? 9:43 The importance of "pushing yourself" and the influence of competitive background 12:00 The role of age, how long can you progress on rings? 13:30 What calisthenics can learn from gymnastics? 19:21 Gymnastics point system - is it accurate? 21:28 How other skills like pullups transition to Front lever? My disproportion. 27:43 Don't focus on scapulas, the proper body cue in Front Lever 30:00 The importance of "Core" in Front Lever, and what does it mean really? 35:00 What is the perfect Front Lever exercise, and which are NOT (and why?) 47:50 Thoughts on isometrics (static holds) 51:20 How to program our perfect Front lever exercise 54:24 The whole rant about why programming in gymnastics is not perfect (applying strength principles, specialist vs generalist, predispositions) 1:07:50 Is advanced calisthenics/gymnastics healthy? The willing of sacrificing for the results (training vs working out) 1:15:42 The daily life influence on training, the ability to switch off/on, Reverse ego lifting in calisthenics and stepping outside of comfort zone 1:23:00 Thoughts on "skill work", loose vs strict approach to training 1:28:42 "Moneyball" movie conversation (being critical, not listening to others, choices) 1:42:40 Social media impact on training and results (mental preparation, recording sets, creating vs executing) 1:55:43 Do we have to make training complicated at all? 2:00:50 What is harder? One arm Front lever or Victorian? 2:05:15 Ending

You can find Davide here:

https://www.instagram.com/d_molinaro/?hl=en

For programs & Online coaching - DM me https://www.instagram.com/frinksmovement/?hl=en