Advanced Tuck Scapula Pull Ups

This one is a rep movement rather than a hold, so count reps and quality instead of seconds. Three or four sets of five to eight slow reps, with a short pause in the retracted position, is a sensible starting point, and the set ends when the shape breaks rather than when the reps run out. For moving on, judge the shape and not a stopwatch number: every rep clean at both ends of the range, elbows locked the whole way through, and the advanced tuck still intact on the last rep of the last set. When that is true, start working the next shape up the ladder, the halflay front lever.

People ask this because the lats seem to do the work, so the upper back looks irrelevant. The lever is constantly trying to drag your shoulder blades forward around your ribcage into protraction. The position you actually want is neutral and depressed, and you have to pull hard into retraction and depression just to stay there. Lose that fight and the shoulders roll forward and up, the lats lose the position they can pull from, your shoulders rise and the whole body drops. It is easy to blame the abs for the sagging hips when the failure actually started at the shoulder blades.

Straight, yes. Hanging passively on the joint, no. Extend the elbows fully and hold them there actively, because sinking into hyperextension shifts load onto the joint instead of the muscle. Letting the elbows bend is the other error, it turns the movement into a short pull up and hands the work to the biceps. Straight arm loading is new to connective tissue and tendons adapt more slowly than muscle does, which is why elbow and biceps discomfort turns up in front lever training. Add volume gradually, change one thing at a time, and stop for sharp tendon pain rather than training through it.

In a basic tuck front lever a slightly rounded upper back is normal and nothing to fix. In the advanced tuck it is a problem, because a flat back is part of what defines the position and part of what makes the lever longer. If your back rounds here, the shape has quietly reverted to a normal tuck and the reps have become easier than you think. Regress to tuck front lever scapula pull ups, build the flat back position there, and come back to this when you can keep it for the whole set.

It depends on where the hold breaks. If your shoulders roll forward and your whole body sinks while the leg shape stays intact, this is exactly the drill you are missing, because the position is only holdable if the shoulder blades stay put. If instead your shoulders stay set and your hips sag out of line, the fault is at your midsection and anti extension work such as hollow body holds serves you better. Watch a side view of a failed hold before you choose, because a lot of plateaus are a shoulder problem being trained as a core problem.

Straight arm work loads tendons as much as it loads muscle, and tendons adapt more slowly, so this is not a movement to bolt onto every session. Two or three sessions a week, with a day in between, is enough to progress on. Keep the rest of your pulling volume stable while you add this, and progress the dose before you progress the movement, because increasing everything at once is the fastest way to irritate an elbow that was fine last week.