The L-Sit

David Fleming

This super sweet instalment is the first using purely your own bodyweight for resistance. Not many people can do this, but it’s worth the time it takes to master. Abdominals are all too often trained with futile little exercises while lying around on the floor. If you’re guilty of doing high rep silly ab work, give this a try and get some serious strength in your mid section!

In previous editions of this article series I described and advocated three barbell movements that use the snatch grip. These exercises are a little different to the standard kind of exercises you see in most gyms.

Injecting some novelty in to your training program is a great idea as it will provide unfamiliar loading and stress to the soft tissues of the body and provide an element of greater motor learning to the nervous system. This can be beneficial as when you work through a progression to acquire a new skill you are far more aware of the adaptation that takes place. In the gym setting, this is extremely motivating.

So on to the first of what I'm sure will become many instalments on body weight training. 'The L-Sit'.

Background:

There are many advanced versions of the L-Sit that could be considered as far as you can go with this movement but the one that you will be aiming for to tick the 'I can do an L-Sit' box is to hold your body off the ground via your hands, with legs straight out in front of you and the chest lifted. Holding this position for 15 seconds or more makes you a stud with some pretty strong abdominals.

The L-Sit, sometimes referred to as the half lever, is a basic gymnastics strength position. Trainee gymnasts can be required to hold the position for 60 seconds as standard. Comparing this to most of the abdominal work you may have been exposed to already will show you how strong your core, legs and shoulders can become with the right training.

How to:

To develop the necessary strength for the L-Sit you should work through 4 progressions.

Progression 1:L- Sit - Parallel bar/Dip station tuck

Align yourself between a set of PB's (Parallel Bars) or a dip station and jump or push yourself up to a straight arm position with your legs hanging down. Make sure your elbows are locked out. From here lift bent knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor.

Keep your back straight and your neck in line with the rest of your spine. If you can't hold the bent knee position, parallel leg position, lower the legs to where you are comfortable.

In this initial version, it is ok to let your shoulders round forward a little.

Progression 2:L- Sit - Parallel bar/Dip station Straight low legs

The only difference in this progression is that you are now straightening the legs.

At first, it is unlikely that you will be able to hold the legs parallel to the ground. This is to be expected and you should just work on holding the legs straight at high an angle as possible with a straight back. As you work on your duration of the hold, gradually try to get your legs higher each few days that you train the position.

Progression 3:L- Sit - Parallel bar/Dip station

Once you have mastered the 'L-Sit straight low leg', you should be strong enough to lift the legs parallel to the floor while maintaining the straight spine and locked elbow position.

This is very close to the real thing. You should be prepared to experience some beastly cramps in your quads and hip flexors as you train progressions 2 & 3 but don't worry as it’s quite normal. Soon enough your abdominals and quads will be strong enough to work together and carry the load equally between them.

Progression 4:L- Sit - Floor

In this progression you will move away from the 'PB's' or dip bars and attempt the position from the floor.

Take a seat with your legs outstretched in front of you, toes pointed away from you. Place your hands close to either side of your body, roughly where the head of your femur (thigh bone) meets your hip.

From here, push hard into the ground with locked elbows and lift your body from the floor while maintaining 90* at the hips. If you find this hard on the wrists, try making a fist and pushing off the knuckles but, ideally, work on your wrist mobility to achieve the necessary angles.

Holding this position can be considered a proper L-Sit but to make it even more awesome, practice in this position until you can lift your chest and roll your shoulders back to a less rounded, more neutral position.

At this stage, Congratulations, you just got a hell of a lot stronger and can do something that not many people can!

How many?

So here’s the sets and reps bit. ‘Im finding it harder and harder to give these kind of details in a generic article as everyone is completely different but as a general guideline:

Find your starting progression and hold the position for as long as you can maintain the necessary joint angles. Don't push through pain barriers until you’re not breathing, red faced and shaking like a crack addict. Test the position and hold until your form is just about to break and record the time.

You want to shoot for 60 seconds total contraction time. If you can hold the first position for 10 seconds with good alignment, you'll need to do 6 sets of 10 seconds to accumulate the required, total contraction time.

You won’t need a whole lot of rest in between sets. Just take a long enough break that you can repeat the same duration for each set.

Frequency is going to play a big factor here. Perform this exercise anywhere from 3-5 times a week.

Max duration of each hold - aim for 60's total contraction time - 3 x wk minimum, max duration divided by 60's gives total number of sets.

Why?

Apart from the L-sit doubling up as a good party trick, there’s a good few reasons to give it a shot:

1: Flexor chain strength and endurance. The flexor chain rarely gets a look in as it cowers in the shadow of the extensor chain. This is a series of muscles that run from the top surface of your foot, right up to the skull and are of equal importance as the muscles of the extensor chain.

2: The Lower abdominals. A lot of the abdominal muscles either originate or insert on to various parts of the pelvis. This allows them to exert a line of pull that creates what is called posterior pelvic tilt. This is the opposite of sticking your bum out or anterior pelvic tilt.

A huge number of people will have an adapted posture that displays anterior pelvic tilt. Too much of this position and you can end up with back pain and numerous other postural ailments. Training your abdominals from the bottom up can play a part in returning the position of the pelvis to a more neutral alignment.

3: Stability. One of the main roles of the abdominal muscles is to stabilise the spine. This exercise emphasizes a strong isometric contraction of the entire abdominal wall with good joint angles through the femurs and pelvis creating good functional strength.

Learning the L-sit will make you look cool and strong so get cracking on the progressions and saddle up next to the nearest person doing crunches to show them what abdominal training is all about.

References:

Gymnastic Bodies in Balance. Coach Sommer.

About the Author

David Fleming is one of London’s top personal trainers. He is obsessed with helping people get stronger and helping people to get More-Athletic. He has studied and learned from the best strength coaches in the world. He is happily married and can lift heavy weights. His mother is very proud of him and he writes a good article.It took him until the age of 30 to pass his driving test, but other than that he is a solid chap.

More Articles from David Flemming

Head Position and Hamstring function
Better Movement, Better Performance
Pain!!!