L-Sit Progression on Floor for Intermediate Athletes and Festivus Feats of Strength
Video by Michele Vieux
This progression toward a L-Sit is great to use for those of you who aren’t quite strong enough to hold yourself up on parallettes and even for those who don’t have parallettes handy. It can be incorporated into your gymnastics-based warm-up, workout in place of L-Sits or hollow holds, TV watching and travel workouts to help you strengthen your lower abs and hip flexors while fine-tuning your body control.
To perform this movement:
1) Sit with your legs stretched out in front of you and your hands placed next to your pockets.
2) Crunch your abs down to find your hollow position.
3) Without moving your hands, squeeze your legs together, point your toes and lift your heels off the ground. You may need to lean back slightly to do this. Hold for five seconds (more or less depending on ability). If you struggle with lifting both legs, you can lift one at a time until you build enough strength to do it with both.
4) Without moving your hands, drive your heels into the ground while leaning forward slightly. Press into the floor with your hands so your bum is no longer in contact. Hold for five seconds (more or less depending on ability). If you struggle with this, just focus on pressing down as hard as you can, even if your bum doesn’t clear the floor – you’ll still feel it in your abs.
5) Repeat for duration that the workout prescribes i.e. if it calls for a 30-second L-Sit then hit each position three times for five-second holds.
For advanced movers, it is possible to do a L-Sit on the floor without parallettes. You would achieve this by lifting both your heels and bum at the same time and it is extremely difficult but an awesome feat of strength for your next Festivus party. Test it out to see where you are!
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