L-Sit
The L-sit is a gymnastics hold where you support yourself on straight arms and lift your straight legs to hip height, forming an L. It trains your abs and hip flexors hard, with your triceps and shoulders holding you up. Start on parallettes or dip bars. Bend your knees into a tuck sit to make it easier.
Muscles worked
The l-sit trains the abs and hip flexors, with triceps, shoulders helping.
Primary
Weekly sets for abs
Hard sets per week that Swole.fit plans for abs, counting every exercise that trains it. Start a cycle near the growth line and climb toward the recovery limit before a deload.
How to do the l-sit
- 01Place your hands on parallettes, dip bars or the floor beside your hips, fingers forward.
- 02Lock your arms straight and push down hard so your shoulders move away from your ears.
- 03Lift your hips and raise your legs straight out in front of you until they are level with your hips.
- 04Point your toes, lock your knees and keep your legs squeezed together.
- 05Hold while breathing shallowly and steadily, then lower your feet with control.
Coaching cues
- Push the floor away
- Shoulders down, arms locked
- Squeeze your thighs to your chest
Common mistakes
- Letting your shoulders shrug up to your ears loses the support; press down hard through your hands.
- Bending your knees halfway to cheat the hold is a sign it is too hard; use a full tuck sit and progress gradually.
- Letting your elbows bend shifts load away from your trunk; lock your arms straight for the whole hold.
How Swole.fit programs it
Log it once and the app plans the next session for you.
- Holds are logged in seconds. Hit your target and the next one grows by 5 to 15 seconds, depending on how long you already hold.
- Miss it and the next target is the time you actually held, never below 10 seconds.
- Longer bodyweight holds mostly build endurance, so once 60 seconds is comfortable the weighted version is the path to more muscle.
- Deload weeks drop the hold to 70 percent of the target so you recover.
The full method, with the maths, is in how mesocycles work.
L-Sit alternatives
Same muscles, different tool. Swap in one of these when the equipment is taken or your joints want a change.
- Landmine RotationKettlebell, band and specialty bar, obliques, abs
- Trap Bar Farmer's WalkKettlebell, band and specialty bar, forearms, abs
- Mountain ClimbersBodyweight, abs
- Kettlebell Turkish Get-UpKettlebell, band and specialty bar, abs, shoulders
- Weighted PlankKettlebell, band and specialty bar, abs
- PlankBodyweight, abs
Log it. Let the app plan the next one.
Track your l-sit free. Swole.fit picks the next weight, counts your weekly sets and tells you when to deload.