Beginner Rings Exercise Tutorial 2: L-Sit (Holds & Reps)

DESCRIPTION

After getting confident in your basic rings support hold (i.e. Your hands stop shaking! 😂), you can start playing around with exercises that build on the support hold.

One such exercise is the L-Sit. It is an amazing exercise for building on your shoulder stability while engaging and developing phenomenal strength in your core flexion muscles.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Maintain the Rings Support Hold in a tight Hollow Body Position:
   • Rounded shoulders
   • Palms rotated about 45 degrees outwards
   • Posterior pelvic tilt – squeeze your butt muscles
   • Point your feet so your thigh muscles are engaged to keep your legs straight
2. Keep both feet together and slowly lift both legs up in a controlled manner, as high as you can go

REGRESSIONS

Holding the L-Sit for time is more demanding than doing it for repetitions so start with reps!

1. Start with feet on the ground
2. If you can’t lift till horizontal, its okay. Just lift as high as you can and repeat for repetitions
3. If straight legs are too tough, you can always start with bent knees!
4. If the rings are too unstable yet, I recommend mastering the Support Hold first. You can also try using parallel bars or similar implements.

💪🏻MASTERY💪🏻

1. 5 x 60 seconds hold without breaking form!
2. 5 x 5 repetitions 

TRAINING

Since I train this only once a week these days, I always begin an exercise by testing myself with how many I can do first (e.g. Max rep test). Then reduce that count by 2-3 reps and do 2-3 more sets of L-Sit reps for training.

E.g. Test = 7 reps, Set = 2 x 4 reps

I find this helps me ensure i don’t get overzealous and injure myself or over-train.

You can try this program, increasing whenever a set feels too easy:

1. 3 x 12 sec or 3 x 1 rep
2. 5 x 12 sec or 5 x 1 rep
3. 3 x 24 sec or 3 x 2 rep
4. 4 x 24 sec or 4 x 2 rep
5. 4 x 36 sec or 4 x 3 rep
6. 5 x 36 sec or 5 x 3 rep
7. 4 x 48 sec or 4 x 4 rep
8. 4 x 60 sec or 5 x 4 rep
9. 5 x 60 sec or 5 x 5 rep

PROGRESSION

1. Add a dynamic element into your holds by swinging yourself before mounting and assuming the L-Sit hold. This makes it tougher to maintain strict form as you swing front and back
2. Try to lift higher than horizontal into a V-Sit!
3. Try increasing the angle of your arms relative to your torso, forming a Wide L-Sit!

Happy Sitting!
John

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