Tuck L-Sit

The tuck L-sit is where your core stops being a floor-only thing and starts being a "hold your whole body off the ground with your arms" thing. You sit between two parallettes, yoga blocks, chairs, or even on a pair of push-up bars. You press down hard through straight arms to lift your hips off the floor, then tuck your knees to your chest. The tuck position shortens the lever, making it a manageable bridge to a full L-sit.

Beyond being a jaw-dropping party trick, the tuck L-sit trains three things at once: aggressive shoulder depression (push the blocks down), deep core bracing (hold the knees high), and straight-arm strength (lock the elbows). All three are prerequisites for L-sits, V-sits, and presses.

How to do it

Sit on the floor with a pair of parallettes, yoga blocks, chairs, or push-up handles placed just outside your hips. Plant your hands on top of them with locked elbows. Press hard into the blocks to lift your hips off the floor, and simultaneously tuck your knees up toward your chest. Your shins should be roughly parallel to the floor. Hold the position with shoulders pushed away from your ears.

Target

Hold for 15 seconds with your butt clearly off the ground.

Key tips

• Push the floor away — fully lock out your arms
• Lift your knees as high as you can — the higher the knees, the easier the balance
• Depress your shoulders — push them down away from your ears the whole hold
• If you can't lift off yet, practice one foot at a time, then both for a second at a time

Progression

Before this: own 3×10 Hanging Knee Raises first. Also build support holds — 30 seconds of straight-arm support on parallettes with legs extended in front — before trying to lift.

Next step: once you own 15 clean seconds, start extending the legs. Move to one-leg-extended L-sits, and eventually the full Hanging Leg Raise in Level 5 for straight-leg hanging core work.