L-Sits on the floor VS bars/parallettes

As a result of my recent adventure sharing all my progress with Calisthenic Movement’s level 5 program, questions were raised as to the difference between L-Sits done on the floor as opposed to on parallel handles.

I managed a 45 second L-Sit on push up handles (read Testing my maxes: L-sits & Pull ups) and many people on reddit wanted to know what kind of numbers I’d manage on the floor – and some fellow bloggers were interested too. Being a sucker for an experiment, I figured I’d give it a go.

Below you’ll see footage of me floor ‘L-Sitting’ whilst relatively fresh; I would’ve filmed sooner but my body just didn’t feel good.

 

23 seconds……about half of the time I can manage on parallettes. The biggest reason the floor is so hard is the necessity of scapula depression. Which simply means having enough strength to keep your shoulders down and your butt off the floor.

For the sake of comparison, here’s a clip of me maxing out my L-Sit on parallettes:

 

 

Does it make a difference? Yes. A considerable one. And I honestly think if I could go back and run Calisthenic Movement’s level 4 program again, I would have done my L-sits on the floor instead of rings/parallel bars.

As a side note, I’m still gunning for the mighty V-sit by this summer (not long I know) – a hold of 5 seconds would be nice at a 45 degree (minimum) angle.

Bruce Lee demonstrates a V-sit……….one day! (alkavadlo.com)

Hamstring length and pike flexibility will make or break your V-Sit and this is an area I’m working on; flexibility.

L-Sit on the floor > L-sit on parallel bars. It’s not even a competition.

For a review of Calisthenic Movement’s programs, read THIS.