L-sit progressions neccesary?

I have never trained L-sit, but was able to hold a floor L-sit for 5 seconds today.

All I have been doing is trying to achieve full hanging leg lifts on stall bars (about 45 degree from touching the bar) and these hip flexor exercise where you are in a seated pike position and place your hands near your knees and lift your legs).

I am positive that once I've mastered hanging V to L leg lifts I am close to mastering floor L-sit.

So I don't really understand why people recommend starting with parallel bars (easier than floor) with bent knees and tighs parallel to the floor (easiest L-sit variation)? It's much easier to do hanging leg lifts (not even full ones) and seated pike leg raises! :S

L-sit becomes harder to hold the longer the position is held. Plus add the instability of rings and holding l-sit is a little bit harder. The easier progressions help you develop additional core and scapula depression strength to hold l-sit longer.

You can train scapular depression strength simply by depressing (and retracting) your scapula on a set of parallel bars in a support hold?

Of course, the longer you hold it the harder it gets. But if you can do V to L hanging leg lifts on stall bars, then I think you're ready to start doing L-sits on floor. Skipping all the easier progressions.

I mean, I can hold it on the floor with flat palms for 5 seconds without being able to do one single full hanging leg lift. When I reach V to L, I think I will be able to hold it long enough for it be a main focus of my workouts.

It is also about learning to do the position, muscle memory, and do it correctly. I took me 2 weeks to learn the posterior pelvic tilt correcly. If I have not learned it properly my future front lever training would stall or would be performed incorrectly. L-sit is such a basic position that it must be mastered.

I'm no good at L-Sits cause my core strength sucks, but when I'm doing L-Sits in terms of sets, when I rest adequately between each sit, the scapular depression is more difficult to maintain than the actual L, so I feel like for me personally it would be beneficial to train the parallete tucked version for the sake of developing the strength in that scapular position, that's why people recommend it

5 seconds does not demonstrate real proficiency, first of all. Second of all, isometric holds and dynamic movements each provide benefits which the other cannot, which is why a comprehensive program includes both.

I was in a similar position to you when I started the foundation mana progressions I was able to hold a floor l-sit for 3 sets of 20 seconds with palms flat on the floor. My progress up to that point had pretty much stalled though, I couldn't depress my scapula enough to properly bring my hips forward and my times weren't improving. 

The hanging elements are geared much more towards building the strength to actively compress your hips, which you will need for the V-sit and beyond. The half L's start to work the raw strength needed to hold the L-sit. Being in a tucked position allows the body more time under tension and allow for adaptation to occur. If we compare it to weight lifting doing full L-sits off the bat is like lifting your 1 rep max every day and expecting to get stronger. All you end up doing is exhausting yourself because your body isn't ready to for the weight yet. Its better to lift a sub maximal load for more volume.

Anyways long story short, I had similar feeling to you when I started but I stuck with the progressions and its unreal how much stronger my L-sit is and I'm only on SE2! Stick with it! 

Paulizdaman said:

Of course, the longer you hold it the harder it gets. But if you can do V to L hanging leg lifts on stall bars, then I think you're ready to start doing L-sits on floor. Skipping all the easier progressions.

 

You can always test for mastery and skip the easier progressions.