What Is The One Arm L-Sit Thing On The Front Page?

[boofis]

Title says it all really
Any info?

[Christian Sørlie]

Depending on your perspective, it's the start/end position of a one arm press HS. Shown by Handbalancer on the forum.

[Brian Li]

It's a handbalancing move. I think it's called a one arm handstand press or a one arm L-sit press to one arm handstand.

[boofis]

what a boss, looks awesome. Great flexibility strength combo that's for sure !

[Yaad Mohammad]

I'd love to see someone holding that position for at least 3 seconds!

[Mikael Kristiansen]

It was a picture that was taken for the end of circus school promo material when I graduated in june. I consider it a 1 arm L sit, but its biomechanics is drastically different. You need to keep the shoulders in a stacked position, pushing down very hard and place the leg above the elbow joint so you lean into your arm. Its very hard on the shoulder and if you lose 1% of your push you kill your wrist as all your weight is leaning into the arm. Once you have it its not that hard to hold and I can probably stay there for at least 10 seconds. Pressing out of it is another story though and I very seldom manage to press it without counterweight. Freakshow flexibility in the midsection helps a lot for that press which I dont possess at all so it becomes a lot of shoulder work. This is a video from last year and I do a counterweighted pike press, though the ROM is mediocre. 

Search for Dimitry Prudnikov to see a better one(though the costume is terrible at best haha)

[Brian Li]

How do you work up to being able to do a one arm L-sit Handbalancer?

[Mikael Kristiansen]

It is an advanced move and I think i wouldnt teach it unless the person could already do 1 arm negatives to 1 arm straddle L, but i think it is learnable even without a 1 arm handstand. I would at least reccomend to have a solid airbaby to get the concept of leaning leg to arm and a strong 1 arm straddle L. Usually you learn it by partially lowering down into it from 1 arm and you increase the ROM as you get stronger. The hard part is keeping the shoulders stacked(free shoulder directly above the balancing one) which requires STRONG protraction and push from the scapula. Like i said its very hard on the wrist if you cant push enough, and most probably it would be impossible to get into the position if you are not strong enough. Good pike flexibility and compression is also neccesary of course.

[Brian Li]

Thanks! That sounds crazy hard to learn. I was just wondering how one would train it. It looks really cool... maybe someday I will like to train it.

[alec_ar]

@Handbalancer, this may sound ignorant, but would you ever recommend training this with a fist instead of palms? I try to avoid doing things on my wrists on the floor due to some pretty bad chronic inflammation...

I can do a brief one arm straddle L on my fists but with the one arm L sit there is such a degree of lean that worries me.

[Mikael Kristiansen]

With a fist you would not be able to balance it and you would probably crash down onto the top of your wrist very hard. This position requires quite a lot of finger pressure to keep you from falling forwards. You could probably do it on a parallete or bar if you trained for it. There is a lot of lean in this one so i would recommend you to be careful. Thing is that once you can do it properly your shoulders will be in a vertical line which alleviates a lot of the strain, but you need to be very strong there to manage. Same goes for a 1 arm straddle L. Learning to hold it with square(horizontal) shoulders is not too big of a deal, but to stay stacked and on top of your shoulder is absurdly hard. In a 1 arm press thats the last part of the ROM you learn(as its efficient to lower down as far as you can and press back up) and when you are actually able to stay stacked there you are very close to pressing it from the bottom.

[alec_ar]

Thank you! I was delaying trying to progress at all until I had some professional suggestions. Because rolling onto a wrist in a move like that....

I'm going to familiarize myself with it with my other arm assisting and trying to feel out the protracted 'stacked'shoulders over time. Once again, thanks!

[Sinom]

Two weeks ago I went and saw my first Gymnastics competition, which left me extremly humble and impressed. The strength and agility and power... One of the women did a one armed handstand negative to straddle L-sit in the show. And as a home gymnast struggling with the two-handed version, you get so utterly impressed when you see this up close. Watching it on Youtube is not the same!

 

Anyways, the stuff you are doing Handbalancer is so extremly cool, and if I ever come to Sweden I will come and watch you train!