L-Sit Hold
The Elite Hockey Drills app builds drills like this into your personalized off-ice program, week by week. Your first week is free.
How to Do It
Sit on the floor with legs straight in front of you. Hands flat on the floor by your hips, fingers pointing forward. Press hard into the floor — depress your shoulders, lock arms straight, lift your butt off the ground. Lift your legs straight off the floor until they're horizontal — body forms an L. Toes pointed, quads tight, shoulders down. Look forward, not at your feet. HOLD. Breathing stays steady — don't bear down. Lower under control. Rest. Repeat.
Why It Works
The L-sit is gymnastics' brutal isometric core builder — and it's NOT just an abs exercise. To hold the body off the floor with legs horizontal, you need simultaneous strength from the abs, hip flexors, triceps, anterior shoulders, and even the quads (locked straight). It teaches the entire anterior chain to coordinate as one rigid unit under load. For hockey, the transfer is direct: the body position of an L-sit is what a player is in when they're absorbing a check while braced in a flexed position — abs locked, hips loaded, arms supporting body weight against contact. It's also one of the few exercises that builds visible-ab strength via isometric tension alone, with zero spinal flexion involved.
Hockey Transfer
Gymnastics-derived isometric — abs, hip flexors, triceps, AND shoulders all firing at once. Builds the iron core required to absorb checks while braced in a flexion-loaded position. Most can't lift the butt off the floor cleanly at first — start with tuck L-sit (knees bent) until 30s, then extend.
Coaching Cues
- "Sit on the floor (or parallettes for full range). Hands flat by hips"
- "Fingers forward. Press hard"
- "Lock arms"
- "Lift entire body — legs straight out horizontal in an L. Hold. Tight quads"
- "Pointed toes"
- "Depressed shoulders."
Common Mistakes
Bent knees — start with tuck L-sit if you can't keep them straight; don't pretend. Shoulders shrugged up to the ears — kills the press and the position; depress them down. Tilting backward to compensate — torso stays vertical or slightly forward. Holding the breath — long isometric needs oxygen flow; breathe steadily.
Progression / Regression
L-sit on parallettes — extra height lets you go from full pike to lifted position with deeper range. Then V-sit (legs above horizontal).
Tuck L-sit — knees pulled to chest during the hold. Build up to 30s clean tucks before extending the legs.
Primary Muscles
Energy System
Strength/neural
Put it to work
on the ice.
The Elite Hockey Drills app builds exercises like this into a personalized off-ice program — created by a sport scientist and former national-team coach. Your first week is free.
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