Welcome to this tutorial which demonstrates how to learn the L-Seat to Pressup awesomeness. However before attempting this I recommend that have done some handstands from before, and that you have proper body strength.

L-Seat to Handstand

A 5 step guide to awesomeness

First of let’s see at some terms to avoid confusion:

• L-Seat:
  This is when you are in a seated position, and use your hands to elevate your body from the ground. Legs straight in front of your
• Planche:
  The quite opposite of the L-Seat. This is an tucked position where you are elevated of the ground with your hands. Legs tucked behind you.
• Press up:
  In handstands, when we are talking about a press up, it means that you are in a position where your elbows are bended. The movement to get the straight is a press up.

Preparations: The L-Seat and Pressup Fundamental

There’s one important thing you should have, and that’s the strength to complete a press up. One way to test this is to be able to lift approximate 2/3rd of your body weight in a vertical position – may variate depending on your technique. May I also add that you need to be able to be sitting in a L-Seat for a short period of time.

Step 1: L-Seat Basics

First of we need to get you in that L-Seat. Start by take a seat on the floor near you. Straighten your feet and back – just like sitting in an “L”.
Place your palms beside you but not just anywhere, place em on the side of your thighs. Push with your arms upwards, use the abdominal muscles to get the lower part of your body with you. If you didn’t get your feet with you, then follow the steps below.

• Lock your shoulders:
  Keeping your shoulders locked will get your buttocks up from the floor. It is as simply as this, if you don’t lock your shoulders, you won’t be able to lift yourself up from the floor. This is because when you sit in the start position, your arms are bent. Proceeding when you straighten them you need to have locked shoulders to move the body upwards. If their not you will only push your shoulders upwards, resulting in the fact that you fail to get your buttocks up.  If your confused and stuck here try this simple tip. Sit down and try to push yourself up; If your shoulders are on the same level as ears, you didn’t lock your shoulders. When they are locked you will notice that they are almost at the exact same point as when you started and you are hoovering your buttocks over the ground.
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• Straighten your arms:
  As mentioned above you need to straighten your arms in order to lift yourself up. When successful you will notice that your arms are straight as a plank. For most people this isn’t a problem, however if you notice that you can’t straighten your arms you may need to consider strength training. Exercises for biceps and triceps is recommended. Se Exercise page for these.
  
  
• Activate your Core:
  If you are successful getting your buttocks off the floor but notice that you can’t get your feet with you, don’t be scared. This is the hardest part for almost everyone. To elevate your feet from the ground you need to activate your core muscles, in prior to this you need strong core muscles. Your hip flexors also plays an important role here. You can try one leg at the time, or you can try to lean a bit backwards. It will help if you improve your static core strength.See exercise page for strength exercises for core.
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Step 2. The Transition

Next step is to get your feet from the straight position, and bend and try to put them behind you. This tuck is the – believe or not – hardest part of the whole movement. Try to lean as much forward as you can while tucking your feet closer and closer to yourself, at one point you either touch the ground with your feet, or you simply pass try and straight into a planche. You might notice that you can’t get your feet past your arms without touching the ground, try to follow some of these tips.

• The use of Equipment like Push Up bars (note that your grip is different, this will influence your technique)
• L-Seat on your fingers instead of the whole hand (note that this requires quite a lot of  adaption!)

Both of these are seen in the video at the top.

Step 3: Tucked Strength

Obviously you have to stay in your planche now. To do this however is quite hard. You have to lock your shoulder blades, front shoulder, elbows and lower back. If you are able to put and hold here, and keep yourself elevated from ground. Then proceed. However if you can’t then we need to work on it. There are several approaches to this, but I find this method one of the most solid ones. It should also be mentioned that all kind of rowing exercises helps – specially if you put a hold at the end of the repetition in a row exercise. Hold for 2 – 3 seconds, feel that squeeze between your shoulder blades, release and do another rep. The feeling you have when you hold the weights is much the same you should feel whenever you are in planche.  However because of the length of your arms and the bio-mechanics your shoulder blades aren’t that close performing a planche, which leaves me to the important part; the muscles used for contracting them should be strengthened as why I recommend do a lot of Rowing exercises with hold.

Another part of the planche is your shoulders. Specially the front part, which in a planche are under a tremendous stress. It’s hard or almost impossible to be in a planche without leaning forward – that’s why you see that the arms are tilted some degrees forward in a planche. This tilt forces to activate your posterior (front part) of shoulders. Meaning that strengthen these is a good advice. Exercises like Chest Press and specific shoulder exercises takes care of this.

• Tuck your feet
• Bend your upper and lower back
• Tilt forward while you extract your elbows

Note this: If you know from experience that your technique is greater then your strength, you should listen carefully. It is from step 2 and 3 you can provide sufficient speed to do step 4 and 5. However, as I will state below, this will render much of the muscle control pointless.

Step 4: Another Transition?!

Now is the time to practice your way onto a press up. The technique variates, you can use your speed from the L-Seat to planche and then rotate fast up into a handstand. This requires much more technique than strength, but it also render the control of the press up pointless cause of the speed. The amount of speed will help you get you up, but without the control you won’t know if you can hold the handstand, or get straight up. However if your to slow your strength might take you down. So look for a thing in between or start training technique and strength!

Lean more and more forward until you feel that most of your body weight is on your shoulders. You may notice the same feeling as you do when you are in a handstand, but with much more intense weight on your shoulders. while raising your upper and lower back into a straight line. Now your practically in a handstand, however you still got bend arms and most of you got tucked feet. At this point i recommend tucked feet cause of two reasons:

1. You can launch you feet upward, creating a momentum in that direction. Which will require less strength for your press up.
2. It’s easier to keep balance with tucked feet as your balance point easier can be manipulated with your feet and abdomen
3. You always start your transition with tucked legs, unless you have a great/sick upper body and core strength

You should also note that this transition can be useful for the pressup,  with a good transition you can use small margins of energy and spare them for the next challenge. The challenge of pressing yourself up.

Step 5: The press up

The last part is you press up, this is where your going to be in a full handstand. Let’s break up the technique and watch what are we really doing, step by step.

Note that if you at this point prefer straight feet you’re going to need a great more strength overall since you have to press up without the momentum.

If you tucked your feet
As fast as you can, while maintaining balance, launch your feet upwards and at the exact same moment, straighten out your elbows and prepare for the handstand hold. This movement should feel like a kick – got feedback on people telling me that it helps to think; let’s try to kick that roof of the house. If you can’t seem to get the technique right see if some of these tips helps you.

• Timing is important. Kick simultaneous as you push yourself up.
• Don’t wait to long since your muscles get tired way faster than you believe.
• Make sure your next thought is handstand hold. Your core should be used at all times
• Repeat the whole movement before attempting the pressup again.

If your feet are straight
Start by pressing slow until you feel that you have more and more control over the balance, and when you feel that you have all the balance you need, press up with explosive power – literally the fastest you can. By the way, the press up looks and are done just as the last half of the handstand push up. This requires a huge amount of upper body strength, and balance. And may I remind you that straight feet are a huge challenge for your balance and coordination. I recommend you do the one stated above before attempting this.

One last thing I’d like to mention is the fact of personal technique. The guide written above is based on the average person. If you find something that contradicts what I’m saying, and it’s working for you. Great! That – obvious – isn’t wrong.

So go on and have fun!
Happy Handstand
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