Training guide
Two moves share the name. The V-sit hold balances on your seat with your legs and trunk lifted into a V, like the straight-legged boat pose. The gymnastic V-sit presses up on straight arms from an L-sit and lifts your straight legs towards your face. Both are hip flexor holds as much as ab holds, and hamstring range decides how straight and how high your legs go.
The moving version, the V-up, has its own guide. No trial has tested the ladders here, and nobody has measured the load on the spine in a V-sit, so we say where the advice is coaching practice and where it's our reading.
This guide covers both V-sits step by step on the 3D figure, a ladder for each from bent knees and tucks to the full V, how long to hold and how often, the hip flexor and hamstring work that helps, what the hold does to your lower back, and who should change it.
The V-sit hold balances on your seat in a V, like the straight-legged boat pose. The gymnastic V-sit presses up on your hands from an L-sit and lifts your legs past horizontal. The V-up (V-sit-up or jackknife) moves into the V and back down, and belongs to our V-ups guide.
Holding both legs up is mainly the hip flexors' job, with your abs bracing your trunk. In a review of 9 muscle activity studies, the main hip flexor worked hardest at 30 to 60 degrees of hip bend, and lifting both legs needed the abs too.
In a lab study, the lower back was 28 degrees more rounded in a V-sit hold than in a plank, for the same ab work. Nobody has measured the load on the spine in a V-sit. Our reading is that it's fine for most healthy backs in sensible doses, as our V-ups guide concludes, but not with osteoporosis or back pain that flares with bending.
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Straight legs need hamstring range; until you have it, bend your knees. One coach calls hamstring flexibility "a great limiting factor" for the gymnastic V-sit.
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For the hold: lean back on your elbows, then hands by your hips, then hands off, one leg then both straight. For the gymnastic V-sit: a steady 15 to 20-second L-sit first, then a high tuck, one leg straight, then both. Holds of 5 to 30 seconds, 2 to 4 times a week (our editorial starting point). No trial has tested either ladder.
In a randomised trial of 33 adults, 6 weeks of band hip flexion training raised hip flexion strength by 17%.
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Sit, lean back onto the back of your sit bones, and lift your legs so your body makes a V, arms reaching forward or hands beside your hips. With bent knees it's the bent-knee boat pose; with straight legs it's the full boat pose of yoga.
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From a steady L-sit on straight arms, your straight legs lift towards your face and your trunk leans back into a V. Our move page calls it hard compression on top of hamstring flexibility. Coaches grade it from about 45 degrees up to past vertical.
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The moving version: from lying, your arms and legs lift together to meet in a V, then lower. V-up, V-sit-up and jackknife sit-up are one move; our V-ups guide covers it.
The hip flexors hold your legs up: the iliopsoas deep in the hip and the rectus femoris at the front of the thigh. The abs brace your trunk and stop it folding back; in a held V-sit they worked as hard as in a plank. Your thighs keep your knees straight. In the gymnastic V-sit, your triceps, lats and lower trapezius press you up, as in the L-sit.
For the hold: a tall seated position (staff pose), hip flexor strength and, for straight legs, hamstring range. For the gymnastic V-sit: a steady floor L-sit of 15 to 20 seconds, as our L-sit guide says, strong compression (pulling your legs up to your trunk), more hamstring range and comfortable wrists. Our move page's prerequisite is "A solid floor L-sit and good hamstring flexibility."
Long legs make a heavier lever, tight hamstrings mean bent knees, and a larger tummy or chest makes the fold harder (our reading). In the gymnastic V-sit, short arms for your body make lifting off harder, as in the L-sit. Hold times vary hugely: a modified V-sit hold averaged 141.7 seconds in 60 adults, with a spread of 104 seconds either way.
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Small lab groups of young adults, mostly over one session. No study has trained the V-sit, measured its spine load or tested a progression.
From our boat pose move page, Yoga Journal's boat pose steps and ACE's seated progression; the breathing cue follows our V-ups guide. The figure shows the bent-knee version; straighten your legs only when your back stays long. The doses are our editorial starting point.
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The movement on the figure: Boat pose (Navasana)
Move up when 3 holds at the top of a step's range feel steady with your chest lifted (editorial). Staff pose 2 × 30 seconds; boat pose 3 holds of 3 to 5 breaths with your knees bent and hands behind your thighs, then 2 × 20 to 30 seconds with your hands off; the hollow hold, 2 to 3 holds of 10 to 30 seconds, is the lying cousin; the Pilates teaser (3 reps, adapted from its move page's dose) rolls up into the V; the jackknife is the V-up. The straight-legged V-sit hold has no separate demo.
The order follows ACE's seated progression and Yoga Journal's boat pose; the doses are editorial unless a site workout is named. No trial has tested it.
Sit tall with straight legs, 2 holds of 30 seconds, then lift both heels a little for 5 to 10 seconds (our L-sit progression's warm-up).
Knees bent, lean back onto your elbows and lift and straighten one leg at a time: holds of 5 to 10 seconds each side, ACE's first step.
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Hands behind your thighs, shins level: 3 holds of 3 to 5 breaths (our yoga for core workout).
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The bent-knee V with your arms reaching forward: 2 holds of 20 to 30 seconds (our L-sit progression's boat pose dose).
Straighten one leg, then the other, hands beside your hips if you need them: 3 holds of 10 seconds each side.
Both legs straight at about 45 degrees, arms reaching forward: 3 to 5 holds of 5 to 15 seconds, building towards 20 to 30 seconds, after ACE's 15 to 30-second holds.
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Arms overhead beside your ears, legs higher, or the rolling Pilates teaser.
From our V-sit move page ("Do not force the fold; flexibility sets the height.") and a calisthenics coach's V-sit ladder. The doses are our editorial starting point.
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The movement on the figure: V-sit
A steady 15 to 20-second L-sit first, as our L-sit guide says. Tuck L-sit 4 or 5 holds of 10 to 20 seconds and L-sit 4 or 5 holds of 5 to 15 seconds (our L-sit progression); the V-sit 4 or 5 holds of 3 to 10 seconds, starting at about 45 degrees (editorial). The high tuck and the one-leg V have no demo of their own: draw your knees higher than in the tuck L-sit, then straighten one leg.
A coach's ladder (Antranik), with our editorial doses.
15 to 20 seconds on the floor or parallettes, the point our L-sit guide gives for starting the V-sit.
From a tuck L-sit, lean your shoulders back a little and draw your knees up towards your chest so your hips rise higher: 4 or 5 holds of 5 to 10 seconds.
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From the high tuck, straighten one leg and lift it, swapping sides: 4 or 5 holds of 3 to 8 seconds each side.
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Both legs straight and lifted above horizontal: 4 or 5 holds of 3 to 10 seconds, starting at about 45 degrees.
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A held V-sit and a front plank needed the same trunk effort and similar ab activity, but the lower back was 28 degrees more rounded in the V-sit (posture measured in 20 adults, muscle activity in 30).
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Across 9 muscle activity studies of 109 adults, the iliopsoas worked hardest at 30 to 60 degrees of hip bend, and more when the legs moved on the trunk than the trunk on the legs. In 6 men doing 38 exercises, lifting both legs (but not one) needed the abs as well. With fine-wire electrodes in 8 adults, every form of sit-up worked the deep psoas at 15 to 35% of its maximum.
In 10 young men, the V-up (lying, arms overhead, legs lifted to 45 degrees) worked the six-pack muscle at about 80% of its maximum. In 16 women, the rolling Pilates teaser drew more six-pack activity on a mat than on apparatus. These measure effort in one session, not what a muscle will build.
Sit-ups compressed the lower spine by more than 3,000 newtons in a model of 12 young men, and the hanging straight-leg raise by about 3,000 in 14 men; across 12 ab exercises, no single one trained all the abs with low spine load. Nobody has measured a V-sit. In 1,141 soldiers, a sit-up-based programme gave no more injuries over 16 weeks than core work without sit-ups, with a marginal sign of longer time off after back injuries.
In 33 adults, band hip flexion training 3 times a week for 6 weeks, about 10 minutes a session, raised hip flexion strength by 17%, more than in the group that didn't train.
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ACE's seated progression, Yoga Journal's boat pose steps and a calisthenics coach's V-sit ladder agree on the order. No study has tested them.
2 to 4 short practices a week, at the start of a session, as our L-sit guide suggests for holds.
3 to 5 holds of 5 to 30 seconds, depending on your step, with about a minute between. End each hold while your chest is still lifted and your legs still up; there's no need to hold to failure, as our L-sit guide says.
When 3 holds at the top of your step's range feel steady, take the next step (our editorial rule).
Count them in our V-ups guide's ceiling of about 60 bending reps a session. A V-sit hold is a hold, not a bending rep.
No study has timed it. Our estimate: a bent-knee V hold within days to weeks, a straight-legged hold within weeks to a few months depending on your hamstrings, and the gymnastic V-sit months after a steady L-sit.
Two or three of these, 2 or 3 times a week, after your V-sit practice, as our L-sit guide suggests: standing band hip flexion 2 × 8 to 12 each side (our L-sit progression), hanging knee raises 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 (our hanging leg raise progression) and the active pancake lift-off for the straddle (its move page's dose is "4 sets of 5 lifts, holding 3 to 5 seconds each (our editorial starting point)."). Seated leg lifts have no demo of their own: sit tall in staff pose with your hands beside your knees and lift both legs a few centimetres for 5 to 10 seconds, 3 to 5 times, as our L-sit guide describes.
The seated hamstring stretch, holding 30 seconds, 1 to 3 times each leg, at least 5 days a week (adapted from its move page's dose); the lying strap stretch, 45 seconds each side (our hamstring flexibility routine); and a minute of the wrist flow before the gymnastic V-sit.
The held V rounds your lower back much more than a plank, and sit-up-type moves load the lower spine heavily, but nobody has measured spine load in a V-sit. Our reading, as our V-ups guide concludes for V-ups, is that it's fine for most healthy backs in sensible doses.
The authors of one study of 21 adults suggest that moves with heavy front-thigh work "may be problematic for some people with low back problems". That's their view from muscle activity, not a trial. If V-sits bother your back, use the hollow hold, dead bugs and bird dogs instead.
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An expert review of 87 muscle activity studies advises against hip bending with your feet hooked under something; a V-sit with your feet held turns it into a sit-up.
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Stop V-ups if they send pain, tingling or numbness down a leg, and use the dead bug or the McGill curl-up while it settles, as our sit-up guide says. Our back rule: discomfort up to about 5 out of 10 is acceptable if it settles within about an hour and is no worse the next morning.
Some discomfort during exercise is fine, and it does not mean you are doing damage. Aim for pain you would call mild to moderate, no more than about 5 out of 10. It should settle within an hour or so, and your back should be no worse the next morning. If it is worse, do less next time (fewer reps, a smaller range, a lighter load), not nothing.
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Your lower back collapses and your chest drops. Sit on the back of your sit bones with your chest lifted.
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Bend your knees as much as your hamstrings need; your hip flexors still do the holding (our cue, as our V-ups guide says).
Press down harder, or go back to the L-sit (our L-sit guide's rule).
Breathe steadily through every hold.
End each hold while your shape is still good.
Hip flexor cramp is common at first. Stop, shake it out and use shorter holds (editorial); one coach puts a shoulder bridge between compression sets to ease it.
That turns the hold into a sit-up. Keep your feet free.
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The V-sit progression is the follow-along session for this guide; the L-sit progression builds everything below the gymnastic V-sit, and the V-up progression is the moving version.
A 20-minute ladder to the V-sit: staff pose and hip flexor work, the boat pose to a straight-legged V-sit hold, or the L-sit to the gymnastic V-sit.
20 minIntermediate10 movesA band, An anchor pointBuild to an L-sit: wrist prep, hip-flexor and compression work, foot-supported and tuck L-sits, one-leg L-sits, then the full hold.
20 minIntermediate8 movesA band, An anchor pointA 20-minute ladder to the V-up: dead bugs and hollow holds, reverse crunches, seated knee tucks and tuck-ups, then V-ups, balanced with bird dogs and side planks.
20 minIntermediate11 movesA bench or boxTwenty minutes of plank, side plank, boat pose, back lifts and standing balances: the yoga poses that work the trunk hardest, with easier and harder options.
20 minBeginner13 movesNo equipmentAn intermediate ab workout with no equipment: planks, side planks, reverse crunches, hollow holds and mountain climbers.
20 minIntermediate7 movesNo equipmentA 25-minute session for hip flexors that don't currently hurt: marches, band knee drives, leg raises and step-ups, with optional bar and running blocks.
25 minBeginner11 movesA bench or box, A bandA 12-minute routine to loosen tight hamstrings with strap stretches, PNF, folds and hinges.
12 minBeginner7 movesNo equipmentThe calisthenics plan builds the L-sit; the 30-day ab challenge builds the steps before the V.
A 12-week calisthenics plan for beginners: three bodyweight sessions a week with push-up, pull-up, squat and dip ladders, and a bar if you have one.
3 training days40 minBeginner4 days a weekA free 30-day ab challenge: four 12-minute core sessions a week, from dead bugs to hollow holds, with rest days and an honest word on belly fat.
4 training days12 minBeginnerLeave V-ups out. The UK consensus advises modifying or avoiding repeated or end-range rounding of the spine, and spinal fractures have been reported with sit-ups. Train your trunk with dead bugs, bird dogs and planks instead.
The held V rounds your lower back too, so the same applies to it (our reading).
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The NHS advises against lying flat on your back for more than a few minutes in later pregnancy, and against starting a new vigorous activity. Leave V-ups out in later pregnancy and use side-lying, all-fours or standing core work, as our pregnancy guide sets out.
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The NHS advises avoiding sit-ups to start with. In 70 women with a tummy gap 6 to 12 months after a birth, 12 weeks of head lifts and curl-ups didn't widen the gap and made the muscle thicker and stronger, but that trial used curl-ups, not V-ups. Build back through gentle tummy exercises, as our postpartum and diastasis recti guides set out, and choose an easier move if the middle of your tummy domes into a ridge as you curl.
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The NHS says sit-ups can increase leaks, and in 57 women full sit-ups raised the pressure inside the tummy to a median of 60.4 cmH2O (centimetres of water, a pressure unit), against 18.5 for curl-ups. The V-up wasn't measured; our reading is that it sits with sit-ups. An NHS pelvic health leaflet advises people with a prolapse to avoid ab crunches. Use the pelvic floor guide's moves while you build up.
Leave V-ups out while your tummy heals, as our move page says: UK stoma and hospital leaflets advise against sit-ups and double leg raises at first. Stop if you notice bulging around a scar or stoma.
The L-sit holds both legs up against gravity, like a double leg raise. After tummy surgery, leave it out until your surgical team says it's fine, and see a GP if you think you have a hernia, such as a new bulge in your tummy or groin.
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A floor L-sit bends your wrists back under your whole weight. Fists, push-up handles or parallettes take some of the pressure off, coaches say, so build up gradually. Wrist pain up to about 5 out of 10 that settles within half an hour is acceptable, as our wrist guides say.
Tingling down your leg in a hamstring stretch comes from a nerve, not a tight muscle: bend your knee and ease off, as our hamstring stretch pages say.
If you get chest pain or pressure, feel faint or dizzy, are unusually breathless, or your heart races or beats irregularly during exercise, as our plans advise.
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For chest pain that comes on suddenly and doesn't go away, feels tight or like squeezing, spreads to your arms, neck, jaw, stomach or back, or comes with sweating, feeling sick, light-headedness or breathlessness; severe difficulty breathing; someone who faints while exercising; palpitations that don't go away, or come with chest pain, shortness of breath or feeling faint; or a headache that starts suddenly and is extremely painful, especially while lifting or straining, or comes with numbness or weakness, difficulty speaking or loss of vision. The NHS says a bleed on the brain may be more likely when lifting something heavy. Don't drive yourself to A&E.
Ask for an urgent GP appointment or get help from NHS 111 for a headache that's triggered or made worse by coughing, sneezing, bending down or exercising. In the US, contact your doctor or urgent care.
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Stop straight away if you feel any pain or become unwell, the NHS says, and contact 111 if your symptoms worry you or don't go away.
A dull ache in your muscles for a day or two after something new is normal. Joint pain that's sharp, gets worse during a set or lingers into the next day means switching to the easier option, and seeing a GP or physiotherapist if it carries on (our plans' rule). Our muscle soreness guide has more.
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A sudden sharp pain in your tummy wall during a set may be a strain: stop, and follow our abdominal strain guide. Get help from NHS 111 if it's very painful or swollen.
At the front of the hip, the same applies with our hip flexor pain guide (our suggestion).
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Call 999 or go to A&E: loss of feeling or numbness around the genitals or bottom, new trouble peeing or controlling your bladder or bowels, changes in genital sensation during sex or problems with erections or orgasm, or pain, tingling, weakness or numbness in both legs. These are signs of cauda equina syndrome, which needs treating in hospital urgently. Don't drive yourself.
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Call 999 or go to A&E: leg pain with numbness around the genitals or bottom, new trouble starting or controlling peeing, not knowing when you need to poo or losing control of it, sciatica in both legs, or weakness or numbness in both legs that is severe or getting worse. These can be signs of cauda equina syndrome, which needs treating in hospital as soon as possible.
Pain, tingling or numbness spreading below the knee that isn't settling after a few weeks, is getting worse or stops your normal activities: see a GP.
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A lump in the groin, or groin pain with coughing or straining (a possible hernia).
Get help from NHS 111 if you have a hernia (a lump in the groin or tummy) and pain in or around it, a bloated tummy, you feel sick or are being sick, you're vomiting blood or your vomit looks like coffee grounds, you're constipated, you have a high temperature or feel hot, cold or shivery, or you've suddenly become confused.
Call 999 or go to A&E now if you have a femoral hernia (a small lump at the top of the thigh, in the groin) and very bad tummy pain, you feel sick or are being sick, you cannot fart or poo, you have a high temperature or feel hot, cold or shivery, or you've suddenly become confused. It may be strangulated, which is an emergency. Don't drive yourself.
The held V rounds the lower back more than a plank, and sit-ups compress the lower spine heavily, but nobody has measured a V-sit, and a sit-up-based programme didn't raise injuries in 1,141 soldiers. Our reading is that it's fine for most healthy backs in sensible doses; with osteoporosis, or back pain that flares with bending, choose other moves.
It's a hip flexor and trunk hold: the hip flexors hold your legs up while your abs brace, working about as hard as in a plank.
One study found more lower six-pack activity in a V-sit, others found the upper and lower parts working alike, as our V-ups guide sets out. You can shift the emphasis a little, not isolate the lower abs.
Bent-knee and tuck versions start now; hamstring range sets how straight and how high your legs go, as our L-sit guide says.
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Training to failure isn't needed for strength, as our L-sit guide says. End each hold while your shape is still good.
Partly: the V-sit hold is the boat pose with straight legs. The gymnastic V-sit, on your hands, is a different and much harder skill.
Two moves share the name. The V-sit hold balances on your seat with your legs and trunk lifted into a V, like the straight-legged boat pose. The gymnastic V-sit presses up on straight arms from an L-sit and lifts your legs towards your face. The moving V-up is a third relative, in our V-ups guide.
Sit tall, lean back onto the back of your sit bones, brace, and lift your feet until your shins are level, holding your thighs at first. Then let go, reach your arms forward, and straighten your legs as far as your hamstrings allow, breathing steadily.
Mainly the hip flexors, which hold your legs up, and your abs, which brace your trunk; in one study the abs worked about as hard as in a plank. Your thighs keep your knees straight, and in the gymnastic V-sit your triceps and shoulders press you up.
3 to 5 holds of 5 to 30 seconds, depending on your step, 2 to 4 times a week; ACE's progression builds from 5 to 10-second holds to 15 to 30 seconds. Stop while your chest is still lifted.
Usually one of three things: hip flexor strength to hold your legs up, hamstrings too tight to straighten them, or, in the gymnastic V-sit, pressing strength. Bend your knees, work up the ladder, and add band hip flexion: in a trial, 6 weeks raised hip flexion strength by 17%.
Nobody has measured the load on the spine in a V-sit. Our reading is that it's fine for most healthy backs in sensible doses, but the held V rounds your lower back more than a plank. If bending flares your back or sends pain down a leg, use the hollow hold, dead bugs and bird dogs, and see our back pain guide.
The V-sit is a hold; the V-up lifts your arms and legs together from lying and lowers them again. The V-up is in our V-ups guide, which also covers V-sit-ups and jackknives.
In the L-sit your legs are level with the floor; in the gymnastic V-sit they lift higher towards your face, which needs much more hip flexor strength and hamstring range. Our L-sit guide says to get a steady 15 to 20 seconds in the L-sit first.
The V-sit hold is the boat pose with straight legs; the hollow hold lies on your back with your lower back pressed down. All three use the muscles at the front of your trunk, in different positions, as our hollow hold guide says.
They're working hard at a short length. Stop, shake it out, use shorter holds, and build the strength with band hip flexion and seated leg lifts, as our L-sit guide suggests.
Leave them out in later pregnancy and use side-lying, all-fours or standing core work, as our V-ups guide advises for V-ups. After a birth, build back through gentle tummy exercises first.
No: the V sit-and-reach is a hamstring flexibility test done sitting with your legs apart. Our sit and reach test page covers the standard version of the test.
Exercise education, not a personal prescription, and clinical review of these guides is pending. Check with a GP before starting hard training if you have a heart condition, chest pain, dizziness or breathlessness when active, and stop for sharp or increasing pain. Health disclaimer.
