Core
Hanging leg raise
The hanging leg raise lifts your legs from a dead hang while you hold a bar, working the abs and hip flexors hard.
- Primary
- Abs
- Secondary
- Forearms
- Equipment
- Pull-up bar
- Type
- isolation
Why it earns a spot
It trains the lower abs through a long lever and builds grip at the same time.
How to do it
- Hang from a bar with your hands about shoulder width and your arms straight.
- Brace your abs and tilt your pelvis up before your legs move.
- Raise your legs together, knees bent or straight, until your thighs reach at least parallel.
- Curl your pelvis at the top to finish the rep with your abs, not just your hip flexors.
- Lower slowly without swinging.
Common mistakes
- Swinging your legs up with momentum; stop between reps to kill the swing.
- Using only the hip flexors without tilting your pelvis; curl your tailbone up.
- Going straight to straight-leg versions too early; start with bent knees.
How to program it
| Sets | Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 6-15 | 60-90 sec |
Move from knee raises to bent-leg raises to straight-leg raises as you can do 3 clean sets of 15. Add ankle weights only after that.
Fortis · free while in beta
Log every hanging leg raise set.
Fortis keeps your sets, reps and weights in one place and shows the trend over time, so progress is a number instead of a feeling.
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