How to do the hanging leg raise

The hanging leg raise is the ab exercise to work toward once floor crunches and planks feel easy. Hanging from a bar and lifting straight legs puts a long lever on your abs and hip flexors, so it's hard at low reps with no added weight, and your grip and shoulders get some work too. It also exposes cheating quickly: any swing shows. If you can't yet hang from a bar for 30 seconds, or can't do a clean knee raise, start with the easier versions further down and come back to this.

How to do a hanging leg raise

1. Grab a pull-up bar with an overhand grip, hands about shoulder width. Hang with your arms straight and your feet off the floor. If your feet touch, bend your knees slightly behind you until they clear.
2. Set your shoulders. Pull them down slightly away from your ears so you're not hanging loosely off your joints. Your arms stay straight.
3. Kill the swing before you start. Legs together, squeeze your glutes and let your feet settle slightly in front of the bar. Wait until you're still.
4. Brace and raise your straight legs. Lift your legs in front of you, keeping your knees straight or very slightly soft, until your feet are at least at hip height and your legs are parallel to the floor. Breathe out as you lift.
5. Curl your pelvis up at the top. From parallel, tilt your hips so your tailbone lifts toward the front and your lower back rounds slightly. That little curl is where your abs do most of the work, and you'll feel a hard squeeze low in your stomach.
6. Lower slowly to a straight hang. Take two to three seconds, breathing in on the way down, and stop with your legs straight below you. Pause for a moment so you don't swing into the next rep.

Lifting your legs to parallel is mostly your hip flexors, the muscles at the front of your hips. Your abs take over when you curl your pelvis at the top and control the way down. Ending each rep with only a leg lift and no curl is the difference between an ab exercise and a hip flexor exercise.

Cues that help

"Show your belt buckle to the ceiling." At the top, try to point the front of your pelvis up. It gets the curl without you having to think about spinal flexion.

"Legs are one stick." Keep your legs pressed together and locked. It stops the knees drifting apart and bending as you tire.

"Push the bar toward your feet." Press down slightly on the bar with straight arms, as if you're trying to push it toward your shins. Your lats switch on and your body swings much less. If that doesn't click, try "hold the bar still with your armpits".

"Down is slower than up." A slow lowering phase trains your abs harder and gives the swing nothing to feed on.

Common mistakes

Swinging to get your legs up. The body rocks back and forth and the legs ride the momentum up, a bit like a child on a playground swing pumping higher each time. The usual cause is starting the next rep from a swing instead of a dead hang, or lifting a version that's too hard for you. Pause at the bottom of every rep, press down on the bar, and switch to knee raises if you can't stop the swing.

Bending the knees to make it easier. As the set goes on, the straight-leg raise turns into a knee raise with a bit of extension at the end. Short levers are much easier, so the set looks longer than it is. Either keep your legs straight or deliberately switch to knee raises for the remaining reps. Both are fine; a blurry version of each isn't.

Stopping below parallel. Feet rising to knee height and dropping back down means your hip flexors are doing a short lift and your abs barely get involved. Lift until your legs are at least parallel, then add the pelvic curl.

Dropping your legs. Letting your legs fall to the bottom throws you into a swing and skips the lowering phase, which is half the benefit. Count two or three seconds on the way down.

Letting your grip decide the set. If your hands give out before your abs do, you're doing a grip exercise. Use lifting straps or ab slings, which loop around your upper arms, and keep the set about your abs.

If you can't do one yet

We'd rather see a clean knee raise than a sloppy straight-leg raise, every time. Work through these in order, moving on once you can do 3 sets of 12 with a pause at the top:

• Lying leg raise: on your back, lift straight legs to vertical while your lower back stays on the floor.
• Captain's chair knee raise: a station with back and forearm pads that takes grip and swing out of the picture.
• Hanging knee raise: from the bar, bring your knees to your chest and curl your pelvis up at the top.
• Single-leg-straight raise: one knee bent, one leg straight, alternating each set. A good bridge between knee raises and full leg raises.

Sets, reps and progression

Do 3 sets of 6 to 12 reps, ending each set when you can't keep your legs straight or the swing takes over. Leg raises fit at the end of a session, after your main lifts, two or three times a week. Rest 60 to 90 seconds between sets.

Progress by adding reps first, then by slowing the lowering phase to four seconds, then by lifting higher. Once 3 sets of 12 to parallel is easy, bring your feet up to the bar (toes-to-bar) or add light ankle weights. Holding a dumbbell between your feet works but gets awkward over about 10 lb (5 kg). If you log leg raises in Helthy as reps, you can see last week's sets and add a rep or two to each one.

Variations and alternatives

• Hanging knee raise: the easier version, and the best starting point for most people.
• Toes-to-bar: raise your feet all the way to the bar. Much harder, and often done with a kip in conditioning classes. For ab strength, do it slowly.
• Captain's chair leg raise: the same straight-leg raise supported by pads. Easier on grip and shoulders.
• Lying leg raise: the floor version. Easier, and the best swap if you don't have a bar.
• Cable crunch: a loaded ab exercise that's easier to progress in small steps. A good swap if your grip or shoulders don't enjoy hanging.
• Plank: trains your abs to hold still rather than move. A good pairing rather than a replacement.

Hanging leg raise questions

Why do I feel hanging leg raises in my hip flexors?

Because they do most of the lifting to parallel, and that's normal. To shift more of the work to your abs, add the pelvic curl at the top and lower slowly. If you feel a pinch at the front of your hip, bend your knees slightly and reduce the range.

Do hanging leg raises work the lower abs?

Your abs are one long muscle, so you can't train the bottom part in isolation. Leg raises do tend to be felt lower down, but whether they build the lower section more than crunches do is still argued about. Either way, how your lower stomach looks comes down to body fat, not exercise choice.

My lower back hurts during leg raises. What's wrong?

Usually your lower back is arching as your legs come down, because your abs are too tired to hold the pelvis tucked. Cut the set shorter, switch to knee raises for a while and keep the pelvis curled throughout. If it hurts even on easier versions, stop and get it checked.