Hanging Leg Raises

What hanging leg raises actually train

They can train the abdominals very well, or they can be a hip flexor exercise with an ab reputation, and the difference is one detail.

The rectus abdominis runs from your ribs to your pelvis. Its job is to bring those two closer together. The hip flexors, principally the iliopsoas and the rectus femoris, run from the spine and pelvis to the thigh, and their job is to raise the leg.

So a hanging leg raise where the legs come up but the pelvis stays put is a hip flexor exercise almost entirely. The abs work isometrically to stop your back arching, which is not nothing, but it is not what you came for.

The version that trains the abs is the one where you curl the pelvis up towards your ribs at the top, so your lower back rounds slightly and your thighs pass above parallel. That curl is the exercise.

Escamilla and colleagues, comparing abdominal exercises and devices, and Youdas and colleagues, examining core exercises, consistently find that what the trunk actually does in a movement determines what it trains, rather than what the movement is called.

Setting up and raising

Overhand grip on a bar, hands about shoulder width. Hang with straight arms and pull the shoulder blades down, so you are holding an active hang rather than sagging into the joint.

Let yourself settle until there is no swing at all. Squeeze the legs together, brace.

Begin the rep by curling the pelvis up towards your ribs, then raise the legs. Continue until the thighs are above parallel and the lower back has rounded slightly under the curl. Pause at the top.

Lower over two to three seconds, uncurling the pelvis last, and come to a complete stop at the bottom before the next rep.

Straight legs if you can control them, bent knees if you cannot. Bent-knee raises done with a proper pelvic curl beat straight-leg raises done with a swing every time.

The mistakes that cost you the most

Not curling the pelvis is the one that redefines the exercise. Everything else is downstream.

Swinging is the visible symptom. Momentum from the backswing does the work, the rep count goes up and the abs do very little. The fix is a dead stop at the bottom of every rep, and if that reduces your reps from fifteen to six, you have learned something useful.

Starting with straight legs is a progression error rather than a technique error. Bent knees shorten the lever dramatically and most people should start there.

Passive hanging makes the whole thing unstable and uncomfortable in the shoulders. Stay active.

And grip: if your hands fail before your abs, use straps or move to a captain's chair. A core exercise limited by your forearms is not testing what you think it is.

How to programme hanging leg raises

Three sets of eight to fifteen with 90 seconds of rest. Reps here should be strict, and a set of eight controlled raises with a real pelvic curl is worth far more than twenty swinging ones.

The progression sequence is worth following in order: lying leg raises, hanging knee raises, hanging straight-leg raises, toes to bar. Most people jump straight to the third and swing their way through it for years.

Two or three core sessions a week, attached to the end of other sessions, is enough. Schoenfeld and colleagues found weekly sets per muscle related to hypertrophy in a dose-response way, and there is no reason to think the abs are exempt, but they also do not need their own training day.

Once straight-leg raises are comfortable for fifteen, add range rather than reps: toes to bar, or a slow three-second lowering on every rep.

Where hanging leg raises sit in your week

At the end of a pull session, since you are already at the bar and your grip is warm. On an upper/lower split, in the upper session's core block.

Never before your main lifts. Fatiguing the trunk before a squat or deadlift makes those lifts worse and adds nothing.

Pair them with an anti-extension exercise like a plank or a rollout. Leg raises train the abs by shortening them; planks train them by resisting lengthening. Both are worth having.

Variations and swaps

Hanging knee raises are the starting point, not a lesser exercise. Done with a full pelvic curl they are hard.

The captain's chair removes grip and most of the swing, which makes it the easiest place to learn the pelvic curl. Once you have the pattern, move to the bar.

Toes to bar extends the range considerably and is a genuine progression rather than a variation.

Reverse crunches on a bench teach the same pelvic curl with no hanging at all, which makes them the best drill for anyone who cannot feel the difference between curling and just lifting their legs. Two sets of those before your hanging work will usually teach the pattern faster than any cue.

Windscreen wipers add rotation once the basic raise is easy, and they are considerably harder than they look.

What the evidence does and does not say

It says abdominal exercises differ in what they demand and that hip flexor involvement in leg raise movements is substantial. It says the trunk's job in an exercise determines what that exercise trains.

It does not say leg raises reduce belly fat or that any core exercise reduces it. Spot reduction does not work, and visible abs come from overall body fat.

It also does not say the slight rounding of the lower back at the top of a proper leg raise is dangerous. The argument that spinal flexion damages the discs comes largely from repeated-cycle work on cadaver spines under load, which is a long way from a person doing three sets of ten leg raises. Curl the pelvis, control the descent, and stop worrying about it.

Hanging leg raises: common questions

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

Because you are lifting your legs without curling your pelvis. The abs connect the ribs to the pelvis, so if the pelvis does not move, they are only working isometrically. Curl the pelvis up towards your ribs at the top of each rep.

How do I stop swinging?

Come to a complete stop at the bottom of every rep and lower more slowly. The swing comes from dropping the legs fast and using the rebound. If that cuts your reps in half, the previous reps were mostly momentum.

Should my legs be straight or bent?

Bent to start with. Straight-leg raises are a genuinely hard exercise, and bent-knee raises done with a proper pelvic curl train the abs better than straight-leg raises done with a swing.

My grip gives out first, what should I do?

Use lifting straps, or switch to a captain's chair where your forearms are supported. There is nothing to be gained from a core exercise that ends because of your hands.

Do leg raises get rid of belly fat?

No. Fat loss comes from overall energy balance and cannot be directed to a specific area. Leg raises build the abdominal muscles underneath, which is a separate thing from revealing them.