Hanging Leg Raise
The hanging leg raise is a bar-hanging core exercise: from a dead hang you raise straight legs to horizontal or higher and curl your pelvis up towards your ribs. It works the abdominals, especially the region below the navel, and the hip flexors, while the lats, obliques and grip hold the body still.
Also called: Leg Raise, Hanging Leg Raises, Hanging Leg Raises (or crunches), Leg Raise variation · Equipment: bodyweight · Pattern: push
Step by step
- Take an overhand grip on a pull-up bar about shoulder-width apart and hang with straight arms. Draw your shoulders slightly down, away from your ears, so you are not hanging loosely.
- Bring your legs together and straight. Brace your trunk and press down on the bar with straight arms to still any swing before the first rep.
- Start the rep by tilting your pelvis backwards, as if tucking your tailbone under, then raise your straight legs in front of you.
- Keep raising until your legs reach horizontal or higher. At the top, curl your pelvis up towards your ribs so your low back rounds slightly.
- Breathe out as you curl at the top and hold the position for a moment.
- Bring your legs back down slowly to a still dead hang. Keep your ribs down so your low back does not arch as the legs reach the bottom.
- Settle any swing before the next rep. After the last rep, put your feet down on the floor or a box before letting go of the bar.
- Curl your pelvis up, then let the legs follow
- Hang still at the bottom of every rep
- Press the bar down with straight arms
- Ribs down, no arch as the legs come down
- Breathe out and curl hard at the top
In VALDA, these cues are one tap away on the exercise while you train.
What it trains
| Muscle | Role | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Rectus abdominis: lower | Prime mover | C |
| Hip flexors | Prime mover | B |
| Rectus abdominis: upper | Secondary | C |
| Obliques (internal/external) | Secondary | C |
| Latissimus dorsi | Stabiliser | D |
| Forearm flexors | Stabiliser | D |
| Transverse abdominis | Stabiliser | C |
Evidence grades: A = strong research base · B = good · C = limited · D = coaching consensus.
What goes wrong, and the fix
Swinging into each rep
Fix: Settle to a still hang each rep and press the bar down to steady the body.
Lifting the legs without curling the pelvis
Fix: Tilt the pelvis back first and finish each rep by curling it towards your ribs.
Low back arching at the bottom
Fix: Keep your ribs down and hold a slight backward pelvic tilt in the hang.
Dropping the legs fast
Fix: Bring the legs down slowly and under control to a still hang.
Knees bending as the legs rise
Fix: Keep knees straight and legs together; raise only as high as you can keep them straight.
Grip giving out before the abdominals
Fix: Use lifting straps so your abdominals, not your grip, set the end of the set.
What the research says
Muscle growth · first choiceGeneral fitnessSport performanceEndurance
- Reps and progression — Research finds muscle growth is similar across a wide range of rep counts when sets are taken close to failure, and that adding reps builds muscle about as well as adding load. Many lifters build strict bodyweight reps first, then add ankle weights or a dumbbell held between the feet.
- Effort — Studies show growth rises as sets get closer to failure, with only a small extra return from reaching true failure.
- Volume and frequency — Research links more weekly hard sets for a muscle to more growth, with diminishing returns. Training a muscle about twice a week is a common way to spread that volume.
- Tempo — Research finds rep durations from about half a second to eight seconds give similar growth. The slow, swing-free rep used for this exercise is coaching convention rather than a research finding.
- Evidence gap — There is no direct research on programming the hanging leg raise. The notes above come from limb-muscle studies, and comparisons within the leg-raise family rest on muscle-activation (EMG) data, not growth outcomes.
Swap it mid-workout
- Hanging Knee Raise
- Lying Leg Raise
- Roman Chair Leg Raise
- Toes to Bar
- Bent Knee Reverse Crunch
- Bicycle Crunch
With VALDA Pro, FLEX offers alternatives like these when you swap an exercise mid-workout.
Log the hanging leg raise in VALDA, with these cues one tap away while you train and your history for it in one place.
General information about exercise technique, not medical advice. If you have an injury or a health condition, your healthcare provider is the right person to ask.