Hanging Leg Raise

Equipment: Bodyweight

New to this

Your first hanging leg raise

What weight should I start with on the hanging leg raise?

Bodyweight, and start with knees tucked rather than legs straight. Straight legs roughly double the difficulty and almost nobody can do them clean on day one.

Move to straight legs once you can do 12 knee raises without swinging.

What usually goes wrong on the hanging leg raise?

Hang from a pull-up bar with an overhand grip, arms straight, body still. Pull your shoulder blades down so you are not hanging dead from the joints.

Raise your knees toward your chest, curling your hips up at the top, then lower slowly until your legs hang straight again and stop the swing before the next rep.

Most common mistake: swinging from the shoulders and using momentum on every rep. Pause for a full second at the bottom of each one. Your rep count will drop and the exercise will start working.

If your grip gives out before your abs do

The flat bench lying leg raise is the supported version, so grip stops being the limit; keep your hands under your hips to protect the lower back. The plank is a different job, since it trains bracing instead of hip flexion, but it is worth having in the rotation anyway.

How to do it

Hang from a chin-up bar with both arms extended at arms length in top of you using either a wide grip or a medium grip. The legs should be straight down with the pelvis rolled slightly backwards. This will be your starting position.
Raise your legs until the torso makes a 90-degree angle with the legs. Exhale as you perform this movement and hold the contraction for a second or so.
Go back slowly to the starting position as you breathe in.
Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.