Hanging Leg Raise.
The hanging leg raise trains the lower rectus abdominis and hip flexors through active hip and trunk flexion while hanging from a pull-up bar. Legs are raised until the torso and legs form a 90-degree angle, then lowered under control without swinging.
Step by step.
Hang from a fixed bar with an overhand grip about shoulder width apart. Let your body settle so you are not swinging before the first rep.
Keep your legs straight and together with a slight squeeze of the inner thighs. If your grip gives out before your abs, use lifting straps so you can train the core instead of your hands.
Curl your tailbone up and toward you as you raise the legs. Think about bringing your pubic bone toward your belly button so the abs drive the lift, not just the hip flexors.
Raise the legs until they are parallel to the floor, where your torso and legs sit at about 90 degrees to each other. There is no need to go past this point for the standard version.
Lower the legs slowly over 3-4 seconds back to straight down. Most of the swinging starts here, so control the descent.
Pause at the bottom with the legs hanging straight before the next rep. If you start swinging like a pendulum, stop, reset, and cut the reps in half.
The most common mistake is doing a hip flexor exercise while thinking you're doing an ab exercise. The hip flexors will drive the legs from 0 to about 30-40 degrees on their own without any abdominal involvement. To get abdominal recruitment, you have to posteriorly tilt the pelvis. Curl the tailbone under and toward you as the legs rise. That posterior tilt is the abs contracting to rotate the pelvis; without it, the movement is 90% hip flexor and 10% abdominal. The cue that works: think about bringing your pubic bone toward your belly button as you lift.
Stopping at parallel (legs horizontal, 90 degrees to the torso) is correct for this exercise. Past horizontal, you're moving into hip extension territory and the mechanics shift away from the abdominals entirely. Don't chase range past 90 degrees unless you're doing a specific variation like a toes-to-bar.
Grip endurance limits most people before core endurance does. If your hands are giving out at rep 6 and your abs have nothing, lifting straps are a legitimate solution. They let you actually train the core exercise instead of training your grip. Nothing wrong with using them.
Swing control is what separates good sets from wasted ones. Slow the descent deliberately. At the bottom, legs straight down, hold for a beat before the next rep. If you're swinging like a pendulum and using momentum to spring back up, cut the reps in half and take back the control. Kipping-style momentum reps don't transfer. The abs aren't doing anything if the hip flexors and the swing are doing it all.
Common questions.
Leg raises with straight legs have a longer lever arm. The weight of the legs produces more rotational force at the hip, requiring more force from the hip flexors and abdominals to control. Knee raises shorten that lever arm by bending the knees, making the movement significantly easier. Both involve the same muscles, but knee raises are an appropriate starting point for people who can't yet control the full straight-leg version. Progress from knees bent to 90 degrees, to legs at 45 degrees, to full straight-leg raises over time.
Because the hip flexors drive the movement if you don't deliberately involve the abdominals. The fix is posterior pelvic tilt: curl the tailbone under and toward you as the legs rise. That rotation of the pelvis is powered by the abdominals. Without it, the hip flexors hike the legs up and the abs just watch. If you actively try to curl the pelvis rather than just raising the legs, you'll feel the difference immediately. It's a much harder exercise done correctly, which is why most people skip the pelvis cue.
Control the descent. Swinging usually starts on the way down. The legs drop too fast, and the momentum carries the body backward. Lower the legs slowly (3-4 seconds), pause at the bottom with the legs straight down, then begin the next rep. If swinging persists, do a single rep, stop completely, then do the next. Eliminating the swing eliminates the momentum that makes reps easier than they should be. Another help: slightly externally rotate the legs and squeeze the inner thighs together at the bottom. That added tension reduces the tendency to swing.
Pointed toes (plantarflexed) reduce tension in the calves and are more common in gymnastics-influenced training. Flexed feet (dorsiflexed) add tension through the posterior chain and can make the lower abdominals work slightly harder because the tibialis anterior's contribution changes the weight distribution. Both are fine. For strength training purposes, it doesn't matter much. Pick whichever feels more natural and maintain it consistently so you can compare rep quality across sets.
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