Exercise library

How to do the Hanging Leg Raise

A expert isolation exercise using bodyweight, working the abdominals.

Primary musclesAbdominals
Secondary musclesNone recorded
EquipmentBodyweight
LevelExpert
TypeIsolation
ForcePull

Steps

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Go back slowly to the starting position as you breathe in.
  4. Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.

Tracking it in OneRep

Add the hanging leg raise to a routine and your previous weight and reps sit beside every set, so the decision to add load is made by what is already on the screen rather than by memory. Exercise history and volume trends are one tap away, and logging works offline for the gyms where signal does not reach.

Because OneRep tracks food on the same timeline, a stall on this lift can be read against what you were actually eating that month — which is the difference between a programming problem and an eating one. More on that in tracking progressive overload without a spreadsheet.

Where the instructions come from

The steps above come from free-exercise-db, a public-domain exercise dataset. They are general guidance, not coaching for your body: if a movement hurts, stop and get someone qualified to look at it.