Tighten Your Abdominals with Hanging Leg Raises

Hanging Leg Raises are becoming one of the most popular abdominal exercises, and with good reason. This intense movement is a great way to target the entire abdominal region including the difficult to hit lower abs.

If you’re not already incorporating Hanging Leg Raises into your ab routine on a regular basis, you should give them a go. Here’s the basic technique.

You begin the movement hanging from a Lat Pull-up bar. Your grip should be about shoulder width apart, and your arms should remain fully extended throughout the movement.

You want to bend your knees slightly and keep them bent throughout.

Now, using your ab muscles only, raise your legs up to a point where your feet are about level with your belly button (note: you do not want to swing your legs up with your hips—focus on your abs).

As typical with abs, hold the peak contraction for a count of one or two and squeeze hard. Perform the negative portion of the movement slowly by lowering your legs resisting somewhat on the way down. Repeat for a tight set of 12-20 reps.