What muscles do hanging leg raises work?

Your hip flexors lift the legs. Your abs work hard without shortening, holding the pelvis so your lower back stays where it is. Your grip and shoulders hold the hang. The lifting and the holding are both real work, and they belong to different muscles.

Why do I feel hanging leg raises in my hip flexors and not my abs?

Because that is where the work is. The abdominal muscle down the front of your stomach attaches at your pubic bone and does not reach the hip, so it cannot raise your leg. Lifting the thigh is the hip flexors doing what they are named for.

Are hanging leg raises good for lower abs?

They load the abs, isometrically, and they do not lift with them below parallel. We also will not tell you a lower region of the muscle can be trained separately, because that is not something we can stand behind.

How do I make hanging leg raises work my abs more?

Carry the movement above parallel and let your pelvis roll under so your hips travel toward your ribs. That curling is your abs shortening. Stopping at parallel keeps the exercise at the hip.

Should I bend my knees during hanging leg raises?

It is a legitimate way to make them easier. The bend shortens the lever so there is less weight to lift. Both versions are hip flexion, so bent knees are a lighter version of the same exercise rather than a different one.

Why does my grip fail before my abs?

Because you are hanging for the whole set while the working muscles only work in bursts. Straps or padded arm supports move the limit back to your hips, which is where you probably wanted it.

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Bodyweight · intermediate · waist

Hanging leg raises

Also called Hanging knee raise, Hanging straight leg raise, Hanging leg lift, Bar leg raise.

The short answer

Hanging leg raises hang you from a bar and lift your legs in front of you at the hip, with the knees either straight or bent. Ours are demonstrated with the knees drawn up toward the chest, which is the version most people start with. Lifting your legs at the hip is hip flexor work, so those are the muscles doing it. Your abs are loaded the whole time and they are not lifting anything: their job is to hold your pelvis still so your lower back does not arch while your hip flexors pull. That is why we file this under hip flexors when almost everyone else files it under abs.

How to do it

Step oneHang from a pull-up bar with a shoulder-width overhand grip and your arms fully extended.
Step twoEngage your core and raise your legs in front of you at the hip, either straight or with the knees bent to make the lift lighter.
Step threeContinue lifting until your thighs reach at least parallel to the floor, with your torso still hanging beneath the bar rather than curling up to meet them.
Step fourPause at the top, then slowly lower your legs back to the starting position.
Step fiveRepeat without swinging your body.

What usually goes wrong

Each starts with what you would notice.

You feel it mostly across the front of your hips.

WhyThat is the exercise working, not a fault. The muscle that lifts your thigh runs from your spine and the inside of your pelvis down to the top of your thigh bone. The abdominal muscle everyone is trying to feel here runs from your pubic bone up to your ribs, so it does not reach the hip joint and cannot lift your legs.

FixNothing, if hip flexors are what you came for. If you wanted the abs to be doing the lifting, the movement has to carry on past parallel until your pelvis rolls under and your hips come toward your ribs.

You swing back and forth and the legs go up on the forward swing.

WhyHanging free means a small push at the top of one rep becomes a pendulum, and the pendulum is doing part of the next lift.

FixStart each rep from a dead stop with your body still. Pull your shoulders down away from your ears at the bottom and hold that; the shoulders being loose is usually where the swing begins.

Your hands give out before your legs do.

WhyEvery rep is also a hang, so your grip is under continuous load for the whole set while the working muscles only work in bursts.

FixUse straps, or hang from padded arm supports if your gym has them, or do fewer reps per set and more sets. All three keep the exercise about your hips rather than your fingers.

Your lower back arches at the bottom as your legs come down.

WhyThe weight of your legs pulls the front of your pelvis down and the abs have stopped resisting it, so the arch appears at the point in the rep where you were relaxing.

FixKeep your ribs pulled down toward your hips all the way through the lowering, and stop the descent while you can still hold that. Legs that drop the last few inches are the part of the rep you gave away.

Straight legs or bent knees

Bending your knees shortens the lever between the hip and the weight of your legs, so there is less to lift and the exercise gets easier. That is the whole difference, and it is a good reason to use it.

What it does not do is change which muscles are working. A hanging knee raise is still hip flexion, produced by the same muscles. Bending the knee makes the hip flexor job smaller, not different.

If straight legs are out of reach, start bent and straighten them out over weeks. If your hamstrings are what stops your legs straightening rather than your strength, that is a range problem and forcing it will not solve it.

Stopping at parallel or going all the way to the bar

This is the comparison that decides what the exercise trains, and it is why the same-looking movement appears in two different sections of a training program.

Up to parallel, your thigh bones rotate at the hip and your pelvis does not move. Your abs hold. Above parallel, your legs cannot keep rising unless your pelvis rolls backward underneath you, and rolling the pelvis under is your abdominal muscle shortening. That is the moment it stops being a hip flexor exercise with the abs holding, and starts being an abdominal exercise.

So toes-to-bar and a leg raise to parallel are not the same exercise at two difficulty levels. If the abs are the target, the pelvis has to move. If it never moves, the exercise ends where the catalog steps end it.

Why we do not call this an abs exercise

Nearly every listing for this movement calls it a lower abs exercise. We looked at where the muscles attach, which is the part that settles it.

The rectus abdominis, the sheet of muscle down the front of your stomach, runs from the pubic bone at the bottom to the ribs and breastbone at the top. It stops there. The hip joint is below its lower attachment, so it cannot flex the hip, no matter how strongly you feel it during a set.

What you are feeling is real, and it is a different job. As the hip flexors pull your legs up, they also pull on the pelvis and the lower spine, and something has to stop your pelvis tipping forward and your back arching. That is the abs, working hard without shortening, exactly the way they work in a plank.

None of this makes the exercise less useful. It makes it a hip flexor exercise that also loads the abs isometrically, which is a fair description of a movement worth doing. It just is not the abdominal exercise it is sold as, and if abs are what you are after, there are movements where they actually do the lifting.

One more thing this will not do: nothing about it targets a lower region of the abdominal muscle separately from the rest of it, and no exercise decides what covers it.

What it is for

Hanging leg raises are a bodyweight core exercise targeting the hip flexors, which lift the legs, with the abs and lower back holding your position while they do. Hanging from a bar, you raise your legs in front of you with the knees straight or bent, and bending them shortens the lever so the same lift is lighter.

Questions people ask

What muscles do hanging leg raises work?: Your hip flexors lift the legs. Your abs work hard without shortening, holding the pelvis so your lower back stays where it is. Your grip and shoulders hold the hang. The lifting and the holding are both real work, and they belong to different muscles.
Why do I feel hanging leg raises in my hip flexors and not my abs?: Because that is where the work is. The abdominal muscle down the front of your stomach attaches at your pubic bone and does not reach the hip, so it cannot raise your leg. Lifting the thigh is the hip flexors doing what they are named for.
Are hanging leg raises good for lower abs?: They load the abs, isometrically, and they do not lift with them below parallel. We also will not tell you a lower region of the muscle can be trained separately, because that is not something we can stand behind.
How do I make hanging leg raises work my abs more?: Carry the movement above parallel and let your pelvis roll under so your hips travel toward your ribs. That curling is your abs shortening. Stopping at parallel keeps the exercise at the hip.
Should I bend my knees during hanging leg raises?: It is a legitimate way to make them easier. The bend shortens the lever so there is less weight to lift. Both versions are hip flexion, so bent knees are a lighter version of the same exercise rather than a different one.
Why does my grip fail before my abs?: Because you are hanging for the whole set while the working muscles only work in bursts. Straps or padded arm supports move the limit back to your hips, which is where you probably wanted it.