Muscles worked
Toes to bar is one of the hardest hanging ab exercises. Your hip flexors start the lift, and to reach the bar, the rectus abdominis has to round your lower back and curl your pelvis up. Your lats, the broad back muscles, press the bar down, tipping you back slightly to give your legs room. Your grip carries your whole bodyweight, and tight hamstrings make straight legs harder.
Common mistakes
- Your arms are just hooks. Hanging passively with your shoulders by your ears leaves your legs fighting alone. Press the bar down towards your hips with straight arms so your lats join in.
- Half reps are counted as whole ones. Counting near misses makes your sessions impossible to compare. Count a rep only when both feet touch the bar, and log the rest as hanging leg raises.
- You skip the earlier steps. Without strength in the easier hanging lifts, every rep becomes a struggle that ends in a swing. First manage around ten controlled hanging leg raises in a row.
Variations and alternatives
- Start with the hanging knee raise, which has bent knees and a shorter lever.
- The hanging leg raise comes just before, lifting straight legs to hip height.
- The dead hang strengthens your grip if your hands give out first.
- The V-up is a floor alternative when you have no bar.
Sets and reps
Train it in few, clean reps. Three to five sets of 3 to 8 reps, resting one to two minutes, suit most people who can do the exercise. If you can only manage one or two in a row, do many small sets instead of a few long ones. The sets and reps guide explains how to match sets to your goal.
Once you can do 8 clean reps in every set, lower your legs more slowly or pause for a second with your toes on the bar. That is progressive overload, even when the weight is your own. Chalk helps if your grip slips. Pain in your shoulders or lower back, as opposed to fatigue, means it is time to stop and have it looked at by a doctor or physiotherapist.