How to Do
How to Do Hanging Crunches Leg Lifts
The hanging crunches leg lifts should begin with good posture to avoid injury. Brace the spine by drawing your lower abdomen inward. Your core muscles should be activated to support your posture as you perform the exercise.
If any pain is experienced, immediately stop the hanging crunches leg lifts.
Beginning
Beginning Hanging Crunches
A high bar that you can hold from a height over your head is required. It must be solid and capable of supporting your entire body weight, as well as the pressures imposed by raising and lowering your legs.
Movement
Hanging Crunches Movement
1. Grasp a bar that is higher than your head. You don't have to necessarily be hanging at this stage, but ideally, the grip does have to be well above your head. To improve stability, use an overhand grip with your thumb wrapped around the bar.
2. Slightly tilt your pelvis rearward. Raise your legs outward in front of you, maintaining them straight, to engage your abdominals and hip flexors and lift your feet off the ground. Exhale as you lift your legs. As you do this, notice how hard your abdominal muscles are working.
3. Raise your legs as high as you can while maintaining proper form. Raising them parallel to the ground (hips bent 90 degrees) or slightly higher is the goal.
4. Inhale as you slowly drop your legs back to vertical. Even at the bottom of the movement, keep the posterior pelvic tilt.
5. In a set, do 10 repetitions or as many as you can. Make a total of 30 repetitions.
Benefits
Hanging Crunches Benefits
The leg lift is a strength-training exercise that focuses on the iliopsoas muscle group (the anterior hip flexors). Leg lifts are commonly used to strengthen the rectus abdominis muscle, as well as the internal and external oblique muscles, because the abdominal muscles are used isometrically to stabilize the body throughout the exercise.
Exercise Aliases
Hanging Knee Raises, Hanging Knee Leg Raise, Hanging Leg Crunches.
