Hanging Pike
Trains the Abs.
- Equipment
- A pull-up bar
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Advanced
How to do it
- Hang from a pull-up bar with an overhand grip and your shoulders set down away from your ears.
- Let the body settle so there is no swing.
- Keeping the legs straight, raise them in front of you.
- Continue past horizontal by curling the pelvis up toward your ribs, until the feet approach the bar.
- Lower under control all the way to a straight hang.
- Let the swing settle before the next repetition rather than using it.
Common mistakes
- Stopping at horizontal. Up to that point the movement is hip flexion driven by the iliopsoas; the abdominal work is the part above parallel where the pelvis curls, and that is the half this exercise exists for.
- Kipping the legs up. A swing does most of the lifting and it does it at the hips; a still hang at the bottom of each repetition is what makes it honest.
- Attempting it before a hanging leg raise is controlled. Feet-to-bar with straight legs is a long lever through a full range, and there is a progression between the two rather than a gap.
- Letting the grip decide the set length. If the hands go before the trunk does, straps make the exercise about the trunk again — which is the muscle it was chosen for.