maratoolHanging Pike
How to do the hanging pike
- Hang from a chin-up bar with your legs and feet together using an overhand grip (palms facing away from you) that is slightly wider than shoulder width. Tip: You may use wrist wraps in order to facilitate holding on to the bar.
- Now bend your knees at a 90 degree angle and bring the upper legs forward so that the calves are perpendicular to the floor while the thighs remain parallel to it. This will be your starting position.
- Pull your legs up as you exhale until you almost touch your shins with the bar above you. Tip: Try to straighten your legs as much as possible while at the top.
- Lower your legs as slowly as possible until you reach the starting position. Tip: Avoid swinging and using momentum at all times.
- Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the rectus abdominis and the obliques, which flex the trunk forward and resist it being pulled into extension or twisted out of line.
Every exercise for:Abdominals
How this movement works
The load travels toward you and several joints bend to bring it there. The arms finish work the back starts, so grip and elbow flexors sit in the path of every repetition: when people stall on a compound pull, it is more often the hands giving out than the primary muscle running out of force.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
No equipment at all. The resistance is your own bodyweight, so you progress by changing leverage, range or tempo rather than by adding plates — and you can do it anywhere.
Every exercise using:Body only
These train the abdominals too, using equipment this one does not:
- Kettlebell Figure 8kettlebell
- Kneeling Cable Crunch With Alternating Oblique Twistscable
- Landmine 180'sbarbell
- Medicine Ball Full Twistmedicine ball
- Side Bend with Dumbbelldumbbell
Difficulty
Listed at expert level. It asks for range, stability or speed that takes time to build, and it punishes a rushed set-up much harder than an easier movement would.
Of the 97 abdominals exercises in this database, 5 are listed at expert level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.