Pull Up Bar Exercises for Abs – Introduction
What are the best pull-up bar exercises for abs?
Many fitness enthusiasts, experts, and even beginners think that you don’t need much abs training if you do plenty of heavy squats and deadlifts.
I’m not one of them!
A study by the Department of Sports Science and Physical Education at Nord University, Norway, demonstrated that while squats, deadlifts, and other compound barbell exercises engage your abs, the contractions are pretty weak.¹
In most cases, your lower back is far more active than the muscles of your anterior core.
So, if you want to develop a strong, toned midsection, you need to include direct abs training in your workouts.
The problem with direct abs training is that for floor exercises especially, there is very little resistance to overcome.
That’s why many people end up doing dozens of reps to fatigue their abs – this is a colossal waste of time.
After all, you wouldn’t do 50 reps of deadlifts to fatigue your posterior chain, and yet that’s precisely the approach a lot of people use when they train their abs.
Cable machine abs exercises are a great way to intensify your core workouts, but that’s probably impractical if you work out at home.
The good news is that you can use your pull-up bar or power tower to overload your abs.
Lifting your legs is a whole lot more challenging than lifting your upper body.
This article reveals the best pull-up bar exercises for abs and provides you with a sample workout to try.
The 10 Best Pull Up Bar Exercises for Abs
Use the following exercises to develop more powerful, more robust abs.
Be warned; some of these moves are TOUGH!
We’ve listed them in approximate order of difficulty, so start at the top of the list and work down.
Note: The best way to perform all of these exercises is by using a slow, controlled movement. In contrast, if you swing your legs up, you’ll take tension off the target muscles.
While this will allow you to do more reps, it means your workout won’t be as effective.
So, no leg swinging, please!
#1. Hanging single-leg knee raise
Target muscle: Rectus abdominis, hip flexors
If you’ve never done abs exercises from a pull-up bar before, this is an excellent place to start.
Lifting one leg at a time means you don’t have too much resistance with which to deal.
Expect to feel this exercise around and below your belly button, as well as the front of your hips.
How to do it:
- Hold your bar with an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip, and hang with your legs straight.
- Brace your abs.
- Bend one leg and pull your knee up so it’s level with your hips or slightly above.
- Lower your leg back down and repeat on the opposite side.
- Alternate your legs for the required number of reps.
- Increase oblique (waist) activation by twisting your hips slightly as you raise your knees.
#2. Hanging knee raises
Target muscle: Rectus abdominis, hip flexors
If you found move #1 pretty easy, this is the following exercise to try.
As before, you’ll feel this in your lower abdomen and the front of your hips.
- Hold your bar with an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip, and hang with your legs straight.
- Brace your abs.
- Bend both legs and lift your knees until they are level with your hips or slightly above.
- Maximize abs engagement by tipping the bottom of your pelvis forward.
- Lower your legs and repeat.
#3. Hanging straight leg raises
Target muscle: Rectus abdominis, hip flexors
Keeping your legs straight increases lever length to put more stress on your abs.
On the downside, it also increases hip flexor engagement.
These muscles are attached to your lumbar spine, and if you fail to brace your abs, that could lead to back pain.
You’ll also need good hamstring flexibility to do this exercise correctly.
- Hold your bar with an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip, and hang with your legs straight. Brace your abs.
- Keeping your legs straight, raise them until they are roughly parallel to the floor.
- Lower your legs and repeat.
- Make this exercise even harder by wearing ankle weights.
#4. L pull-ups/chin-ups
Target muscle: Rectus abdominis, hip flexors, latissimus dorsi, biceps
Want to train your abs and upper body simultaneously?
Then this is the exercise for you!
It’s not easy but, if you can do this exercise, it’s transformative!
It also looks pretty cool, and Bruce Lee used them, a massive endorsement in my book.
How to do it:
- Hold your bar with an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip (pull-ups) or an underhand, narrower grip (chin-ups), and hang with your legs straight.
- Brace your abs.
- Keeping your legs straight, raise your legs, so they’re parallel to the floor.
- Bend your arms and pull your chin up and over your bar.
- Descend under control and repeat.
- Keep your legs up or lower and raise them between pull-ups/chin-ups as preferred.
- You can also try the neutral grip pull-up variation that falls someplace between pull-ups and chin-ups in terms of difficulty. It is also easier on your elbows than chin-ups.
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#5. L hang
Target muscle: Rectus abdominis, hip flexors
This exercise works your abs in the same way as #4, but without challenging your lats and biceps.
It’s an isometric exercise which means there is no movement.
However, this is still a demanding abs exercise.
- Hold your bar with an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip, and hang with your legs straight.
- Brace your abs.
- Keeping your legs straight, raise your legs, so they’re parallel to the floor.
- Hold your legs up for the specified time or as long as you can.
#6. Hanging up and overs
Target muscle: Rectus abdominis, obliques, hip flexors
Hanging up and overs is an excellent pull-up bar exercise because it’s all but cheat-proof.
You can’t just guess that you are lifting your legs high enough; you must raise them up and over an obstacle, and that will keep you honest!
- Place something like a tall chair in front of your pull-up bar.
- Hold your bar with an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip, and hang with your legs straight.
- Brace your abs.
- Keeping your legs straight, lift your legs up and over your obstacle and then lower them again.
- Repeat by moving your legs in the opposite direction.
- Continue for the desired number of reps.
#7. Around the world
Target muscle: Rectus abdominis, obliques, hip flexors
With this exercise, you work all of your abs muscles simultaneously, making it very time efficient.
Be warned; this around the world exercise is incredibly demanding, so don’t be surprised if you can’t do many reps.
How to do it:
- Hold your bar with an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip, and hang with your legs straight.
- Brace your abs.
- Keeping your legs straight, lift your legs and draw a large circle with your feet. Raise your legs as high as you can.
- Lower your legs and then repeat in the opposite direction.
- Continue for the desired number of reps.
#8. Toes to bar
Target muscle: Rectus abdominis, hip flexors
Also known as a hanging pike, toes to bar is a more intense version of hanging leg raises.
It’s a CrossFit staple, and you KNOW just how fit and powerful those folks are!
How to do it:
- Hold your bar with an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip, and hang with your legs straight.
- Brace your abs.
- Keep your knees straight, flex your hips, and lift your legs until your toes touch your bar.
- You may need to lean back and pull with your arms to achieve this.
- Lower your legs under control and repeat.
#9. Hanging windshield wipers
Target muscle: Rectus abdominis, obliques, hip flexors
Hanging windshield wipers are a brutal abs and obliques exercise, so don’t feel bad if you can’t do a single rep!
The good news is you can do floor windshield wipers to develop the strength necessary to do this super challenging exercise.
How to do it:
- Hold your bar with an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip, and hang with your legs straight.
- Brace your abs.
- Keep your legs straight, flex your hips, and lift your legs until your toes touch your bar.
- Maintaining this piked position, lower your legs down to the left as far as you can.
- Bring your legs back to the center and repeat on the opposite side.
- Continue alternating sides for the duration of your set.
#10. Inverted sit-ups
Target muscle: Rectus abdominis, hip flexors
Your final exercise is a test of both abdominal strength and bravery.
It may not be possible with some types of pull-up bars.
If you have any doubts about this exercise, give it a miss, as the risk of falling on your head far outweighs the benefits!
How to do it:
- Grip your pull-up bar and swing your legs up and between your arms.
- Hook the backs of your legs over your pull-up bar.
- Release your hands and hang upside down from your legs.
- Brace your abs.
- Flex your spine and curl your shoulders toward your hips.
- Return to the inverted position and repeat.
- On your final rep, reach up, grab the bar, unhook your legs, and lower your feet back to the floor.
Pull-up bar Abs Workout
While you could add a few of these exercises to your workouts, you’ll get better results if you follow a more structured approach.
For this workout, you’re going to combine pull-up bar abs exercises with some simple cardio.
I’ve called this approach CAT which is short for Cardio Abs Training.
Why – because the fitness industry loves acronyms!
Feel free to replace any of the exercises with a less demanding alternative.
For example, if you can’t do toes to bar, you could do V-sits on the floor instead, which is the same movement but considerably more manageable.
Use your common sense and minimize your risk of injury.
Before starting, warm up by doing a few minutes of light cardio, such as jogging or jump rope.
Next, do some dynamic mobility and stretching exercises for your major muscles and joints.
Pull Up Bar Exercises for Abs Fit Apprentice Workout
AMRAP stands for as many reps as possible. Just keep going until you are unable to do any more reps with good form.
Pull Up Bar Exercises for Abs – Wrapping Up
Most pull-up bar abs exercises are far harder than floor-based abs exercises.
They involve large ranges of motion, and your legs are heavier than your upper body.
If you are bored of doing high rep sets of crunches and sit-ups, it’s time to progress onto hanging abs exercises.
But, on the downside, all of these exercises require a firm grip.
You may even find that your hands fail before your abs.
One way around this is to use lifting straps to reinforce your grip.
Alternatively, you can also do some of these exercises using a captain’s chair, which supports your weight on your elbows.
Most power towers have a captain’s chair.
So, if you are ready to take your abs training to a new level, it’s time to graduate to pull-up bar abs exercises.
They’re not easy, but that’s precisely why they work!
Related Posts:
- The 7 Best Power Towers for Your Home Gym in 2023 + Workout
- 10 Amazing Benefits of Pull-Ups + How-To and Muscles Worked
- Chin-Ups vs. Pull-Ups; Which Is Better To Build Muscle?
- Neutral Grip Pull-Ups; Most Important Muscles Worked and Benefits
- The 10 Best Calisthenics Exercises for Beginners + Workout
Footnotes:
¹ Comparison of Core Muscle Activation between a Prone Bridge and 6-RM Back Squats
Rich is a NASM-CPT (Certified Personal Trainer),