Chin Up with Leg Raise: Video Guide & Form Tips

Video: chin up with leg raise

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Chin Up with Leg Raise Overview

The chin up with leg raise is a hard bodyweight move. You hang from a pull-up bar with an underhand grip. You pull your body up. At the top you raise your legs toward your chest. Then you lower them and come back down. It works your lats, the big wing muscles on your back. Your biceps, abs, and hip flexors all help a lot. This move mixes a pull and an ab crunch. It builds a strong back and a strong core at once. It is an advanced move. You need to pull your own body weight well first. The chin up with leg raise fits on a pull or upper body day. Do it when you are fresh and strong.

What Is The Point of the Chin Up with Leg Raise?

The chin up with leg raise exercise builds upper body pulling strength while hitting your core hard. It's a killer combo move that targets multiple muscle groups at once.

How To Do The Chin Up with Leg Raise

  1. Reach up and grab a pull-up bar with an underhand grip, hands about shoulder-width apart. The underhand grip brings your biceps in strongly alongside your lats.
  2. Hang from the bar with your arms straight, core braced, and legs together. Set your shoulder blades down and back so you start from active tension, not a dead hang.
  3. Take a breath and begin the chin-up by driving your elbows down toward your ribs and pulling your chest up to the bar. Lead with your back, not just your arms.
  4. Pull until your chin clears the bar and your chest is close to it, squeezing your lats and biceps hard at the top. Keep your body controlled rather than swinging.
  5. Hold that top position for a beat with your chin over the bar. This is where you will add the leg raise.
  6. Keeping your core tight, raise your straight legs up toward your chest while holding the top of the chin-up. This blends a hard lat and biceps contraction with an intense ab challenge.
  7. Squeeze your abs at the top of the leg raise, then lower your legs back down under control while maintaining the chin-up hold. Do not let your legs drop and swing.
  8. Once your legs are back down, lower yourself from the chin-up slowly on a 2 to 3 second tempo until your arms are straight again. Control the whole descent.
  9. Reset at the bottom hang and repeat. This is an advanced move, so aim for 5 to 8 quality reps for 3 to 4 sets, and stop while your form is still clean.

Chin Up with Leg Raise Form Tips

  1. Start from a full hang. Let your arms straighten each rep.
  2. Pull with your elbows, not just your arms. Drive them down.
  3. Bring your chin over the bar. This is a full pull.
  4. Raise your legs with your abs, not a swing. Lift them slow.
  5. Keep your core tight the whole time. This stops swinging.
  6. Lower your legs and body slowly. Control beats speed.
  7. Keep your shoulders pulled down. Do not shrug them up.
  8. Breathe out as you pull up. Breathe in as you lower.
  9. Keep your grip firm the whole set. Hold the bar tight.

Common Mistakes to Avoid for the Chin Up with Leg Raise

  1. Swinging and kipping to get up. Using a hip swing to fling yourself to the bar robs your lats and biceps of the work and puts your shoulders at risk. Start from a controlled hang and pull with your back and arms, keeping your body still.
  2. Dropping and swinging the legs on the leg raise. Letting your legs fall and swing uses momentum and can wrench your lower back and shoulders. Raise and lower your legs slowly with your core in control the whole time.
  3. Not clearing the bar on the chin-up. Cutting the pull short and never getting your chin over the bar shortchanges the range and the lat and biceps contraction. Pull all the way up until your chin clears before you add the leg raise.
  4. Losing your core brace between the two movements. If you relax your abs, the combined chin-up and leg raise falls apart and your lower back takes the strain. Keep a hard brace from the first pull through the last leg lower.
  5. Rushing the descent. Dropping fast from the top wastes the eccentric, which builds a huge amount of back and arm strength. Control a 2 to 3 second lowering on both your legs and your body.
  6. Shrugging the shoulders up to the ears. Letting your traps take over strains your neck and takes work off your lats. Keep your shoulder blades pulled down and back throughout the pull.
  7. Bending the legs to cheat the raise. Tucking your knees instead of keeping your legs straight makes the ab portion much easier and misses the point. Keep your legs as straight as you can manage for the full challenge.
  8. Attempting this before you own strict chin-ups. Stacking a leg raise onto a chin-up you cannot yet do strictly leads to sloppy, risky reps. Build solid strict chin-ups and hanging leg raises separately first.
  9. Holding your breath the whole rep. With such a demanding combined movement, locking your breath can leave you lightheaded and weak. Breathe in a rhythm, exhaling on the hardest parts of the pull and raise.
  10. Letting the elbows drift forward at the top. If your elbows come forward instead of driving down, you lose your strong pulling position. Keep driving your elbows down and back toward your ribs.
  11. Grinding out ugly reps past failure. Pushing sloppy reps on an advanced move invites injury for little benefit. Stop the set while your form is still clean and leave a rep in the tank.

Chin Up with Leg Raise Workout Tips

  1. Earn this move before you attempt it. Make sure you own strict chin-ups and strict hanging leg raises on their own, because this combines two demanding skills into one advanced rep.
  2. Drive your elbows down toward your ribs. That cue turns on your lats and makes the chin-up a back movement, not just an arm curl on a bar.
  3. Keep a rock-hard core from start to finish. The brace links the chin-up and the leg raise together and protects your lower back through the whole rep.
  4. Keep your legs as straight as you can on the raise. Straight legs make the ab challenge far greater than a tucked knee raise and build serious core strength.
  5. Use a controlled 2 to 3 second descent. Owning the lowering on both your legs and your body builds strength and keeps you from swinging.
  6. Chase the mind-muscle connection in your lats. Thinking about pulling with your back rather than your biceps helps you build a wider, stronger upper body.
  7. Program this on a pull or upper body day when you are fresh. Advanced combined moves need your full energy, so do them early rather than at the end.
  8. Keep reps low and clean, around 5 to 8. Quality beats quantity here, so stop while every rep still looks sharp.
  9. Set your shoulder blades down and back before pulling. Starting from active tension protects your shoulders and gives you a stronger pull.
  10. Progress from strict chin-ups plus separate leg raises first. Building each piece to strength makes combining them safe and effective.
  11. Add reps or a slower tempo before adding weight. Given how hard this already is, mastering more clean bodyweight reps is the smart progression.
  12. Breathe in a steady rhythm. Exhaling through the hardest parts keeps you braced and helps you avoid getting lightheaded.
  13. Do not train to failure on this. Because it is advanced and demanding, leaving a rep or two in the tank keeps your form and your joints safe.
  14. Film your sets from the side. The camera reveals swinging, bent legs, or an incomplete chin-up far better than the lift feels in the moment.
  15. Use it to build serious core and back strength together. Few moves hit the lats, biceps, and abs this hard in one rep, which makes it a great advanced test.
  16. Be patient with the skill. This is an advanced move, so steady practice over months is what turns it from a struggle into a strength.

Train Lats With Your AI Trainer

  1. Go to the iOS App Store and search "GetFit AI: AI Fitness Trainer" or tap the button below to do the chin up with leg raise exercise on the app
  2. Download the app πŸ“²
  3. Complete the quiz to build a custom AI workout plan πŸ€–
  4. Choose a trainer or build a custom plan targeting your lats πŸ’ͺ
  5. Stay consistent, chat with your AI trainer anytime, and compete with friends to stay motivated πŸ†

Weight & 1 Rep Max Calculator for the Chin Up with Leg Raise Exercise

Average Chin Up with Leg Raise standards by male, female, weight, age and height

Use this calculator to estimate a smart starting weight and one rep max for the Chin Up with Leg Raise. Treat it as your starting line. Your GetFit AI trainer fine-tunes the exact weights as you train.

Enter your stats to calculate your Reps & Weight
How is this calculated?

Estimates start from a percentage of your body weight for this movement pattern and equipment, adjusted for gender, age, and height. One rep max is projected from the 8-rep weight using the Epley formula. Every lifter is different, so use these as a conservative starting point, not a target.

Beginner8 reps 45 lbs
1 Rep Max55 lbs
Intermediate8 reps 55 lbs
1 Rep Max70 lbs
Advanced8 reps 70 lbs
1 Rep Max90 lbs

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