Toes to Bar
Toes to Bar is an advanced gymnastic core exercise that involves hanging from a pull-up bar and lifting your legs until your feet make contact with the bar. This movement develops significant abdominal strength, hip mobility, and grip endurance.
Toes to Bar performance is highly sensitive to your current body weight and systemic fatigue. Because the AI tracks your body weight alongside your recovery metrics (like sleep and HRV), it can accurately gauge the true intensity of this movement for you on any given day. If your grip strength recovery is low from a previous pull day, or if your readiness score is down, the app may suggest regressing to Hanging Knee Raises to maintain core stimulus without risking shoulder injury or form breakdown.
Form Cues
- Start in a dead hang with active shoulders pulled down away from ears
- Press down on the bar with straight arms to engage your lats
- Squeeze your legs together and point your toes
- Roll your hips upward as you lift your legs to touch the bar
- Control the descent to prevent swinging
- Don't let your shoulders shrug up near your ears
- Don't use excessive momentum or swinging to get your legs up
- Don't hyperextend your lower back at the bottom of the movement
- Don't bend your knees unless you are intentionally modifying
- Don't drop your legs quickly; resist gravity on the way down
Common Mistakes
- Swinging the body uncontrollably
- Disengaging the shoulders (passive hang)
- Bending knees to shorten the lever
- Arching the back excessively on the return
- Relying entirely on hip flexors instead of abs
Muscles Worked
This exercise is a powerhouse for the rectus abdominis, specifically targeting the lower region, while requiring intense engagement from the hip flexors to close the gap between the legs and torso. The lats, serratus anterior, and forearms act as critical secondary muscles, working isometrically to stabilize the upper body and compress the frame during the lift.
Primary
Secondary
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