How to Do Toes to Bar

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methods

1Strict Toes-to-Bar

2Kipping Toes-to-Bar

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The toes-to-bar exercise is a great way to work your abdominal muscles and build your core strength, as well as your lats. A strict toes-to-bar can be more difficult to complete and requires you to keep your legs and arms straight throughout the entire process. Most people prefer a kipping toes-to-bar, a more dynamic variant of this exercise that allows you to build momentum and complete more repetitions in a shorter period of time.

Steps

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Strict Toes-to-Bar

1. 
   1
   Grab a pull-up bar with an overhand grip. Place your hands on the bar so that they are just slightly wider than shoulder width apart. Make sure your fingers and thumbs wrap around the bar for a secure grip.

   • Use a bar that’s high enough so that you can hang from it with your arms and legs completely straight and your feet off the floor.
   • If your hands line up too precisely with your feet, you may accidentally kick your hands during the toes-to-bar, weakening your grip as a result. Keep your hands wider than shoulder width apart to help prevent this.
   • Another reason for keeping your grip at or beyond shoulder width is to minimize the distance you'll need to swing during the toes-to-bar. Keeping your hands close together will cause your body to extend further down, increasing the distance your legs will need to travel and making the exercise more difficult.
2. 
   2
   Tighten the muscles in your abs and core. Keep your back straight as you hang from the bar. Squeeze your abdominal muscles and the muscles in your buttocks. Your body should be flexible, but fairly rigid.

   • Keep your legs straight and your feet just barely in front of your torso. Point your toes straight down.
   • If your core muscles aren't tight, you'll end up relying on your arms to support your torso and lift your legs, making the exercise nearly impossible to complete.
3. 
   3
   Lift your legs up toward the bar. Lean back a little while lifting both legs simultaneously straight forward and up. Continue lifting in a slow, controlled motion until your toes touch the bar between your hands. As you lift, squeeze the muscles in your glutes, thighs, legs, and even your toes.

   • Swing your legs at the hip. Let your hips do the majority of the work, and keep your shoulders as still as possible.
   • Keep your arms and legs completely straight during a strict toes-to-bar. Ideally, your motions should involve very little swinging. However, do use your back muscles to “pull down” on the bar through your arms. This will help you raise your legs more easily.
   • If your legs do not swing up together, your coordination will be thrown off and you won't be able to complete the motion effectively.
   • As your lips come up, your torso might be parallel to the ground.
4. 
   4
   Drop your legs down in a slow, controlled motion. Gradually ease your legs back down into their resting position, keeping your motion smooth and deliberate. Don’t drop your legs down too quickly, since doing so can cause your body to swing and may upset your balance or hurt your back. It will also disrupt your momentum.

   • Make sure your arms and legs stay straight as you swing your legs down. Keep your legs together and your toes pointed down.
   • Push your body forward slightly as you drop your legs, the opposite of how you leaned back slightly when you raised them.
5. 
   5
   Do as many reps as you like. Pause and rest for about 5 seconds in between each repetition. Once you’re finished with a set, rest for 2-3 minutes before starting another set.

   • When you're first learning the exercise, it’s a good idea to work in small sets (e.g., 4-6 reps). Doing so allows you to perfect your form and avoid developing bad habits.
   • Strict toes-to-bar are difficult to cycle through quickly. Attempting to rush through them can wear you out and may cause muscle injury, so take your time and work at a comfortable pace.
   • Strict toes-to-bar exercises also demand a significant amount of flexibility in the hips and hamstrings, making them more difficult for many people to complete. You can improve your hip flexibility with exercises and stretches such as glute bridges and hip rotations.
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Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Kipping Toes-to-Bar

1. 
   1
   Reach up and grab the bar with an overhand grip. Grab the bar with both hands, keeping your hands shoulder-width apart or just beyond shoulder width apart. Wrap your fingers and thumbs securely around the bar.

   • Make sure that your hands aren't perfectly aligned with your feet. If they are, you may end up weakening your grip by kicking your hands on the upswing.
   • If your hands are too close together, you will drop your body further down and increase the distance your legs need to travel during the exercise. This will make it harder to complete.
2. 
   2
   Straighten out and engage your core. Tighten the muscles in your abdomen and buttocks. Keep your back straight and lean your body back slightly, pulling down on the bar through your back and arms. Bend your body slightly into a hollow curve, with your torso angled back and your arms and legs angled forward.

   • Point your toes downward and position your feet slightly in front of your torso.
   • Imagine yourself lying on the ground, face-up, with your hands and feet lifted off the floor and the small of your back pressed to the ground. That is the posture you will need to mimic while hanging from the bar.
   • Your core muscles must be engaged and tight. Your arms alone will not be enough to support your body as you attempt to kip and swing your legs up.
3. 
   3
   Swing your hips back and your upper torso forward. Use your shoulder muscles to start swinging your torso. Allow your shoulders and upper body to swing forward, while your legs swing back at the hips, creating an arch in your back. Essentially, you're shifting the hollow from the front of your body to the back.

   • Imagine yourself lying on the ground again. This time, you would be face-down with your hands and feet lifted off the floor and your stomach pressed to the ground. Your hips and shoulders would also be stretched behind your torso. This is the posture you will need to swing into while hanging from the bar.
   • As you swing your legs back, try to get your hips behind the bar instead of keeping them beneath it. Doing so will help you build more momentum while decreasing the angle you will eventually need to lift from.
   • Move both your legs simultaneously throughout the entire process. If you don't, your coordination and rhythm will be thrown off, making the exercise almost impossible to complete.
4. 
   4
   Build up momentum by swinging forward and back. Alternate back and forth between the forward hollow and backward arch. This movement is called "kipping," and you are using it to create a controlled swing.

   • A controlled swing creates momentum, and this momentum will make it easier to swing your toes toward the bar.
   • If you don't feel like you have any control during your kips, you are likely using your legs to swing instead of your shoulders. Focus on moving your chest back and forth during each swing.
5. 
   5
   Lift your legs until your knees meet your elbows. On the backward swing of your kip, begin lifting your legs by swinging your hips forward. Bend your knees slightly and bring your legs up until they’re level with your elbows.

   • Press down on the bar with your hands and follow the motion of your body to draw your legs upward.
   • Your hips must be as far back behind the bar as possible as you begin lifting your legs. By swinging your legs up while you're at the top of your kip, you minimize the distance between your shoulder and the bar, which reduces the distance your feet will need to travel to reach the bar.
   • Alternatively, you can keep your legs straight the entire time. If you choose to keep your legs extended, skip bringing your knees to your elbows and swing straight up to touch the bar with your toes.
6. 
   6
   Kick your legs up to touch the bar with your toes. From the bent knees-to-elbow position, extend your legs out straight until your toes hit the bar. Use a kicking or flicking motion to make your feet touch the bar, but keep the movement carefully controlled so you don’t hurt yourself.

   • Make sure both legs extend out simultaneously during this step.
7. 
   7
   Drop your legs straight down in a controlled movement. As soon as your momentum no longer moves you toward the bar, begin your descent. To drop down, you need to extend your legs down in a controlled motion that is even with the vertical posts of the bar. Carefully straighten your knees as your legs descend.

   • Do not kick your legs out. Doing so will waste energy and disrupt the rhythm of the kip.
   • A good way to prevent yourself from accidental injury is to essentially reverse the motion of your toes-to-bar. Tuck your legs in toward your chest before pulling them back down into their previous position.
8. 
   8
   Repeat the exercise as many times as desired. Continue kipping, and use the momentum to complete each consecutive toes-to-bar. You may wish to stick to just a few reps at first (e.g., 4-6 per set) until you master the correct form and movement. Rest a few minutes between sets before starting again.

   • It is much easier to complete more repetitions at a faster pace with the kipping toes-to-bar than the strict toes-to-bar.
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Expert Q&A

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• Question

  How do you progress with toes to bar?

  

  Yvonne Mo
  Personal Trainer

  Yvonne Mo is a Personal Trainer. With more than 21 years of fitness industry and martial arts experience, she specializes in combining and teaching eastern and western fitness and health modalities, which include Tai Chi, sports acupuncture, Chinese medicine, and fire cupping. Yvonne received her Personal Trainer Certifications through both the National Strength and Conditioning Association and the American College of Sports Medicine.

  

  Yvonne Mo

  Personal Trainer

  Expert Answer

  Even though having strong abs is essential, you do need to make sure that you also have strong lats, because we all think that toes to bar is only abs as when it's not. It's very much a lats workout too.

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• Question

  Why can't I do toes to bar?

  

  Yvonne Mo
  Personal Trainer

  Yvonne Mo is a Personal Trainer. With more than 21 years of fitness industry and martial arts experience, she specializes in combining and teaching eastern and western fitness and health modalities, which include Tai Chi, sports acupuncture, Chinese medicine, and fire cupping. Yvonne received her Personal Trainer Certifications through both the National Strength and Conditioning Association and the American College of Sports Medicine.

  

  Yvonne Mo

  Personal Trainer

  Expert Answer

  Remember that abs strength and flexibility isn't everything, as you need strength to actually pull your hips higher. So, that's probably what's missing.

  Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
  Thank you for your feedback.
  If How.com.vn has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission.Support How.com.vn

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Tips

• You need to have good grip strength to successfully complete the toes-to-bar. Test and improve your grip strength by simply hanging straight down from the bar for at least 30 seconds before starting the exercise.
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• Your grip may loosen in the middle of your workout. If this happens, wait until your legs point downward again, then let go of the bar. Pause for a few moments to reset. You can then grab the bar again and continue the exercise as before.
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