(hip-hop music)
- What's up THENX athletes, it's Chris Heria,
welcome to another video of OFFICIALTHENX.
Today I'm gonna be showing you how to do a toes to bar.
(electronic music)
Now toes to bar is a fundamental to building core strength
and it's an exercise that I use all the time.
Mastering the toes to bar without momentum
and with perfect form will build a super strong core
and directly benefit and transfer to other skills
like the pullover, front lever, back lever and many more.
The most common reasons for not being able to do
toes to bars is due to having weak abdominals,
hip flexors and lats and if you can't lock out your knees
you're definitely gonna wanna work
on hamstring flexibility as well.
This exercise also requires strength in your biceps
and your forearms as well but it's most likely
not the reason why you can't do this move.
Doing a toes to bar is exactly how it sounds,
you wanna bring your toes to the bar,
but the way you do it is what matters.
From an active dead hang with a strong grip
you wanna point your toes,
engage your core and lock out your legs,
then raise them using your hip flexors and abs.
By engaging your lats and your core,
continue to raise your legs past an L-sit position
until your feet meet your hands at the top of the bar
before descending your legs back down
in a slow and controlled manner.
Now for today I designed a workout to build
the strength required to be able to do a toes to bar.
So if you're one of those that's had trouble
with this exercise in the past, try this workout,
finally master the toes to bar
and take your training and body to the next level.
So for today's routine I have seven exercises
all from a hanging position,
so find a pull-up bar or something to hang on,
and to get this routine and properly follow along with me
make sure you've downloaded the THENX app
from the App Store or Google Play Store.
If you haven't already,
open up to the YouTube workout section,
find this routine and let's get started.
For most of the exercises we'll be going for 10 reps,
but if you're just getting started and getting familiar
with these moves you can always work on them individually
and master each progression until you move on
to the harder progression and finally reach the goal,
toes to bar, and the best way to do that would be to choose
one of the exercises from today that challenged you
and do a couple reps as perfect as you can
every minute, on the minute, for at least 15 minutes
or until you feel like you've mastered this move
and you're ready to move on to a progression
that feels a bit more challenging.
But if you can do all the exercises as a workout routine
like we're gonna do today, this is gonna build your strength
to be able to do toes to bar with multiple reps,
perfect form without momentum.
So with that said, let's start with the first exercise
that's the easiest progression to get started,
scapula shrugs, let's go for 10.
(hip-hop music)
♪ Heria Music ♪
All right, so there we have the scapula shrugs
and the reason why we do scapula shrugs,
this is gonna have you master your active dead hang.
It's the same thing you do to set up for your toes to bar.
As soon as you're hanging with a strong grip,
the first thing you wanna do is engage your scapulars,
with your hands shoulder-width apart,
retracting your scapulars back.
This is gonna make sure that you're stabilized
when you're doing any type of hanging exercise.
This is also gonna warm up your shoulders
for all the other hanging exercises to come.
And once we've mastered the active dead hang
is when we start to learn how to move our lower body.
That's what the next exercise we have coming up,
hanging knee raises, let's go for 10.
Always start with a strong grip
and always start with your scapulars activated
in an active dead hang position.
Now from here you wanna point your toes,
engage your core and lock out your legs.
Now we're gonna raise our knees to a 90 degree angle
using just our core and our hip flexors.
(hip-hop music)
If you're swinging, you're not gripping hard enough
or your scapulars aren't activated.
(hip-hop music)
All right, so there we have hanging knee raises.
The first exercise that requires you to lift
your lower body while hanging.
Moving on to the next exercise
we have the hanging tuck L-sit, which is an isometrics hold.
We're gonna hold the top on the knee raise position
for 20 seconds, let's go for it.
Strong grip, engage your scapulars,
bring the knees up, hold.
Breathe in through your nose (inhales softly),
out through your mouth (exhales forcefully).
(exhales forcefully)
(hip-hop music)
♪ Heria Music ♪
(exhales forcefully)
All right, so there we have the hanging tuck L-sit hold.
This exercise is gonna directly build your endurance
and strength due to it's time under tension.
Normally when we're doing reps we don't hold
the most demanding position for that long,
but when you're using an isometrics hold
the most engaged part of the exercise is prolonged
forcing you to contract a lot harder
for a longer period of time building a lot more strength.
Now we're gonna make it a little harder
with the next exercise.
We're gonna go for high knee raises, let's go for 10.
These are just like the knee raises
except you're gonna bring your knees to your chest.
So same setup, strong grip, scapulars activated,
point your toes, engage your core, straighten your legs,
bring your knees all the way to your chest,
back down.
(upbeat music)
Remember, if your form's on point
there should be no swinging.
(upbeat music)
♪ Heria Music ♪
All right, so there we have the hanging high knee raises
and that's to build your core strength
to bring your lower body even higher.
You're gonna need to do exactly that every time
you go for a toes to bar, but being in a tucked position,
it's gonna be easier to bring up your lower body
as your legs are closer to your center
than when you're doing an actual toes to bar,
requiring less weight and resistance for your core to lift.
And once you've mastered this exercise
you wanna master the next progression we have
in this workout, that's gonna be hanging leg raises.
We're gonna go for 10.
You wanna keep your legs as straight as possible.
You're gonna bring them up into an L-sit position
then back down.
(hip-hop music)
Point the toes.
(hip-hop music)
♪ Heria Music ♪
All right, so there we have leg raises.
If you can't do these or you're having trouble
with the leg raises, all the other previous progressions
will build your strength to be able to do them,
that's the whole point of this routine.
Each progression helps you to achieve
the next harder exercise,
and with the hanging leg raises we're finally
introducing raising our legs with our knees locked out
and if you're able to do that you're already half way
to the toes to bar.
Moving on to the next exercise I have for you,
we're gonna solidify this position
with the hanging L-sit hold.
We're gonna hold this for 20 seconds, let's go for it.
(hip-hop music)
(exhales) Remember to breathe.
(inhales) In through your nose,
(exhales) out through your mouth.
(hip-hop music)
All right, so there we have the hanging L-sit hold
and this is the progression to the hanging tuck L-sit.
This one's a lot more difficult
because your knees are locked
and your legs are straight out,
carrying and maintaining the weight further from you
but it's exactly what's needed to be able to do
a toes to bar, and remember,
holding this position for time and mastering it
is not only gonna give you insane core strength,
but it's gonna allow you to be comfortable with any exercise
that requires you to use this position.
Now when doing this exercise, if you find you had
the strength to hold but you just can't lock out your legs
you have to work on your hamstring flexibility,
possibly your hip flexor flexibility as well.
Try working on touching your toes from sitting on the floor
with your knees locked out
or from standing up against the wall.
Now moving on to the last exercise we have tuck toes to bar.
If you can do all the other previous exercises
and you're able to do this one then you should definitely
be able to do a toes to bar.
Let's go for 10 reps.
(hip-hop music)
You wanna bring all the way up till your toes touch
and then come back down.
So you bring all the way up like your high knee raise
and then you're gonna lean back with your lats,
allow your feet to touch, come back down.
Lats, lean back with your core.
(hip-hop music)
If you notice I'm looking up, that helps a lot as well
as you lean back to bring your toes to the bar.
(hip-hop music)
And there we had the last progression for the workout,
tucked toes to bar.
Not only does it require a lot of core strength,
but it's the same movement path that you take
when you're doing a toes to bar.
Once you can do this progression for a couple reps
you'll be able to do at least one perfect toes to bar.
Then all you'll need to do is train that one perfect
toes to bar every minute, on the minute,
until it becomes two in a row.
Then do two in a row every minute, on the minute
and slowly work up your repetitions using that technique.
So congratulations for following along.
If you were able to complete the routine
then you're definitely building your strength
to be able to do a toes to bar.
Let's go for a couple reps.
(hip-hop music)
♪ Heria Music ♪
All right, there we have the toes to bar.
Thank you guys so much for watching.
If you enjoyed the video definitely smash that like button.
Leave a comment down below, let me know what you want
me to show you next and share this video with a friend
that's trying to build some solid core strength.
And don't forget to get this routine on your phone,
as well as full access to all our workout programs,
become a member at thenx.com.
Get full access to all our workout programs,
technique guides and daily workouts
that are gonna have you shredded.
Download the THENX app in the App Store
to take our workouts with you everywhere
and join the millions of other THENX athletes
around the world getting in the best shape
of their lives today.
And of course, if you haven't already,
subscribe right now, we post every single Sunday,
8:00 p.m. USA Eastern Time
and if you comment within the first 30 minutes
you always have a chance to win some free THENX gear
and for more of my content during the week
make sure you're subscribed to my vlog channel,
that's youtube.com/chrisheria.
I post every Thursday at 2:00 p.m.
and make sure you're following me on Instagram,
that's @chrisheria.
Almost every single post I always do some type of giveaway
so if you want a chance to be a part of that
make sure you're following me.
And for everyone enjoying the music,
make sure you're following me on soundcloud.com/chrisheria.
That's where I drop all my latest tracks.
You can also find my music on Apple Music,
Spotify and all other music platforms.
With that said, I'll see you guys next Sunday,
mad love, peace out.
(hip-hop music)
♪ Heria Music ♪