Hanging Knee Raise
Hanging from a pull-up bar, you raise your knees toward your chest and curl your pelvis up at the top, training your lower abs while your grip holds you.
- Primary muscles
- Lower abs
- Secondary
- Abs, Obliques
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Logged as
- Reps
Loads from YouTube only when you press play. The video is by an independent creator.
Why do it
This is the easier version of the hanging leg raise and a good first hanging ab exercise for anyone who can hang from a bar for a while. Bent knees shorten the lever, so you can focus on curling your pelvis up rather than just lifting your legs. Compared with the captain's chair, there's no back pad to lean on, so you have to control the swing yourself and your grip gets some work too. When controlled sets feel easy, move to straight legs.
How to do it
Hang from a pull-up bar with an overhand grip, hands about shoulder-width apart.
Pull your shoulder blades down and stop any swinging before you start.
Raise your knees toward your chest, curling your pelvis up at the top rather than just lifting your thighs.
Lower them slowly under control. This is the easier version of the hanging leg raise, so move to straight legs once the knees version gets easy.
Common mistakes
Swinging to get the knees up
Using a kick or a body swing turns the rep into momentum. Pull your shoulder blades down, stop the swing before each rep and lower slowly.
Stopping at hip height
Lifting your thighs to parallel and stopping is mostly hip flexor work. Keep going until your pelvis tucks and your knees come up toward your chest.
Hanging loose from your shoulders
Sinking with your shoulders up by your ears makes the body sway more. Pull your shoulder blades down slightly so you hang actively and stay steadier.
Sets, reps and progression
How many sets you do and how close to failure you take them depend on your goal and your week, not on the exercise. These guides cover it:
Alternatives that train the same thing
Same movement, a different angle or piece of equipment.
