Hanging Knee Raise
The hanging knee raise is a bar-hanging core exercise: from a dead hang you draw your bent knees up towards your chest and curl your pelvis up towards your ribs. It works the abdominals and hip flexors with a shorter lever than the straight-leg hanging leg raise, which makes it the usual starting point for hanging core work.
Also called: Hanging Knee Raises, Knee Raise, Hanging Knee Tuck, Knee Raises · Equipment: bodyweight · Pattern: push
Step by step
- Take an overhand grip on a pull-up bar about shoulder-width apart and hang with straight arms. Draw your shoulders slightly down, away from your ears.
- Let your legs hang together below you. Brace your trunk and press down on the bar with straight arms to still any swing before the first rep.
- Start the rep by tilting your pelvis backwards, as if tucking your tailbone under, and begin drawing your knees up.
- Keep the knees bent at about 90° and bring them up past hip height towards your chest.
- At the top, curl your pelvis up towards your ribs so your low back rounds slightly, and breathe out.
- Bring your legs back down slowly to a still dead hang, keeping your ribs down so your low back does not arch at the bottom.
- Settle any swing before the next rep. After the last rep, put your feet down on the floor or a box before letting go.
- Curl your pelvis up, then bring the knees with it
- Hang still at the bottom of every rep
- Knees past hip height, towards your chest
- Press the bar down with straight arms
- Breathe out and curl at the top
In VALDA, these cues are one tap away on the exercise while you train.
What it trains
| Muscle | Role | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Rectus abdominis: lower | Prime mover | C |
| Hip flexors | Prime mover | B |
| Rectus abdominis: upper | Secondary | C |
| Obliques (internal/external) | Secondary | C |
| Forearm flexors | Stabiliser | D |
| Transverse abdominis | Stabiliser | C |
Evidence grades: A = strong research base · B = good · C = limited · D = coaching consensus.
What goes wrong, and the fix
Swinging into each rep
Fix: Settle to a still hang each rep and press the bar down to steady the body.
Knees rising without a pelvic curl
Fix: Tilt the pelvis back first and finish each rep by curling it towards your ribs.
Finishing at hip height
Fix: Bring your knees up past hip height towards your chest on every rep.
Low back arching at the bottom
Fix: Keep your ribs down and hold a slight backward pelvic tilt in the hang.
Dropping the legs fast
Fix: Bring the legs down slowly and under control to a still hang.
What the research says
General fitness · first choiceMuscle growthSport performanceEndurance
- Reps and progression — Research finds muscle growth is similar across a wide range of rep counts when sets are taken close to failure, and that adding reps builds muscle about as well as adding load. A common progression is adding strict reps, then moving to the straight-leg hanging leg raise.
- Effort — Studies show growth rises as sets get closer to failure, with only a small extra return from reaching true failure.
- Volume and frequency — Research links more weekly hard sets for a muscle to more growth, with diminishing returns. Training a muscle about twice a week is a common way to spread that volume.
- Evidence gap — There is no direct research on programming the hanging knee raise. These notes come from limb-muscle studies, and comparisons with other hanging raises rest on muscle-activation (EMG) data, not growth outcomes.
Swap it mid-workout
- Hanging Leg Raise
- Lying Leg Raise
- Roman Chair Leg Raise
- Toes to Bar
- Bent Knee Reverse Crunch
- Bicycle Crunch
With VALDA Pro, FLEX offers alternatives like these when you swap an exercise mid-workout.
Log the hanging knee raise in VALDA, with these cues one tap away while you train and your history for it in one place.
General information about exercise technique, not medical advice. If you have an injury or a health condition, your healthcare provider is the right person to ask.