What is a Hanging Knee Raise

A hanging knee raise is a core exercise that works mostly on the lower portion of your abdominals. You hang from a pull-up bar and raise your knees toward your chest to do a hanging knee raise. This exercise also works your hip flexors, grip strength, and other stabilizing muscles in your upper body.

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How-to Do Hanging Knee Raise

Hang from a pull-up bar with a slightly wider than shoulder-width overhand grip.
Tense your abs, keep your knees bent, then raise your legs by flexing your hips and knees until your knees are above your hips. Briefly hold.
Slowly lower your legs until your hips and knees are fully extended.

Muscle Worked

Primary Muscle Groups

Abs

"Abs" refers to your abdominal muscles, which sit at the front of your trunk between your ribcage and pelvis

Secondary Muscle Groups

Adductors

The adductors are the muscles on the insides of your thighs that move your legs toward the midline of your body

Hip Flexors

The hip flexors flex your leg at the hip joint, helping you to extend your legs forward.

Forearms

The forearms help you grip objects and move your hands, wrists and fingers

Lats

Your latissimus dorsi, also called the "lats," help you to move your arms and keep your shoulders stable.

Obliques

The obliques help you twist your trunk and support your core and spine.

Pro Tips

Posterior Pelvic Tilt at the Top: After you lift your knees, finish the movement with a slight posterior pelvic tilt (tucking your tailbone under). This helps your lower abs take over more work rather than over-relying on your hip flexors. Focus on curling your pelvis slightly upward as you lift your knees. Making this small adjustment allows your abs to contract more effectively.
Use Your Shoulders: Don’t passively hang from the bar. Try actively engaging your shoulders, pulling them slightly down and back (scapular depression). This gives you a stable base to stop you from swinging. It also protects your shoulder joints. Using your shoulder strength also lets you focus more on your core and less on holding your grip.
Lat Leverage: Activating your lats. These muscles (formally called latissimus dorsi) are the large, winglike muscles that sit across your back. Your lats help keep you stable and stop you from swinging too much. To do this, think about trying to "bend the bar" in your hands as you hang. Using this cue helps activate your lats for better form and body positioning.

Equipments

Pull-Up Bar

The pull-up bar lets you perform suspended workouts hanging in the air, including pull-ups, chin-ups or muscle-ups.

Hanging Knee Raise Benefits

Stronger Grip: Hanging from the bar during this exercise challenges your grip. Over time, this will strengthen your forearms and the small muscles in your hands. Good grip strength carries over to your performance in pull day workout exercises like pull-ups or deadlifts.
Hip Flexor Mobility: Repeatedly lifting your knees up, hinging from your hips helps you get more mobile and stronger hip flexors. On most people, the hip flexors are a tight, weak muscle group, since we spend too long sitting.
Strengthens Stabilizing Muscles: The need to control your body while hanging activates stabilizing muscles in your shoulders, back, and core. This improves overall body coordination and reduces the risk of injuries during other exercises or daily activities.

Warm Up & Cool Down

Warm Up

Dead Hangs: Dead hang from a pull-up bar for 20–30 seconds to get your grip and shoulders ready for the action of your hanging knee raise. This also stretches your spine and mobilizes your shoulders.
Scapular Pull-Ups: Pull your shoulder blades in and down from a dead hang while lifting your chest up. Keep your arms straight. Your body should rise slightly towards the bar. This preps your shoulders for supporting your weight in a hanging knee raise.
Leg Swings: Stand on one leg, then swing the other leg back and forth and side to side across your body to get a warm-up for your hip flexors and hamstrings.

Cool Down

Dead Hang- After your workout, return to your bar and hang passively for another 20–30 seconds. Making this a passive hang rather than activating your shoulders helps to decompress your spine. For most people, it feels relaxing to swing in space as a wind-down from your leg raise. It also lets your abs stretch out.
Seated Forward Fold- Sit down, stick your legs out in front of you, and reach towards your toes to stretch your hamstrings, lower back, and hips.
Cobra Stretch Lie down on your stomach with your legs straight out. Plant your hands by the sides of your ribs and push up and out of your body to lift your torso off the ground. Hold this position for 15–20 seconds to stretch out your abs and shoulders.

What is a Hanging Knee Raise

How-to Do Hanging Knee Raise