Hanging Knee Raise

Once planks are easy, this is the next step: your abs flexing your spine under load, plus free grip work from the hang. It also scales for years — knee raise, then straight legs, then toes to bar.

Tips

• Hang from a bar with straight arms and pull your shoulders slightly down — don't dangle loose in the sockets.
• The rep starts with a pelvic tuck: roll your hips up and back, then bring the knees toward your chest.
• Higher than 90° is where the abs really work — aim knees toward the elbows over time.
• Lower with full control back to a hollow hang. No swinging into the next rep.
• Too hard? Do lying leg raises or knee tucks on a bench first. Grip gives out early? That's normal — it catches up.

Common Mistakes

• Swinging — kipping the legs up with momentum trains nothing but your patience. Dead stop between reps.
• No pelvic tuck — lifting the knees without rolling the hips makes it a hip-flexor exercise, not an ab exercise. The tuck is the ab work.
• Stopping at 90° — the abs barely start working until the knees pass hip height.
• Arching the lower back on the way down — control the negative into a slight hollow instead of letting the legs drop.