The Hanging Knee Raise is a classic abdominal exercise...you just hang from a bar then raise your knees up in front of you. Very simple, right?

When you delve into the exercise a bit more, there are two major tips you need to know in order to really get the most out of the exercise.

First, when doing the exercise, DO NOT try to bend at the hips.

What that looks like is having a straight up and down back while the knees just come straight up, staying close to your body.

This is not what we're looking for.

The things is, hip flexion is going to happen naturally during the exercise...you don't want to actively set out with that as a major goal. You want to instead focus on FLEXING the lumbar/lower back spine, bring your knees up and AWAY from your body.

Spinal flexion is the major goal of this exercise, not hip flexion. The hip flexion will happen with spinal flexion, but spinal flexion won't happen naturally if you just do hip flexion.

The second tip is this...when you're starting the exercise, instead of focusing on just raising your knees up (and flexing the spine), I want you to also try to force your elbows forward and down to meet your knees.

You won't be able to, obviously...it's just the INTENTION of doing it that's important. This will more strongly activate the muscles of the core by putting greater tension on from the top-down, while you're putting tension on from the bottom up, while doing the knee raise.

Here's what it looks like.

Start from a dead hang...arms a bit outside shoulder width apart.

Now bring the knees up and in front, focusing on bending at the middle of the body rather than the hips.

At this point, I'm also trying to fold my UPPER body down and towards my knees. The elbows will come forward a bit. This is the key activation point and the cue you want to rememer...pushing the elbows forward to meet the knees.

Come all the way up until you shins hit the bar. I like this for a full contraction, though it is optional if you can't make it all the way like this. As long as your focus is on bringing those elbows forward to meet the knees, you'll hit the sweet spot.

Lower your legs back down under control then repeat.

Don't take a big backswing at the bottom...start from a dead stop, under control.

You'll find this puts a LOT more tension on the abs in general, especially on the upper aspect of the core, in addition to the lower abdominals...you'll even find you get some lat work out of this, too!

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Now, if you're interested in even MORE killer abdominal training like this, I've got a program recommendation for you.

It's from my friend and collegaue Andrew Raposo...an ab-training program called "Fighter Abs."

Andrew is a nationally-ranked Muay Thai fighter and he's spent countless hours training his abs to absorb punishment.

Now he's packaged up all that knowledge and put together a series of workouts that cut that training time to MINUTES a day.

You can learn more about his program here...

I like this program so much that to help sweeten the deal, when you pick up a copy of his program, I'm going to give you a FREE copy of my own book "The Best Combat Athlete Exercises You've Never Heard Of" to go with it.

FREE Bonus

When you purchase (make sure you use a link in this email to qualify), just forward your receipt to support@fitstep.com and we'll hook you up with a download of it (including demo videos for all the exercises).

This book not only covers abs, it covers exercises that will improve punching, kicking, grappling, explosive power...the whole deal....incredibly effective stuff.

And it's yours FREE when you get Figher Abs though any link in this email.

Go check it out now...