Bent-Knee Hip Raise

Execution

1. Bend your hips and knees to about a 75-degree angle and lift your feet a few centimeters off the floor.
2. Exhale and use your lower abs to draw your knees in toward your chest, keeping that same bend in the knees.
3. As your knees near your chest, curl your pelvis so your hips lift a few centimeters off the mat, and squeeze the lower abs for one beat.
4. Inhale, lower your hips back to the mat one vertebra at a time, then return the knees to the start under control without your feet touching down.
5. As the knees move away, keep your lower back flat on the mat instead of letting it arch.

Quick cues

• Curl the pelvis, small hip lift.
• Pull with the lower abs, not momentum.
• Feet don't touch down between reps.
• Keep the knee angle constant.

Common faults

• Fault: Swinging the legs to build momentum for the pull

  Fix: Slow down and actively pull with the lower abs instead of swinging.

• Fault: Pushing hard through the hands to shove the hips up

  Fix: Let your palms rest lightly on the mat and lift the hips only as high as your abs can curl them.

• Fault: Letting the feet rest on the floor between reps

  Fix: Keep the feet hovering off the floor for the whole set so the abs stay under tension.

• Fault: Changing the knee angle or straightening the legs partway through

  Fix: Hold the same knee angle from the first rep to the last.