Captain's Chair Knee Raise
hip flexors
What moves the load, and what it costs
8.0MET
Hip flexors is the prime mover, with the abs assisting. Takes grip out of the equation, so the trunk is the only limiting factor. A good stepping stone to the hanging version.
Cue: Support the forearms on the pads, press the back into the pad, and curl the knees up towards the chest.
SOURCE·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·FILED UNDER CALISTHENICS, VIGOROUS·REVIEWED JUL 2026
SHARED AXIS · SEVEN VALUES FROM ONE TABLE · HIGHLIGHTED ROW IS THIS MOVEMENT
The compendium files captain's chair knee raise under a category, not a lift. Read the ladder as position, not precision: this is heavier work than sitting quietly by a factor of 8.0, and at the top end of what a gym floor produces.
Turning that MET value into a real energy cost
- Map the movement to a published category. The compendium measures categories of conditioning work, never individual lifts, so captain's chair knee raise is filed under Calisthenics (e.g. push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups), vigorous effort.
- Take the category's MET value — 8.0. One MET is the cost of sitting quietly, so this is 8.0 times resting metabolism.
- Multiply by 3.5 to get millilitres of oxygen per kilogram per minute, the unit the MET is actually defined in.
- Multiply by your bodyweight in kilograms and divide by 200. The result is kilocalories per minute of work.
- Count working minutes only. Under load, not under the roof — a set of eight is about 25 seconds of the hour you were there.
kcal/min = MET × 3.5 × body mass (kg) ÷ 200 Captain's Chair Knee Raise: 8.0 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200 = 9.80 kcal/min
SOURCE·ACSM metabolic equation + 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·REFERENCE BODY MASS 70 KG·REVIEWED JUL 2026
What is actually doing the work
| Muscle | Role | What it does here |
|---|---|---|
| Hip flexorsIliopsoas and rectus femoris | Prime mover | Lift the thigh towards the chest. They drive every leg raise and knee raise, which is why 'ab' exercises often feel like hip work. |
| AbsRectus abdominis | Synergist / stabiliser | Bends the trunk forward and, more usefully, resists it being extended backwards. Both a crunch and a plank load it — differently. |
The prime mover produces the movement against the resistance; synergists assist and stabilisers hold a joint still without moving it. An exercise trains the whole muscle it loads — there is no way to work only part of a muscle, and no exercise removes fat from the area around it.
Set up, then earn the rep
Machine. Every rep should look like the first one. The moment it stops looking like the first one, the set is finished.
PATTERN · BRACE
- Hang from a bar with the shoulders pulled down slightly rather than fully relaxed.
- Brace the trunk and stop any swinging before the first rep.
- Support the forearms on the pads, press the back into the pad, and curl the knees up towards the chest.
- Curl the pelvis up towards the ribs as the knees or legs rise — the pelvic tilt is what makes this an ab exercise rather than a hip flexor one.
- Raise to the target height, hold for a beat, and lower with control.
- Reset the swing between reps if you have to.
Where this one breaks down
Not theory. These are the faults you correct on a gym floor, and the correction that actually works.
Swinging through the set.
Momentum makes the number bigger and the exercise smaller. Pause at the bottom of every rep.
Lifting the legs without tilting the pelvis.
Without the posterior pelvic tilt this is a hip flexor exercise. Think about curling the tailbone up.
Reaching for straight-leg raises too early.
Bent knees first, then straight legs, then held to the bar.
Regress it, or progress it
Regress — earn it first
Nothing on this site regresses it further: this is already near the entry point of its pattern. Take load off, shorten the range, or slow the tempo — in that order.
Prescription: load, reps, rest
Read off the goal, then hold the technique constant as the load climbs. Derived from the movement's mechanics, not invented for this page: a single-joint movement does its best work in moderate to high reps — very low reps load the joint before the muscle.
| Goal | Sets | Reps | Rest | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strength | 3–4 | 6–10 | 2 min | Single-joint work responds poorly to very low reps — the joint gets the load before the muscle does. |
| Muscle size | 3–4 | 10–15 | 60–90 sec | This is where isolation work earns its place: cheap volume for one muscle, little systemic fatigue. |
| Endurance / fat loss | 2–3 | 15–25 | 30–45 sec | High reps here are genuinely useful — the load is small enough that form survives the fatigue. |
| First month | 2 | 12–15 | 60 sec | Light. Isolation work is for adding volume later, not for building a base. |
Time under load, in kilocalories
Read these as minutes of work, not minutes in the building. A set of eight takes about twenty-five seconds; the rest of the hour is rest, chalk and queueing.
Mapped category: Calisthenics (e.g. push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups), vigorous effort — 8.0 MET. That is the published category this movement is filed under, not a measurement of this specific lift.
Worked at 8.0 MET × 3.5 × 70 kg ÷ 200 = 9.80 kcal per working minute for a 70 kg adult. Scale it by your own bodyweight; the equation is linear. The full activity dataset lives at BurnLab.
SOURCE·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·CATEGORY VALUE, NOT A PER-EXERCISE MEASUREMENT·REVIEWED JUL 2026
If the rack is taken
Substitutes train the same prime mover through the same pattern with different kit. Computed from the muscle and pattern data on this card, not hand-picked to fill a grid.
Nothing at all to hand: Lying Leg Raise is the closest match — same prime mover, same pattern, no kit.
Where it sits in a week
One movement is not a programme. The twelve templates put these in order, including 6 that need no gym at all.
The questions that come up on the floor
What muscles does the captain's chair knee raise work?
Captain's Chair Knee Raise is a single-joint isolation movement in which the hip flexors is the prime mover, assisted by the abs. Lift the thigh towards the chest. They drive every leg raise and knee raise, which is why 'ab' exercises often feel like hip work.
Is the captain's chair knee raise good for beginners?
Yes. It rates 2 out of 5 for technical difficulty on this site — learnable in a session or two; low injury cost if it goes wrong. Start with the lightest sensible load and two or three sets of 12–15.
What can I do instead of the captain's chair knee raise at home?
The closest no-equipment substitute is the lying leg raise, which trains the same prime mover through the same movement pattern. It will not load you as heavily, so use higher reps and slower tempo to make up the difference.
How many sets and reps of the captain's chair knee raise should I do?
For muscle size, 3–4 sets of 10–15 with 60–90 sec rest. For strength, 3–4 sets of 6–10 with 2 min rest. In your first month, 2 sets of 12–15, stopping well short of failure. Total weekly hard sets per muscle group matters more than the exact rep number in any of these ranges.
Does the captain's chair knee raise burn fat from the hip flexors?
No. No exercise removes fat from the area it trains — spot reduction has been tested repeatedly and does not happen. Training the hip flexors builds the muscle underneath; where body fat is lost from is decided by an overall calorie deficit and by your genetics, not by which exercise you chose.
Muscle roles follow standard kinesiology references and are described by joint action rather than by gym convention — see how this site is built. Energy figures are derived from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. Every reference is named and dated on the sources page. General information only — not medical or coaching advice. Load, form and progression should be adjusted to your own experience and any injury history. When in doubt, get coached in person.
SOURCE·Published exercise references·MUSCLE ROLES ASSIGNED BY JOINT ACTION·REVIEWED JUL 2026
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