Legs · Bodyweight
Jumping Jack High Knee
How to do the jumping jack high knee, the muscles it works, and the mistakes to avoid. Pulled straight from the Kovo app's exercise library.
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Logged as
- time
- Movement
- Flexion
- Mechanic
- Compound
How to do it
Start standing with feet together. Jump your feet out and swing your arms overhead like a jumping jack, then on the return drive one knee up toward your chest. Alternate the driving knee each rep, staying light on the balls of your feet and keeping a steady rhythm.
- 1A quick, springy bounce through your calves and ankles
- 2Your hip flexors snapping each knee up high
- 3Your heart rate climbing with the steady pace
Common mistakes
- Landing hard and flat-footed
- Letting your shoulders hunch as your arms swing up
- Slowing down so much the rhythm breaks
Muscles worked
The jumping jack high knee mainly works the hip flexors and calves, with the quads, lower abs, obliques, glutes, hamstrings, side delts, adductors, and tibialis anterior assisting.
- Hip FlexorsPrimary
- CalvesPrimary
- QuadsSupport
- Lower AbsSupport
- ObliquesSupport
- GlutesSupport
- HamstringsSupport
- Side DeltsSupport
- AdductorsSupport
- Tibialis AnteriorSupport
- Lower BackMinor
- Upper TrapsMinor
- Upper AbsMinor
- Front DeltsMinor
Kovo programs the jumping jack high knee for you and tracks it every session.
We build your whole program, drop the right lifts into each workout, and adjust your weights as you get stronger. Free on iOS and Android.
More hips & adductors exercises
- How to do the butterfly stretch
- How to do the external rotation
- How to do the cable hip adduction
- How to do the internal rotation
- How to do the cobra pose
- How to do the core scrunch
Last reviewed June 2026.