High Knee Skip
Also known as: a skip, a-skip
- Primary muscleCardio
- EquipmentBodyweight
- DifficultyBeginner
- TypeCardio · Locomotion
- Secondary muscles
- Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings, Calves, Abs
- Body part
- Cardio
- Position
- Seated
- Laterality
- Bilateral (both sides together)
- Category
- Cardio
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Known to sprinters as the A-skip, this drill pairs a hop off one foot with an opposite-arm knee drive, teaching the stiff-ankle, tall-posture rhythm that carries over to running. It fits best before speed or lower body work rather than inside a strength session; two or three trips of 15 to 20 meters is a full dose.
How to do the High Knee Skip
- Stand tall with feet hip-width, arms bent about 90°, core braced, and eyes forward.
- Push through the ball of your left foot to hop as you drive your right knee to hip height and swing the left arm forward/right arm back.
- Land softly on your left forefoot with a slight bend in the ankle, knee, and hip; keep your torso upright.
- Step onto your right foot and immediately hop, driving the left knee up with an opposite arm swing.
- Maintain quick, light ground contacts, knees tracking over toes, and dorsiflex the airborne foot.
- Alternate sides continuously for time or distance while breathing steadily and avoiding excessive forward lean.
Tip: Work in timed rounds of 20 to 40 seconds and rest at least as long as you worked.
Muscles worked
Primary
Cardio · Cardio
Rope work, skips and shuffles push the heart rate up quickly, so use them for interval conditioning with timed rounds.
Secondary
- Glutes
- Quads
- Hamstrings
- Calves
- Abs — The abs brace the trunk throughout, and on hanging or high knee variations they should feel tight through the whole set.
Common mistakes
- Rushing the reps — whatever the movement, move at a speed you could stop at any point; if you cannot, you are using momentum rather than muscle.
- Cutting the range short — take each rep through the full range the joint allows, since half reps train half the movement.
- Holding the breath — breathe out on the effort and in on the return, and never let a whole set go by on one breath.
- Training without a purpose — pick the movement for a purpose, whether that is conditioning, skill or a warm-up, and train it that way.
Where it fits in a workout
Movements like these go at the end of a session as conditioning or in the warm-up to raise the heart rate. Alternate a timed round of ropes or shuffles with a bodyweight movement like push-ups for a simple circuit.
How many sets, how heavy and how hard: see what the ACSM position stands support.
Variations and alternatives
When to talk to someone
- Chest discomfort, feeling faint or lightheaded, or trouble breathing during or after exercise can be signs of a heart attack. In the US, call 911 right away; elsewhere, call your local emergency number.
- Heart, metabolic or kidney disease, or symptoms like these when you are active: talk to your doctor before you start or step up training.
- Pregnant: ask your obstetric care provider which exercise suits you.
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More exercises
Sources
- ACSM position stand on exercise quantity and quality (Garber et al., 2011)
- ACSM preparticipation health screening (Riebe et al., 2015)
- ACOG Committee Opinion No. 804 on exercise in pregnancy (2020)
- CDC: About Heart Attack Symptoms, Risk, and Recovery (2024)
Sources checked on October 17, 2026. Full citations are in the exercise library.
Animation and exercise data: ExerciseDB, licensed to SetGrip. General information, not medical or coaching advice.