I got this question over on the ‘gram:
Any good exercise to gain strength for back knee grip?
I thought it’d be a good opportunity to try out a more casual Q&A video style! Annnnd, just in case it’s helpful for anyone else out there (and because I’m old school and refuse to let blogs die) I’ve summarised my answer here in blog-format too. Thorough AF!
Wanna strengthen your behind the knee grip? Here’s my thoughts!
First up, here’s my short video reply to the question:
Here’s the quick written summary…
Biomechanically speaking, our hamstrings are the main muscle group working to secure the ‘behind the knee’ grip point.

So, if you want to be super specific about your approach to this… exercises like hamstring curls (especially variations where we pause and hold the end point of the curl for timed intervals) can be useful if you feel like you need a strength boost for your knee grips!
I’d also recommend combining those off the pole strength exercises with ‘on the pole’ progressions where you can get accustomed to the leg grip on the pole without fully loading it. Again, timed holds work well for these kinds of progressions!

BUT! There’s always a but! Although taking a really trick-specific approach like this is definitely useful for really honing-in on individual skills, you’ll miss out on SO MUCH long term if you skim over the more general mobility and strength work that will help build more well-rounded lower body strength and resiliency for pole!
If you want to know more about specific AND general exercise programming for pole, check out my book Strength and Conditioning for Pole!
I might do more casual vids and ‘quickie’ blogs like this if you find them useful, so lemme know if you want to see more like this! And don’t forget to send me your pole strength and conditioning questions!