Exercise of the Week (EOW): Landmine Rotation
Rotation is a skill. Almost nobody trains it.
Throwing, swinging, reaching behind you in the car — life rotates. But walk into most gyms and every core exercise goes straight forward and back: crunches, planks, sit-ups. The muscles that turn your trunk barely get an invitation.
The full kneeling landmine rotation fixes that. One end of a barbell anchored in a corner, you on both knees, guiding the free end in a wide arc from one side to the other. Your obliques, hips, and shoulders learn to work as one rotating unit — the exact pattern behind a powerful golf swing, a tennis forehand, or just moving like an athlete in daily life.
WHY IT MATTERS
Kneeling is the secret. With your legs taken out of the equation, there's nowhere to hide — no pushing through the feet, no swaying the hips to cheat the turn. Every degree of rotation has to come from your trunk, which is exactly what makes this one of the cleanest ways to build real rotational strength.
And it's spine-friendly by design: the arc of the bar keeps the load close and controlled, so you train rotation under resistance without the twisting-under-load risk that makes people nervous about Russian twists with weight.
THE EXERCISE: THE FULL KNEELING LANDMINE ROTATION
1. Set up on both knees facing the anchored bar, holding the free end at chest height. Tall chest, core braced — think proud posture, not a crunch position.
2. Keep your arms long and guide the bar in a wide arc down toward one hip. The arms are levers here, not the engine — they stay straight while your trunk does the turning.
3. Rotate through the hips and trunk together — shoulders, ribs, and hips turning as one unit. Pause a beat at the end of the arc.
4. Control the bar back to center and repeat to the other side. That's one rep per side — 6 to 8 per side, 2 to 3 sets, once or twice a week.
THE ONE MISTAKE EVERYONE MAKES
Bending the arms and pressing the bar instead of rotating it. The moment your elbows bend, your chest and shoulders take over and your trunk goes along for the ride — which defeats the whole exercise. Arms stay long, like you're steering a wheel. If you can't keep them straight, the load is too heavy.
COME TRY IT WITH US
Reply to the newsletter or stop by the gym and we'll coach you through it in person — or book a free movement screen and we'll build your program around how you actually move.
SOURCES
Allen CR et al. The Landmine Rotation. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 2025;47(1):109–113.
Read the full paper: https://doi.org/10.1519/SSC.0000000000000845
