Kettlebell Figure 8

Muscles worked

The prime movers are the rectus abdominis and the obliques, which flex the trunk forward and resist it being pulled into extension or twisted out of line.

Other muscle groups are involved too: the hamstrings assist hip extension and slow the knee down; the deltoids stabilise the shoulder and add force at the top of the range.

Every exercise for:AbdominalsHamstringsShoulders

How this movement works

Force comes toward the body — you draw a limb, or your own bodyweight, in against whatever resists it. What changes between sessions is how far into the position you can get and hold, not how much is loading it.

It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.

What you need

A kettlebell's mass hangs below and outside the handle, so it pulls away from the grip and the wrist has to stay packed. That offset is why racked and swinging variations feel nothing like the dumbbell version.

Every exercise using:Kettlebell

These train the abdominals too, using equipment this one does not:

• Kneeling Cable Crunch With Alternating Oblique Twistscable
• Landmine 180'sbarbell
• Leg Pull-Inbody only
• Medicine Ball Full Twistmedicine ball
• Side Bend with Dumbbelldumbbell

Difficulty

Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.

Of the 97 abdominals exercises in this database, 17 are listed at intermediate level.