maratoolKettlebell Pirate Ships
How to do the kettlebell pirate ships
- With a wide stance, hold a kettlebell with both hands. Allow it to hang at waist level with your arms extended. This will be your starting position.
- Initiate the movement by turning to one side, swinging the kettlebell to head height. Briefly pause at the top of the motion.
- Allow the bell to drop as you rotate to the opposite side, again raising the kettlebell to head height.
- Repeat for the desired amount of repetitions.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the deltoids, which raise and rotate the upper arm at the shoulder joint.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the abdominals brace the trunk so force can pass between the hips and the shoulders.
Every exercise for:ShouldersAbdominals
How this movement works
The working muscles shorten as they drive the load away from you, and more than one joint changes angle to do it. Load spreads down a chain instead of sitting on one muscle, which is why a compound push handles more weight than any single-joint alternative — and why joint position, not the muscle, is usually what fails first.
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 shoulders too, using equipment this one does not:
- Landmine Linear Jammerbarbell
- Lateral Dumbbell Raisesdumbbell
- Lateral Raise - With Bandsband
- Leverage Shoulder Pressmachine
- Low Pulley Row To Neckcable
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 141 shoulders exercises in this database, 74 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.