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How to Train for Rotation

by — Last updated: 2015-08-25 in Workout & Exercises

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Lifting things front and back, or up and down, is pretty familiar. But unless you're bent press devotee, most of us don't do much rotation work. Nothing like enough, in fact. Yet what we actually do, in sport and life, is rotation-heavy. Let's fix that.

Rotation Mobility

We’ll start with passive mobility before moving on to active mobility drills. Using a mixture of both approaches will usually result in the best gains in mobility and strength.

Passive rotation mobility: Lie on the floor with your glutes, shoulder blades and head in contact with the floor, heels on the floor and knees bent. Turn your knees together over to one side as far as they will comfortably go, return them to the start position and repeat on the other side. To make this more effective, try extending the top leg and extending both arms flat to the floor.

Active rotation mobility: Stand with your arms at shoulder height, elbows bent, and turn as far as you can in one direction,then the other.Try to prevent your lower back from “hollowing” — you want to be as upright as possible the whole time. Don’t try to force it, just try to go a little further each time.

Rotation Strength

Woodchoppers: One of the best techniques for this is cable woodchoppers. You’ll usually half-kneel to do these. Start side-on to the cable machine and grasp the handle in both hands., then keep a tall back as you turn through a diagonal chopping movement. This is moderately high-rep movement — sets of 15 to 25 aren’t uncommon - but once you get used to it you can shift some serious weight too. The downside is it tends to take the glutes out of the movement.

Diagonal clean: Start with a kettlebell or dumbbell outside your left foot in a hip-width stance. Grasp it in your right hand and clean it to your right shoulder, turning to your right as you do it. Start light: this one requires some skill!

Functional Rotation

Finally, what about some rotational training that’s directly oriented to what you do? Well, assuming you don’t chop down trees, this is probably closest to it. One of the most important roles rotation plays in our actual activities is in running, which requires us to rotate quickly from side to side.

So here’s a drill that comes to you, as to me, courtesy of Baltimore’s Nick Tumminello.

Set up in a hip-width stance with your knees slightly bent and your arms held out in front of you with the palms together. The objective is to turn only as far out as the line of your own shoulder so this is way easier with a training partner. Get them to stand opposite you with their hands shoulder width and level with yours.

Now, rotate quickly from one of the their hands to the other.You’re trying to quickly, not hard, so don't try to hit their hands, just go between them as fast as you can. Make sure your hips don't move! This is a core rotation exercise. And don’t let your arms do the work: keep them straight and move only from the core.

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If that’s too easy try doing the same drill without touching your partner's hands!

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