Kettlebell · beginner · shoulders
Kettlebell standing around the world
Also called Kettlebell pass around, Standing kettlebell circles, Waist circles, Kettlebell around the world.
Standing with your feet about shoulder width, you pass a kettlebell in a full circle around your body, handing it from one hand to the other in front and behind. Your shoulders hold the bell away from you the entire way round, your grip works at every hand-off, and the job of everything else is to keep facing forward while the weight travels. Standing means your feet and hips can quietly absorb the pull, which makes this the easier of the two versions and the one where cheating is hardest to notice.
How to do it
- Step oneStand with feet shoulder-width apart holding a kettlebell by the horns with both hands.
- Step twoBegin passing the kettlebell around your body in a circular motion, transferring it from hand to hand.
- Step threeKeep your core engaged and your hips stable as the kettlebell moves around you.
- Step fourComplete the desired number of circles in one direction, then reverse.
- Step fiveMaintain upright posture and controlled breathing throughout.
What usually goes wrong
Each starts with what you would notice.
You sway toward the bell on each pass, so the whole body rocks in time with it.
WhyMeeting the weight halfway is easier than holding still while it travels, and standing gives you feet and hips to sway with. The bell then keeps its own momentum going and you stop having to hold anything.
FixStand with your weight even on both feet and keep them planted for the whole set. If you filmed yourself from the front, your head should stay in the same place while the bell goes round.
The bell brushes or rides along your hip and waist as it comes round.
WhyStanding puts your hip exactly where a circling bell wants to travel, and letting it rest there for a moment takes the weight off your shoulder without you deciding to.
FixKeep a hand-width gap between the bell and your body the whole way round. If the only way to do that is with a smaller bell, use the smaller bell; a circle that scrapes past you is a rest, not a rep.
Your hips shuffle from side to side, so you finish the set standing somewhere else.
WhyThe hips are following the bell instead of staying where you put them, which is the easiest way to make the movement stop asking anything of you.
FixSqueeze your glutes and keep your hips pointing at the same wall throughout. Setting your feet slightly wider than usual gives you a base that is harder to drift off.
The circle gets faster and faster and you are chasing the bell.
WhyOnce momentum is doing the work, each pass arrives before you are ready for it, and the hand-offs turn into catches.
FixHalve the speed and stop treating the set as a lap count. The point is holding a shape while a weight moves around you, and speed removes exactly that.
What it is for
Standing kettlebell around the world is a shoulder and core exercise that involves circling a kettlebell around the body while standing. It targets the deltoids and challenges the core to resist rotation with each pass of the bell.
Questions people ask
- What does the standing around the world work?
- Your shoulders hold the bell out away from your body for the whole circle, which is the muscle under constant load, and your forearms and grip work at every hand-off. Your midsection and hips work by staying still while the weight travels around you.
- Should you do it standing or kneeling?
- Standing first. The catalog grades this version beginner and the kneeling one intermediate, and that matches what changes: kneeling takes your feet and ankles away, so any sway has to appear at the hips where you can see it. Standing is more forgiving, which is useful when the movement is new and unhelpful once it is not.
- What size bell should you circle with?
- Lighter than you would guess. For most of each circle the bell is at arm length away from you, and weight held far from your body feels several times heavier than the same weight held close. If your shoulder hitches toward your ear, or the bell starts touching you, go down a size.
- How many laps should a set be?
- As many as you can complete with your feet planted, your hips still and the bell not touching you. That is the honest limit and it is usually a smaller number than a set of most other things.
- Is this a core exercise?
- Your midsection is working, in the sense that it is stopping you from turning and swaying. What we will not tell you is that this trains your abs in any way that shows, or that it replaces anything. There is no measurement behind this movement at all, and the claims made for it online run a long way past what anyone knows.