Landmine Rotation
The landmine rotation is a standing core exercise where you arc the end of an anchored barbell from hip to hip. It works your obliques and abs, with your shoulders guiding the bar. Choose it to train rotational strength and anti-rotation control under load, which crunches and planks miss.
Muscles worked
The landmine rotation trains the obliques and abs, with shoulders helping.
Weekly sets for obliques
Hard sets per week that Swole.fit plans for obliques, counting every exercise that trains it. Start a cycle near the growth line and climb toward the recovery limit before a deload.
How to do the landmine rotation
- 01Anchor the bar, stand facing the free end and hold it overhead at arm's length with both hands.
- 02Set feet shoulder width apart with knees soft and abs braced.
- 03Rotate your torso and pivot your back foot to lower the bar toward one hip in an arc.
- 04Reverse the motion, bringing the bar back up through the centre with straight arms.
- 05Continue down to the opposite hip, alternating sides with smooth, controlled arcs.
Coaching cues
- Arms long, turn from the trunk
- Pivot the back foot
- Control the bar, don't chase it
Common mistakes
- Bending your elbows to move the bar shifts work to the arms, so keep them nearly straight and rotate through your torso.
- Letting momentum swing the bar past your hip loses control, so slow down and stop the arc at hip height.
- Keeping your feet fully locked twists the knees, so let the back heel pivot as you rotate.
How Swole.fit programs it
Log it once and the app plans the next session for you.
- Most sets land between 8 and 15 reps, the range the plan steers compound lifts toward for size.
- Week one starts around 2 to 3 reps in reserve. Each week you train a little closer to failure, ending around 0 to 1 in reserve before a deload week.
- Hit the top of the range on every set and the next session adds the smallest real jump in weight, rounded to the plates, dumbbells or stack you actually have.
- Sets for this exercise count toward your weekly volume for every muscle it trains: a full set for the primary muscles, half a set for the helpers.
The full method, with the maths, is in how mesocycles work.
Landmine Rotation alternatives
Same muscles, different tool. Swap in one of these when the equipment is taken or your joints want a change.
Log it. Let the app plan the next one.
Track your landmine rotation free. Swole.fit picks the next weight, counts your weekly sets and tells you when to deload.