Kettlebell Sumo High Pull

How to do it

1. Set a kettlebell on the floor between your feet with a wide stance and the toes turned out.
2. Hinge down and take the handle with both hands, back flat.
3. Drive up through the legs and hips, keeping the bell close to your body.
4. As it rises, pull the elbows up and out so the bell comes to about chest height.
5. Let the bell descend as the hips hinge back again.
6. Keep the arms relaxed — the hips do the work and the elbows only finish it.

Common mistakes

• Pulling with the arms from the bottom. The hips send the bell up; if the shoulders are burning, the hips have not finished.
• Pulling the bell above chest height. Higher than that puts the shoulder into internal rotation at the top of its range, and nothing the movement is for happens up there.
• Squatting rather than hinging. The hips travel back; a deep knee bend turns it into an awkward upright row from a squat.
• Rounding the back at the bottom. The hinge is held with a flat back, and a bell between the feet makes reaching down further tempting.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Traps

Secondary

• Adductors
• Glutes
• Hamstrings
• Quads
• Shoulders