Kettlebell Figure 8
Also works: Hamstrings · Shoulders
Standing in a wide hinged stance, you weave a single kettlebell around one leg, through the gap, and around the other in a continuous figure of eight. Nothing about your spine is supposed to move — the whole drill is a rotational load your trunk has to refuse.
Own the movement
Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.
Before the first rep
- Set the bell on the floor between your feet with a stance clearly wider than your shoulders, toes turned out slightly.
- Hinge by pushing your hips back, not by bending your knees — shins close to vertical, back flat.
- Set your torso at roughly 45 degrees and commit to keeping it there for the whole set.
- Start with a light bell: 8-12 kg for most people, whatever your swing weight is.
- Brace your trunk as if for a heavy row before you pick the bell up.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — Breathe continuously and rhythmically — roughly one breath per full figure of eight. Do not hold your breath across a long round; a braced but breathing trunk is the goal.
Before you load it
- The bell passes directly under your face. Keep the handle below hip height and do not lift your head into its path.
Sets, reps & load
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
Start at 8 kg for most women and 12 kg for most men — the limit here is trunk control and back position, not what your arms can hold. Good looks like a full round with a square shoulder line and a flat back. Add time before you add weight; move up a bell size only once 60 seconds leaves your torso completely still.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Film one set from the front. Your shoulder line should stay level and square while only the arms move. If it does not, halve the bell weight and slow the circuit down.
Push your hips further back and widen your stance until there is a clear gap. Torso at about 45 degrees, back flat — the hinge makes the space, not a bent back.
Set a timer for 30 seconds instead of counting reps, and stop the moment your back position softens. Fatigue in the erectors is what ends the set, not fatigue in the abs.
Let it drop. Set up on a floor you do not mind marking, use a bell light enough to hand off blind, and slow the tempo until the pass is automatic.
Why bother
The bell is never in the middle. It sits outside one thigh, then travels through and sits outside the other, which means the load is off-centre for almost the entire circuit. Your obliques and quadratus lumborum work continuously to stop the weight dragging your ribcage into rotation and side bend.
The second job is holding a hinge. You are parked in a wide-stance bent-over position with a flat back for thirty to sixty seconds of continuous handling, so the hamstrings and spinal erectors take an isometric beating that a seated ab machine never delivers. The grip is the third quiet cost — one hand is always releasing and catching.
Where it fits
Use it as a warm-up before kettlebell swings and cleans, or as a timed finisher of 30-45 second rounds. It sits badly directly after heavy deadlifts, because the same hinge and erectors are already cooked and that is when back position goes. Two or three exposures a week is plenty.
If this one isn't it
No kit, too hard, or too easy — here's where to go instead.
Same job, different kit
Start here instead
When this gets easy
Asked and answered
What is the difference between this and the between-the-legs pass?
The straight pass sends the bell back through the legs and returns it the same way, a narrow W-shaped path. The figure of eight adds a full lap around the outside of each thigh, so the bell spends much longer off-centre and the anti-rotation demand roughly doubles. Learn the straight pass first.
How heavy should the kettlebell be?
Lighter than you think. 8-12 kg is right for most people starting out, and a 16 kg bell is already a serious version. The limiting factor is whether your shoulders stay square, not whether you can physically hold the handle — a heavy bell you have to twist toward is training the wrong thing.
Is this a core exercise or a conditioning exercise?
Both, and it is honest to say the conditioning creeps in fast. Kept to 30-45 second rounds with a light bell and a rigid trunk, it is anti-rotation work. Pushed to two-minute rounds it becomes a breathing exercise with a kettlebell attached, and back position usually goes first.
My grip fails before my abs do. Is that a problem?
It is a signal, not a fault. Chalk up, and check you are not death-gripping the handle — the pass works best with a relaxed hook grip and an open hand on release. If grip still ends every set, the bell is heavier than the drill needs.