Kettlebell Halo with Overhead Extension

How to perform

1. 01Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart. Hold a kettlebell upside down by the horns, with the bell above your hands and close to your chest. Brace your abdominals and squeeze your glutes so your ribcage stays down. This is your starting position.
2. 02Keeping your elbows close to your head, move the kettlebell up past one ear and around until it sits behind your head. Pause here.
3. 03From this position, extend your elbows to press the kettlebell up and overhead until your arms are straight, keeping your upper arms alongside your head.
4. 04Bend your elbows to lower the kettlebell back to the pause position behind your head, under control.
5. 05Continue the circle past the opposite ear and back down to the starting position in front of your chest to complete one repetition.
6. 06Alternate the direction of the circle on each repetition. Keep your head, hips and lower back still throughout; if your lower back arches or you cannot reach the overhead position without leaning back, use a lighter weight or perform the halo and the extension as separate exercises.

Form cues

• —Brace your core before the first rep and keep it braced.
• —Drive through the full range — do not cut the lockout short.
• —Control the lowering phase — that is where most of the growth stimulus lives.

Common mistakes

• —Using momentum instead of the target muscle.
• —Cutting the range of motion short to add load.
• —Adding weight before the movement pattern is clean.