Stahl Rotations

A step-by-step form guide from the Ægir Iron exercise library: how to do the lift, what to watch for, and the muscles it trains.

This is a technical lift, best learned under a coach’s eye before loading heavy.

HOW TO PERFORM

Set a flat bench perpendicular to a heavy pair of dumbbells on the floor, then lie back along it with the hips right at the edge.
Hook the feet firmly under those dumbbells so the lower body is completely anchored.
Hold a single moderate dumbbell or plate directly above the chest with both arms straight and the shoulders pulled down.
Keeping the arms straight and the feet locked, lower the weight slowly toward the floor on one side, rotating only through the upper torso and mid-back.
Contract the core to bring it back over the chest, then rotate down to the other side.

The arms never bend and the anchored feet never come free. The rotation is the exercise, so the range ends where the hips start to lift off the bench.
Go much lighter than you would press. Held at arm's length away from the axis you are turning around, the weight is far harder to control than its number suggests, and it travels over your chest and face the whole set.
Stop the rotation while the shoulder still feels strong. The bottom of the range is a straight-arm fly at full stretch, which is where flies hurt people, and adding rotation to it does not make that safer.

Log it in Ægir Iron to track your PRs and estimated 1RM, and to see the sets each muscle gets every week. Free for individual lifters.