EZ-Bar Up-Down Twist

How to do the EZ-Bar Up-Down Twist

1. 1Stand tall with your feet shoulder-width apart and a slight bend in your knees, holding an EZ-bar with both hands using the angled grips.
2. 2Brace your core and start with the bar held low and to the outside of one hip, arms fairly straight.
3. 3Drive through your trunk to sweep the bar diagonally up and across your body toward the opposite shoulder, rotating through your waist.
4. 4Keep your arms long and let the obliques and front delts move the load, not your lower back.
5. 5Pause briefly at the top with the bar raised across your opposite shoulder, keeping your hips and knees stable.
6. 6Reverse the path under control, lowering the bar back down and across to the starting hip.
7. 7Complete your reps on one side, then switch to chop in the opposite direction.
8. 8Finish the set and lower the EZ-bar to the floor or a rack with control.

Form tips

• Keep your core braced throughout so the rotation comes from your waist, not a swinging lower back.
• Move at a controlled tempo — the up-down twist is about quality rotation, not throwing the bar.
• Let your hips pivot slightly to follow the chop while keeping your knees soft and stable.
• Start light; the long lever of the EZ-bar makes a modest load feel heavy through the obliques and front delts.
• Keep your arms long but not locked, so the bar travels in a smooth diagonal arc.

Common mistakes

• Yanking the bar with your arms and shoulders instead of rotating through the obliques, which removes tension from the target muscles.
• Over-arching or twisting through the lumbar spine, which puts the lower back at risk of strain.
• Using momentum to swing the bar up and down, so the core stops doing the work and the rep is cheated.
• Going too heavy and shortening the range of motion, losing the full diagonal chop the exercise is built on.
• Keeping the feet and hips locked rigid, which forces the lower back to absorb the rotation.

Frequently asked questions