Band woodchop
Both hands pull a band diagonally across your body, from high on one side to low on the other. Rotation with real resistance.
The movement
Reach to the anchor
01 Reach to the anchor
Both hands hold the band up toward the high anchor, arms long.
02 Chop past the hip
Turn the trunk and pull the band diagonally down past the opposite hip.
How to do it
Setup
- Anchor the band at a high point, at the top of a door or overhead.
- Stand side-on to the anchor, feet shoulder-width, far enough away that the band is tight with your arms extended toward it.
- Hold the end in both hands with nearly straight arms.
Execution
- Pull the band down and across your body in one diagonal line, finishing past your opposite hip.
- Turn your torso and hips with the pull while your arms stay long.
- Return along the same diagonal under control, resisting the band the whole way.
BreathingExhale through the chop, inhale on the controlled return.
Form cues
- Arms stay long. Your trunk turns and the hands just travel with it.
- Finish each chop with your chest facing away from the anchor.
Common mistakes
- Chopping with the arms while the torso stays square to the front.
- Letting the band snap you back to the start between reps.
- Standing so close that the band never loads the turn.
Worth knowing
- Rotation under load should come from the hips and mid back together. If you feel the twist in your lower back alone, slow down and shorten the diagonal.
General guidance, not medical advice. See how Setkit works.
Notes
The woodchop is the moving half of the rotation story. The Pallof press trains your trunk to refuse a twist. This trains it to produce one, hips and ribs turning together against a band that fights back the whole way. Between them the two band exercises cover rotation completely, and this is the only movement in the library that loads the turn itself.
Turning well is a full-body skill. The power comes from the hips, travels through the obliques, and only passes through the arms, which is the reason the arms stay long and lazy. A chop done right looks unhurried, with the belt buckle and the chest arriving at the finish together. A chop done wrong is a fast arm swing over frozen hips.
Both directions of every rep count. The band pulls hardest at the bottom of the chop, so the slow return up the diagonal loads the same muscles the other way. Ten to fifteen per side, both sides every time, and step further from the anchor when the turn stops feeling like work.