Skip to content
ascend.
Exercise guide

Around The Worlds

How to do the Around The Worlds with correct form, the muscles it works, and where it fits a training plan you actually stick to.

CompoundDumbbellIntermediatePush
Primary muscles

Chest

Secondary

Shoulders

Equipment

Dumbbell

Step by step

How to do the Around The Worlds

  1. 1

    Lay down on a flat bench holding a dumbbell in each hand with the palms of the hands facing towards the ceiling. Tip: Your arms should be parallel to the floor and next to your thighs. To avoid injury, make sure that you keep your elbows slightly bent. This will be your starting position.

  2. 2

    Now move the dumbbells by creating a semi-circle as you displace them from the initial position to over the head. All of the movement should happen with the arms parallel to the floor at all times. Breathe in as you perform this portion of the movement.

  3. 3

    Reverse the movement to return the weight to the starting position as you exhale.

In Ascend

Log it, see it on your body.

Every Around The Worlds set you log feeds Ascend's anatomy heatmap — so your chest volume is visible at a glance — and counts toward your bodyweight-strength tier.

Related

More chest exercises

Ascend Club

The app is free. Club adds the coach, leagues and analytics.

Core tracking stays free forever — the climb, streaks, logging and your league tiers. Club is for when you want the full coach, worldwide competition and the depth, at about the price of one coffee a month.

See Club plans

14-day free trial · no card to start

 FreeClub
Tracking, the climb and streaks
Per-set logging, PR detection, wearables
Muscle-league tiers
The AI coachnudgesFull conversation
Worldwide leagues and challenges
PR projections and deep analytics
Unlimited crews
Themes, export and higher AI limits