A shoulder press is an upper body strength training exercise and is essentially the action of pressing weight overhead either seated or standing. Muscles that are primarily worked are the anterior deltoids and medial deltoids.

Classic Shoulder Press vs Overhead Press

This could be done with dumbbells / barbell or the shoulder press machine. Are they the same? In short yes… as both are pressing loads overhead. The only reason you may hear the shoulder press as a different exercise is because you’re using a machine which tends to target anterior deltoids. In an overhead press you use free-weights such as dumbbells / barbell and other muscles of the shoulder come into play like the medial deltoid, triceps, traps, pectoral muscles (chest) and core. This means the body must use secondary muscles to stabilise the movement.

Military Press vs Strict Press

Both pressing variations use free weights / barbell / dumbbells and target similar muscles as I mentioned above in the overhead press. The reason why strict press came about is that you don’t perform any push or jerk from the lower body to drive the weight up. You’re using just upper body strength to push the load overhead.

The military press is an overhead Barbell press which surfaced in the late 1800s and was an exercise that was added in the 1972 Olympics. Like the strict press, the barbell is going from your chest to overhead. It is called a military press because your feet are pressed together which replicated the stance of army men. Due to this exercise being a staple for the Olympic games and bodybuilding events, form is a lot stricter compared to your classic overhead press.

Standing and Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press

• Standing - Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, toes pointing slightly out, brace the core and pull your shoulders back (we want to avoid any rounding of the shoulders), squeeze the glutes for better stability and to support the lower back.

• Seated - Bring a bench to its upright position. Sit upright and keep your core braced.

• Dumbbells start at the shoulders, palms in a neutral grip, elbows about 45 degrees from the shoulder.

• Start to press the weights until your arms are fully extended overhead, making sure to keep the shoulder blades retracted and wrists in line with your forearms.

• With control, slowly lower the dumbbells back to starting position.

Kettlebell Shoulder Press

• Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, toes pointing slightly out. Brace the core and squeeze the glutes for better stability and to support the lower back.

• Hold the Kettlebell so it is resting on the outside of the forearm, making sure to have a firm grip on the handle.

• Keep the elbow tight towards the upper body, and your wrists straight.

• Press the kettlebell overhead making sure to keep shoulders down and avoid letting the kettlebell to drift forward or backward.

• Avoid arching the spine as you reach full extension.

• Lower down with control back to starting position.

Barbell Shoulder Press

• Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, hold the barbell in a front rack position (so resting just on the collarbone / shoulders, head pressing back.)

• Brace the core, keep your shoulders down by squeezing the shoulder blades together and start to press barbell overhead.

• As you come into full extension think about your head popping through a ‘window.’

• With control, lower back to starting position, bringing your head back to prevent the barbell hitting your head.

Shoulder Press Machine

• Adjust the Shoulder Press Machine to fit your height, so that the handles are in line with the collarbone / shoulders.

• Sitting upright with your back against the seat, brace your core.

• Take a firm grip of the handles, keeping the shoulders back and down (imagine squeezing a pencil between the shoulder blades)

• Press the load overhead until the arms are fully extended.

• With control, slowly lower the load back to starting position.

What Muscles Does the Shoulder Press Work?

Primary muscle - Deltoids.

Secondary muscles - Triceps, pectorals (chest), trapezius (upper back), latissimus dorsi (lats), core.

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Tags: Equipment > Bars and Weight Plates ; Equipment > Dumbbells ; Equipment > Gym Machines ; Equipment > Kettlebells ; Exercise Type > Strength