If you’ve ever trained shoulders in the gym, you’ve likely performed the dumbbell shoulder press.
And, if you’re new to training, it is an exercise that offers a lot of benefit and may be worth adding to your workout routines.
The dumbbell shoulder press is a variation of the shoulder press and trains the fundamental movement pattern known as the vertical press.
Since it is a compound exercise, you can usually perform it with significantly heavier weights than other isolation exercises that may target the muscles used.
In this article, we’re going to explain how you to perform the dumbbell shoulder press, what muscles the exercise works, how to add it to your workout routines, and provide a list a variations that you can explore to find which one works best for you.
How to Perform the Dumbbell Shoulder Press
The dumbbell shoulder press can be performed either standing or seated. In this article, we are going to focus on the standing variation of the dumbbell shoulder press.
- Select the weight you are going to use to perform the exercise.
- Engage your core and power clean the weight up to your shoulders.
- Keeping your core engaged, your chin tucked, and your back straight, hold the weight at shoulder level with a pronated grip (palms facing away from you).
- Take a deep breath and use your shoulders to press the weight overhead.
- Press until the weight is completely overhead while maintaining a slight bend in the elbows.
- Reverse the movement and bring the weights back to your shoulders under control. Exhale the breath you took at the start of the exercise.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
What Muscles Does the Dumbbell Shoulder Press Target?
When performing the dumbbell press in a standing position, you engage your entire core as well as other stabilizers while you press the weights overhead.
The primary muscle group being worked during the dumbbell shoulder press is the shoulders. This will include all three heads of the deltoid with most of the focus being on the medial delt. You will also heavily target the triceps which are involved in the pressing movement.
Your chest may also be indirectly targeted and will vary in its efforts depending how straight you keep your back – it is recommended to keep as straight of a back as possible.
How to Add the Dumbbell Shoulder Press to Your Workout
The dumbbell shoulder press will likely be the first or second exercise you perform to target your shoulders depending on what type of split you are performing and your goals.
For those who perform a bro split, you will likely have a specific shoulder workout day in which the dumbbell shoulder press can either be your primary or secondary movement.
For those who perform full body workouts, the dumbbell shoulder press will likely be your primary movement that you use to target your shoulders.
People performing push/pull/legs workouts will utilize the exercise as either their primary or secondary shoulder exercise on their push workout days.
Likewise, those who perform upper/lower workouts will add it into their upper body workout days as the primary (potentially secondary) movement to target their shoulders.
Additionally, the standing dumbbell press is a great exercise to include into dumbbell only workouts as it will be the primary movement used to build your shoulders.
The dumbbell shoulder press can be performed for 3-5 sets of 6-12 repetitions. Those using it as a primary movement will perform 4-5 sets while those performing the exercise as a secondary movement will likely perform just 3 sets of the exercise. Rep range can be a higher, lower, or a mixture depending on your goals during that specific training block.
For rest periods, you’ll want to rest for 2-3 minutes in between sets of dumbbell shoulder press. The heavier the dumbbells you select for the exercise, the longer your rest should be.
Dumbbell Shoulder Press Variations
Listed below are several different variations of the dumbbell shoulder press that you can investigate adding to your workout routines. Each one has its own benefits and since exercise is highly individualized, I recommend you try out several to find which variation you are most comfortable performing as this will lead to the best results.
As I add more exercise guides to the website, we will link these to their appropriate pages. In the meantime, feel free to explore the internet for more information on these.
- Kneeling Dumbbell Shoulder Press
- Half Kneeling Dumbbell Shoulder Press
- Arnold Press
- Seated Dumbbell Press
- Neutral Grip Dumbbell Press
- Reverse Grip Dumbbell Press
Conclusion
The dumbbell shoulder press is an excellent exercise for anyone looking to build symmetrical shoulder muscle mass.
It can be performed as the main shoulder exercise during your workouts or as a secondary exercise depending on your goals.
If you have any questions about how to perform the exercise or how to incorporate it into your workouts after reading the article, please don’t hesitate to ask questions in the comment section below.