Alan Ritchson packed on 30lb of muscle in eight months to play the title character of Prime Video’s hit show Reacher. With the unveiling of season two’s first few episodes last week, it’s clear he’s spent the time between seasons packing on even more muscle.

To prepare for the first season, “I built a gym in my house and all I did was eat and work out,” Ritchson told USA Today in a recent interview. Ahead of the show’s return, his aim was to pack on more muscle, “solidify what was there and to shape it.”

Bulking up was a change of piece for Ritchson, who’s prior exercise routine saw him running 13 miles-a-day in an attempt to stay slender enough to play a range of roles. “My body wants to be big,” he told USA Today.

While you might not have the same body type as Ritchson, or the chance to spend your nine-to-five clanking iron, you can use your time in the gym wisely and make some smart tweaks to a muscle-building workout plan. 

Before a one-off Reps Like Reacher class at Barry’s Bootcamp in London, Barry’s shared a selection of exercises from the show’s stunt coordinator Buster Reeves.

Take a look at the nine dumbbell exercises below, then add them into your training as you see fit—either as added volume on a set training day, or combine them and decide on a rep scheme for a full-body dumbbell workout in their own right. 

1 Champagne press

 Reeves says “The champagne press that will create separation through the center of the chest and build pecs like plates of armor!”

How to do it Sit on a bench with your feet wider than hip-width apart to create a stable base and press two dumbbells together in front of your chest. Keeping the dumbbells touching, extend your arms overhead and move your head between your biceps. Lower the dumbbells slowly.

2 Renegade row to T push-up

Reeves says “The renegade row, push-up and twist combination will target your chest, back and abs in one move.”

How to do it Start in the high plank position, holding dumbbells. Your hands should be under your shoulders and your body should form a straight line from head to heels. Lift one dumbbell to your torso, lower it under control, then repeat on the other side. Bend both elbows to lower your chest to the floor, then push back up powerfully, lifting one dumbbell and twisting your torso to raise the dumbbell above you, extending your arm, and turning your head to look at the dumbbell above you. Lower the dumbbell to the floor under control then repeat on the other side.

3 Russian twist

Reeves says Reacher’s fighting style involves a lot of elbows, which means plenty of rotation so his core needs to be rock solid.

How to do it Sit holding a dumbbell by your chest. Bend your knees and lift your feet just off the floor. Engage your core and lean back slightly. Rotate your torso and the dumbbell slowly to one side, then the other side.

4 Single-leg dumbbell glute bridge

Reeves says “The power for fighting also comes from your legs and glutes. Work with a heavy dumbbell to target the glutes.” 

How to do it Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor holding two heavy dumbbells on your hips. Lift one foot off the floor, and with push through the other foot to raise your glutes until your body forms a straight line from shoulders to knee. Lower under control. Do all the reps on one side then switch sides.

5 Lunge with rotation

Reeves says “Reacher has big legs for a tall guy. Work yours with a lunge with dumbbell rotation to target two areas— legs and core stability.”

How to do it Hold a dumbbell in both hands by the ends and raise it to shoulder height. Step forward with your right leg and bend both knees until your rear knee is just above the floor. Rotate your torso to the right. Reverse the movements to the start. Repeat on the other side.

6 Bent-over row and reverse flye

Reeves says A set of 10 bent-over rows reps followed immediately by 10 reverse flyes reps, on repeat for two minutes will help build a deep back just like Reacher for that ‘tight T-shirt around the shoulders, baggy around the waist’ look.”

How to do it Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart holding light dumbbells. With a slight bend in your knees, hinge forward at the hips, keeping your back straight. To perform a bent-over row, raise the dumbbells to your torso, leading with your elbows, and lower under control. To perform a reverse flye, lift the dumbbells to the sides, keeping a slight bend in your elbow throughout. Lower under control.

7 Bent-over row to triceps kick-back

Reeves says “If you want the Reacher look, you need a wide back and triceps peeking out of the T-shirt. A bent-over row with medium dumbbells into a triceps kick-back will target the ‘nightclub’ muscles that personify the Reacher physique.”

How to do it Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart holding medium-weight dumbbells. With a slight bend in your knees, hinge forward at the hips, keeping your back straight. Raise the dumbbells to your torso, leading with your elbows, then extend your arms to move the dumbbells behind you. Reverse the movements under control to the start.

8 Front raise

Reeves says “Create mid-delt shoulder caps just like Reacher by tweaking a regular frontal raise. Instead of lowering dumbbells all the way down to the waist, restrict your range of motion to be between chest and forehead height. 

How to do it Stand holding two dumbbells and raise them to chest height with your arms extended. Raise the right dumbbell to forehead height, lower under control, then repeat on the other side.

9 Dumbbell swing squat

Reeves says Finish by working your hips, hamstrings and lower back—again major Reacher muscles.

How to do it Stand holding dumbbells by your sides. Bend your knees and push your hips back to squat and at the same time raise both dumbbells to shoulder height. Try to make the movement fluid.

Reacher returns to Prime Video Friday December 15th

Everyone knows at least one dumbbell exercise – curls – but there’s so much more you can do with them, whether you’ve got a pair of adjustable dumbbells at home or a well-stocked rack of dumbbells in a gym. You can target any body part and build muscle, or string a series of movements into a pulse-raising workout to burn calories and burn fat, or work on your muscular endurance with high-rep sets. 

Here we aim to introduce you to the essential movements everyone should master, with recommendations from PT and Multipower ambassador Ant Nyman as well as the Coach team’s tried-and-tested favourites.

If you prefer to practise them at home, our round-up of the best dumbbells can help you find a pair to suit your budget and needs. We also have plenty of dumbbell workouts for you to try which feature the exercises on this page. But before we dive into our selection, here are a few reasons why dumbbell exercises may be the best kind of weighted exercises.

The Benefits Of Using Dumbbells

First up, dumbbells are the most accessible type of free weights and tend to be the first piece of equipment people buy to train at home, as well as a reassuringly straightforward place to start in the weights room. They are also easier to get the hang of than kettlebells – the snatch, for instance, adds another layer of complexity when done with kettlebells – and unlike barbells your wrists aren’t fixed in a sometimes unnatural position. 

While barbells let you lift more weight, even if you usually gravitate towards the barbell to tackle big lifts like the back squat, deadlift and bench press, there’s one key reason to make sure you also find time for dumbbell exercises.

“When using a barbell, your weaker side can get an easy ride,” says Nyman. “You can move the weight predominantly using your stronger side, meaning one side will always lag behind. Using dumbbells nullifies this problem because each side has to work individually, meaning you’ll develop strength and size evenly on both sides.”

There are extra benefits to dumbbell exercises beyond working the targeted muscles. “The unstable nature of holding dumbbells also ensures that your stabiliser muscles have to work hard to keep you steady while you perform the movement. Without realising it you’ll be strengthening your core and other stabiliser muscles, which can help prevent injury.”

Beginner Dumbbell Exercises

Lateral raise

Why “Lateral raises target the medial (outer) head of the deltoid muscle,” says Nyman. “You don’t need an awful lot of core strength to perform the movement, which is why it’s good for beginners.

How Stand holding a dumbbell in each hand next to your outer thighs. Keep your back straight and slowly lift the weights out to the sides until your arms are parallel with the floor. Your elbows should be slightly bent. Slowly lower the dumbbells back to the starting position.

Form tip “Imagine you are holding a bucket in each hand. As you raise your arms out to the side, tip the buckets as if to pour out the contents so that your thumbs point to the floor. This will ensure you hit the medial head as opposed to over-developing the front delt.”

Overhead press

How “While lateral raises are good for working the delts, performing heavy overhead (or shoulder) presses is a great way to add serious strength,” says Nyman. “Make sure you don’t arch your back too much. If you do you’ll probably end up using your upper chest instead of your shoulders.”

Why You can do this either seated or standing. Hold a pair of dumbbells by your shoulders with your elbows out to the sides and bent at 90°. Extend through your elbows and press the weights overhead, then slowly bring them back to the starting position.

Biceps curl

Why “If you’re a beginner you may be wary of picking up heavy weights. With biceps curls you won’t need to worry about that because it’s not about going heavy, it’s about the feel of the muscle lengthening and shortening. You can change grip to target different heads of the muscle but for a beginner I’d recommend using a supinated grip – palms facing up.”

How Hold a pair of dumbbells in front of your thighs with your palms facing out. Slowly curl the dumbbells up to your chest and then back down again.

Form tip “Keep your elbows pinned to your sides,” says Nyman. “The minute your elbow comes up you are shifting the emphasis away from your biceps and onto your shoulders.

Variations Once you’ve mastered the basic dumbbell curl, graduate to the hammer curl with palms facing to target the brachialis muscle (on the outside of the arm next to the biceps). The Zottman curl is also a worthy variation to add to your repertoire to add a side of forearms work to the biceps builder. 

Triceps kick-back

Why Pair this dumbbell exercise with the biceps curl to ensure you’re working both of the major muscle groups in your upper arm. Like the biceps curl, the triceps kick-back is an isolation move, in that it targets solely the triceps.

How Set up a bench so you can place one knee, shin and foot on it, and then bend over until your torso is parallel to the floor, holding the bench with one hand. In the other hand, hold a dumbbell and place your upper arm against your body with your elbow bent at 90°. Straighten your arm, moving the dumbbell backwards until your forearm is parallel to the ground, making sure to keep your upper arm still so you’re only using your triceps for the lift. Slowly lower the weight back to the start.

Lunge

Why “Working your legs is essential for many reasons, including building strength, muscle and burning loads of calories,” says Nyman. “But if you’re a beginner the thought of getting under a heavy barbell for a set of squats may seem intimidating. So instead grab a pair of dumbbells and get lunging. It’s a great way to add resistance to your legs and glute work, without the fear of being left in a heap under the squat rack.”

How Holding dumbbells by your sides, take a big step forwards and lower your body until both knees are bent at 90°. Then push up through the front leg and return to the starting position.

Floor press

Why Presses are among the fundamental movements everyone should master, and starting with dumbbells is a great option for beginners – and not just because the minimum weight you can press with a barbell is normally 20kg. Using dumbbells will work more muscles around the shoulders and chest than using a barbell because those muscles are forced to keep the weights stable, and it’s well worth developing those muscles before moving on to heavier barbells. Switching to a hammer press, with your palms facing, is a good beginner’s option because it places less strain on your shoulders, as does the floor press owing to the reduced range of motion.

How Lie with your feet and back flat on the floor, knees bent, holding dumbbells either side of your chest. Press the weights straight above you, then lower slowly until the backs of your upper arms touch the floor. This makes the move harder, since it removes the tension from your muscles, so it takes more to initiate the next rep.

One-arm dumbbell row

Why Opting for this one-arm row to work your back over the classic bent-over row (below) makes it easier to focus on the side you’re working and also to ensure your body is in the right position, because you are supporting the upper body with your other arm. 

How Place one knee on a bench and lean over to place your hand on the bench so your upper body is parallel to the ground. Reach down with your other arm to grab the dumbbell, then row it up to your chest, focusing on lifting it with your back and shoulder muscles. Pause at the top of the move, then lower the weight slowly.

Calf raise

Why Your calf muscles are among the trickiest to target during a workout. Your best option is to incorporate some kind of calf raise into your routine. This is an especially important move for runners, because the calf muscles have to bear a lot of the impact, so ensuring they’re strong enough to handle your training should be a key concern in your supportive workouts.

How The calf raise is a very simple move. Stand holding heavy dumbbells, then push through your toes to raise your heels off the floor. Then lower your heels back down. You can vary the part of the calf you work by bending your knees during a raise, or doing them off a raised platform like a step or kerb, so your heels can sink below toe level.

Dumbbell woodchop

Why This functional dumbbell exercise is terrific for core strength, with the rotational movement many of us lack in our gym routines – which often consist entirely of forward and back, up and down, and side-to-side moves. If you’re a golfer then make sure you start woodchopping ASAP, because the increase in rotational power you’ll gain will add serious yardage to your drives.

How Stand holding a dumbbell in both hands, then lower into a squat and move moving the dumbbell to the right, until your thighs are parallel to the floor and the dumbbell is outside your right thigh. Drive up to standing and twist your torso to bring the dumbbell across and up until it’s above your left shoulder, keeping your arms extended throughout. Twist to come slowly back down to the starting position. Perform all your reps in one direction, then switch sides.

Farmer’s walk

Why You’ll feel the benefits of this functional dumbbell exercise the next time you do a big shop. The farmer’s walk is also great for your grip strength and will help to improve your posture, and it’s a move with a very low injury risk since the form is easy to master.

How Hold a heavy dumbbell in each hand and walk for a set distance, like 10m, or duration, taking short steps and keeping your core braced and torso upright – don’t let the weights drag you down. 

Intermediate Dumbbell Exercises

Chest flye

Why “Doing chest flyes is a great way to isolate the chest,” says Nyman. “Most pressing chest movements will enlist the help of the shoulders and triceps, but flyes keep the focus purely on the chest.

How Lie on your back on a flat bench with your feet on the floor. Hold the dumbbells above your chest with your arms almost straight, palms facing each other. Slowly lower them out to the sides, then bring them back up above your chest. Your arms should have a slight bend in the elbows throughout.

Form tip “Exaggerate the arch in your lower back slightly. This will help keep the tension on your chest as opposed to your shoulders.”

Bent-over row

Why “Using dumbbells to perform bent-over rows is a great way to ensure you develop both sides of your upper back evenly,” says Nyman.

How Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Bend your knees and lean over from your waist, keeping your neck lined up with your spine. Let the dumbbells hang with straight arms, then slowly bring them up to your chest by squeezing your shoulders together.

Form tip “Think of Donald Duck – stick your bum out and ensure you maintain the natural curve in your lumbar spine (lower back).”

Front squat

Why “It’s not as daunting as getting under a loaded barbell, and performing squats while holding dumbbells by your shoulders will challenge your core in a different way to the barbell version,” says Nyman. “Because the weight is slightly in front of you, you’ll place more emphasis on your quads, too.”

How Hold a pair of dumbbells up by your shoulders with your elbows by your sides and palms facing each other. Lower into a squat until your thighs are parallel with the ground, then drive back up to the starting position.

Front raise

Why The first thing to know about this dumbbell exercise is that it works the front part of your shoulders. The second thing to know is that you need to use light dumbbells. You don’t need much weight at all to work this area, and going too heavy risks a shoulder injury. 

How Hold dumbbells in front of your thighs in an overhand grip, so your palms face your body. Keeping your arms extended and your back straight, lift the weight in front of you to shoulder height, then lower it slowly. You can lift two dumbbells simultaneously or work one arm at a time.

Arnold Press

Why Everyone starts to think they’re the Terminator after a few good lifting sessions, so here’s a move the Terminator himself made famous. The Arnold Press works all three sections of your deltoids – or machine-gun stabilisers, as we’re sure the the Austrian Oak refers to them – and keeps your muscles under tension for longer than a standard overhead press.

How Stand holding dumbbells in front of your chest using an underhand grip, as though you’re midway through a biceps curl. Open your arms out to the sides while rotating your wrists 180° then, without pausing, press the dumbbells above your head.

Plank drag

Why The plank drag is a simple and effective way to increase the difficulty of the classic plank by adding movement to test your balance and force your core muscles to resist your torso rotating as you reach and pull. 

How Set up in a high plank position, supporting your body on your hands and toes while forming a straight line from your neck to your heels. Position the dumbbell on the floor, level with your chest on your left side. While maintaining your plank position, reach across and under with your right hand to grab the dumbbell and drag it under your body over to your right side. Then put your right hand back down and drag the weight the other way with your left hand. Make sure to engage your abs when dragging the weight so it’s not just your arms doing the work. 

Advanced Dumbbell Exercises

Split squat

Why “These are tough at the best of times but performing them with a dumbbell in each hand will take it to a whole new level,” says Nyman. “You’ll feel every muscle in your legs and glutes working hard just to stabilise yourself.

How Get into a staggered stance, holding dumbbells by your sides. Using your legs, slowly lower as far as feels comfortable, then push back up to the starting position. For a tougher variation of the split squat, put your back foot on a bench.

Form tip “Keep your chest up throughout the movement. Push up through your heels as opposed to your toes to target the quads and glutes instead of your calves.”

Chest pull-over

Why “This is a great way to finish off a chest workout and target the upper and inner sections of your chest,” says Nyman.

How Lie on your back on a bench, holding a dumbbell in both hands above your head. Keep your arms straight but not locked. Slowly lower the dumbbell behind your head until you feel a stretch in your chest. Return to the start position and squeeze your chest hard at the point of contraction.

Dumbbell snatch

Why The snatch is a full-body exercise which also requires you to execute the triple extension at the ankles, knees and hips – the type of explosive movement that will give you the edge when playing sport.

How Stand holding a dumbbell in one hand. Lower into a squat and touch the dumbbell to the floor between your feet. Then drive your hips forwards to stand up and lift the weight explosively. Once it reaches chest height, flip your wrist under the dumbbell and then push it above your head until your arm is fully extended. Do it right and the final press will be a fluid extension of the move using the momentum created by your legs and hips. If you have to press the weight overhead using mostly your arm, then get your technique checked and/or use a lighter weight.

Single-leg Romanian deadlift

Why This fantastic functional move trains each leg in turn to mimic the movement of running, and it also helps to build a strong posterior chain. It’s also an incredibly frustrating move at times, because it tests your balance as well as your strength. 

How Stand holding dumbbells, using a lot less weight than you would for a two-footed deadlift. Lift one foot off the ground and hinge forwards at the hips, raising your foot behind you for counterbalance, to lower the weights towards the floor. Stop when you feel a stretch in your standing leg’s hamstring and snap your hips forwards to come back up to standing.

Renegade row

Why The most demanding dumbbell row asks you to hold a plank while pulling the weights up to your chest – a stern test, especially if you don’t rush your reps. 

How Use dumbbells with hexagonal weights to provide a firm base, otherwise you risk turning your wrists. Get into the top press-up position, holding the handles of the dumbbells with your hands under your shoulders and spreading your feet wide to ensure a stable base. Brace your core and keep your torso as still as possible throughout the move. Lift one dumbbell towards your chest, keeping your arm close to your body. Lower under control, then repeat on the other side. Continue, alternating sides.

Thruster

Why A dumbbell thruster is a fiery little move – literally, because you’ll feel the burn in a lot of different muscles. It’s also a great way to build up to the barbell thruster and to iron out any strength imbalances.

How Stand holding dumbbells at shoulder height with your palms facing. Your feet should be shoulder-width apart with your toes pointing slightly outwards. Squat down slowly, then explode up, thrusting the dumbbells above your head so that your arms are extended. Work on making the action from the bottom of the squat one fluid movement – it shouldn’t be a squat followed by an overhead press.

Dumbbell reverse flye

This challenging shoulder exercise should be done with light weights to make sure you don’t pull your body out of position during the move. Stand holding a weight in each hand with your palms facing. Hinge forwards at your hips and let the weights hang down beneath you. Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, lift the weights out to the sides, then bring them back down slowly. The reverse flye is a great move for working the side and rear parts of your shoulders and will help you build a broader upper back.

Dumbbell FAQs

It’s rare to walk into a gym and not see someone performing a squat, and with good reason – it’s one of the best exercises you can do, working pretty much every part of your lower body.

Your quads, glutes, calves, hamstrings and a host of smaller stabilising muscles are worked when you squat. It’s also good for your core strength and cardiovascular fitness, because powering through a set of squats always gets the heart pumping.

Most people start with an unweighted squat, which is a terrific bodyweight exercise that’s easy to do anywhere. In the gym the barbell squat is perhaps the other squat you’re most likely to see. There’s no doubt that the barbell squat is a fantastic leg exercise, but it can be an intimidating progression to go straight from bodyweight to barbell, especially in packed gyms where you may have to queue for the squat rack and then exercise while being observed.

The dumbbell squat is a great alternative for those who want to do weighted squats but aren’t sure about using a barbell yet. It’s hard to lift as much weight with dumbbells as with the barbell, but you can certainly still challenge your lower body, and make big strength and size gains with the exercise.

How To Do The Dumbbell Squat

The basics of the dumbbell squat are simple: you perform a squat while holding a dumbbell or dumbbells. If you’re just using one weight it’s best to hold it in both hands in front of your chest, a variation known as a goblet squat.

If you’re using two dumbbells the simplest way to hold them is at your sides, but you can also rack the weights by holding them by your shoulders with your elbows pointing forwards.

Once you have your dumbbells in position, lower into a squat by imagining you’re sitting back into an invisible chair, pushing your hips back and bending your knees. Lower until your thighs are at least parallel to the ground, then drive through your heels to come back up to standing. Keep your chest up throughout the move and don’t let your knees cave inwards – you can loop a small resistance band around your legs and hold it taut to ensure your knees aren’t moving in.

If you want to build the kind of broad, muscular shoulders that can win a handshake-off with Carl Weathers, best the Predator and control an entire class of kindergarten-age children, then you need to take a leaf out of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s training manual.

Arnie’s take on the dumbbell overhead press is undoubtedly one of the best shoulder exercises because it recruits all three sections of your deltoids—the round muscles at the tops of your upper arms—with the result that you build fuller, wider, more defined shoulders, and improve your posture to boot.

How to Do the Arnold Press

You can do the Arnold press standing, but USA Weightlifting Level 1-certified fitness coach Karl Bratland recommends grabbing a weight bench with the backrest set to 90° for support.

“Most people do it with their back supported with a bench, but if you don’t have that you can do it without. Just be careful you’re not using too much weight,” he says.

Remember, you won’t be able to go as heavy with the Arnold press as you would for a standard dumbbell shoulder press. So pick up a pair of moderate-weight dumbbells, sit down on the bench with your spine flush against the backrest. Place the weights on your knees and use your legs to kick them up to your shoulders. 

“Hold the dumbbells right in front of your shoulders at collarbone height with your hands facing you, unlike a regular shoulder press,” says Bratland. “As you press the dumbbells up, rotate your hands to face away from you until you get to that [regular shoulder press] movement.”

From there, drive the weights upward until your elbows are fully extended. After you hit the top of the lift, reverse the movement to control the weights back to the starting position—and that’s a rep.  

Arnold Press Form Tips

There are a few pitfalls to avoid when performing the Arnold press, so we asked Bratland to provide some top tips to help you press with the best of them. 

First and foremost, he cautions against performing the exercise in two stages, moving your elbows to the sides and then performing a standard shoulder press. Instead, Bratland stresses that the Arnold press should be performed in one fluid motion. Begin to lift the dumbbells and start to rotate your wrists when the dumbbells are at head height. 

Another common mistake Bratland sees is ego lifting. People reach for a heavy set of dumbbells and then curve their spine when pressing them overhead to bring their chest muscles into play and grind through reps. 

“You don’t want to arch your back and compensate with your thoracic [mid] spine,” says Bratland. “Your shoulders should be doing the work. That’s why the back support sometimes helps people.”

Finally, he says, you need to make sure you hit full extension at your elbow at the top of each rep. Pushing your head through so your biceps are level with your ears can be a good form cue to help with this.

Arnold Press Benefits

You don’t have to go too heavy with the weight to achieve excellent results with the Arnold press (a bonus if the CIA has had you pushing too many pencils at your desk lately). The exercise keeps your muscles under tension longer and puts them through a greater range of motion than standard overhead presses do, meaning that despite the lighter weight you’ll still be stimulating plenty of new muscle growth.

The Arnold press also hits often neglected muscles and will help you improve your performance in other lifts, too. The anterior (front) deltoid tends to get plenty of work from press-ups and bench presses, but the medial (lateral) and posterior (rear) often get neglected. However, the Arnold press works all these evenly along with the stabilizer muscles, helping draw back the shoulders for a straight posture and assisting with big pulling moves such as deadlifts, pull-ups and rows.

Arnold Press Vs Shoulder Press

The Arnold press and the shoulder press are similar. They both use dumbbells, both target the delts, and both recruit muscles like the triceps and rotator cuffs as supporting characters. 

So what are the main differences between the two press techniques, and why should you pick one over the other?

The most obvious variation is the form. The Arnold press adds another element to the move by challenging you to rotate your wrists and bring the dumbbells lower (in front of the shoulders) at the bottom of each rep. 

“The Arnold press will allow you to lift less weight because of the rotational component,” Bratland says. “With the shoulder press you’re going to move more weight and build more strength.”

Surely that’s settled then? The shoulder press is superior. Well, not quite. There’s a reason why Arnie put his name to this muscle-building move, and that reason is hypertrophy.

“If your main goal is purely muscle development or hypertrophy, the Arnold press would probably be better because the rotation is going to increase your time under tension,” Bratland says. “It hits the whole shoulder more because you have this rotational movement, and you get more of a range of motion.

“The rotational component will engage your shoulders and back in a different manner because you have to stabilize through that rotation. So it’s definitely going to hit the delts and the stabilizing muscles in the back.”

These impressive pros do come with a caveat though. If you lack the necessary strength, stability and mobility in your shoulders, the Arnold press can increase your risk of injury. 

“If you don’t have the mobility in the shoulders or you have shoulder issues, I wouldn’t do the Arnold press,” Bratland says. “If you don’t have enough strength and stability [in the joint] you need to address that until you can do it pain-free.”

Workouts

Now you understand how to perform the Arnold press correctly, you’re no doubt itching to put it into practice. We can help with that, because naturally the Arnold press has featured in a range of workouts.

• The seated Arnold press makes an appearance in our best shoulder workout routine, supersetted with the seated lateral raise.
• The Arnold press rounds out a challenging tri-set in this dumbbell shoulder workout.
• If you’re looking for a full-body training plan, try this series of dumbbell workouts—which includes the Arnold press in the final of the four weekly workouts.
• Round off any workout with this four-move finisher, a full-body effort which culminates with the Arnold press.
• If you have a pair of dumbbells and a kettlebell, give this 20-minute home workout a go which combines the Arnold press with the biceps curl.
• To finish off, and to finish you off, give this dumbbell complex a whirl. The Arnold press caps off the combination of moves. 

About Our Expert

The dumbbell snatch regularly features in CrossFit workouts, but why should CrossFitters have all the fun? This dumbbell exercise is capable of developing explosive power, speed, co-ordination and endurance, making it worthy of a place in most people’s fitness plans. The only reason not to do it, in fact, is if all the dumbbells at your gym are in use—in which case do the kettlebell snatch instead. 

To get the low-down on this high-powered movement, we spoke to two-time CrossFit Games competitor and Reign Total Body Fuel athlete Moritz Fiebig to find out his top tips. 

How To Do A Dumbbell Snatch

There are a few variations of the dumbbell snatch. We’re going to focus on the most common, the single-arm power snatch, although most of the form cues here will apply to other variations too.

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and a dumbbell on the floor just in front of you. Keeping your back straight, push your hips back and bend your knees to reach down and pick up the dumbbell with your right hand. Your right shoulder should be over the dumbbell, so your arm is vertical. 

Drive explosively through your feet to lift the dumbbell off the floor, then extend your hips and pull with your arm to produce enough momentum to raise it overhead. The dumbbell should stay close to your body throughout. 

Bend your knees slightly to reduce the distance the dumbbell has to travel, then catch it directly overhead with your arm extended. Control the dumbbell’s descent to the starting position to complete one rep. 

You can perform all your reps on one side, then switch sides, or perform alternating dumbbell snatches by passing the dumbbell from one hand to the other while it’s overhead or on the floor. 

Dumbbell Snatch Form Tips

1. Use Your Hips

“For all snatches the hips are really important,” says Fiebig. Extending at the hips—snapping them forward as you stand up straight—will help generate the momentum to get the dumbbell overhead. 

2. Your Lower Body Should Be The Hero

A CrossFit workout containing dumbbell snatches will usually challenge you to complete plenty of reps of this movement alongside other taxing exercises, so you’ll want to perform them as efficiently as possible. 

“Don’t pull too early with your arm, because your arms are not as strong as your legs and your hips,” says Fiebig. “Instead, use your hips to bring motion into the barbell or dumbbell, then it will fly and you can catch it overhead. 

“When you’re doing workouts with wall ball shots, burpees or rowing, your arms will get tired. If you do snatches through your lower body you will save some energy for the rest of the movements, particularly in a CrossFit workout.”

3. Find A Strong Catch Position 

“Finish with your biceps close to your ear,” says Fiebig. At the top of the rep, there should be a vertical line through your arm and torso down to the floor.

“If you always catch it in front of your head the front of your shoulder will get tired,” says Fiebig.

4. Breathe

This is good advice for pretty much any CrossFit exercise performed for reps, and a tip Fiebig highlighted for dumbbell snatches. 

Breathe out during the leg drive and pull phase, and breathe in when the dumbbell is overhead. 

Dumbbell Snatch Benefits

The dumbbell snatch will strengthen the active muscles, and there are a lot of them. After all, this is a compound exercise which works multiple muscle groups and joints. 

Your glutes, hamstrings, quads and calves will all kick into action as you lift the dumbbell from the floor, and then your back, shoulders and triceps come into play as you pull and catch the weight overhead. 

Because this is a dynamic exercise, it’s also a good way to develop speed, power and explosiveness. 

If you use a light-to-medium weight and a high rep scheme, as CrossFit WODs tend to, the dumbbell snatch also helps to build cardio fitness and muscular endurance. 

Finally, holding a heavy object overhead is something most of us rarely do, so performing the dumbbell snatch correctly can increase our shoulder stability. 

Dumbbell Snatch CrossFit Standards

The last time dumbbell snatches showed up in the CrossFit Open was in 2022, during workout 22.1—a 15-minute AMRAP workout of three wall walks, 12 alternating dumbbell snatches and 15 box jump-overs.

For RX athletes, the standards released by CrossFit stated that the dumbbell had to start with both heads on the ground. It must then be lifted overhead in one smooth motion, not a two-phase movement as in a dumbbell clean and press. 

Athletes had to alternate arms for each rep, and the non-lifting hand was not allowed to make contact with any other parts of the body during the lift. 

A rep was awarded when the arms, hips and knees were fully extended, and the dumbbell was visibly over the athlete’s midline when viewed from the side. 

About Our Expert

If you own a set of dumbbells or are a member of any gym then you’re probably already doing some kind of dumbbell curls. We’d wager you’re doing the traditional biceps curl, standing with your palms facing forward at the start, and that’s a good thing—they’re among the best biceps exercises, after all. But there are more great dumbbell exercises that focus purely on that muscle group to help you build bigger upper arms.

The world of curls is wide and varied, and while all will work wonders in bulking up your biceps, the different angles used build more rounded, stronger arms than simply doing the classic curl alone would.

Below you’ll find guides to six dumbbell curls you can use during arm workouts, starting with the classic dumbbell biceps curl. But first, answers to some essential questions. 

Six Types Of Dumbbell Curls

1 Dumbbell biceps curl

Hold dumbbells by your sides with your palms facing forward. Bend your elbows to curl the weights up to your chest. Pause and squeeze your biceps, then lower the dumbbells to the start under control. It’s vital to lower the weight back to the start point after each rep in order to stretch the muscle properly and work all the muscle fibers.

Don’t lean back and don’t swing the dumbbells, because then momentum would do the work rather than your muscles. To avoid that, fix your elbows to your sides and come to a dead stop at the end of each rep.

2 Hammer curl

As well as working the biceps the hammer curl engages the brachialis muscles, which are found on the outside of your upper arms. Targeting these will help your biceps to stand out more. 

Hold your dumbbells by your waist with your palms facing. This is the hammer grip, and is the main difference from the standard biceps curl. From there, curl the weights up to your chest, then lower them back to waist height slowly.

3 Concentration curl

The position you use for the concentration curl makes it harder to sway and use momentum to help you lift the weights, ensuring you lift with good form and target the biceps. You’ll also be moving more slowly to increase the time the muscles spend under tension, and you may need to use a lighter dumbbell than normal for this variation.

Sit on a bench with your feet flat on the floor and your knees bent at 90°. Hold a dumbbell in your right hand with the back of your right arm resting against the inside of your right thigh. Keep your arm against your thigh as you bend your elbow and slowly curl the weight up, only moving your forearm. Pause at the top of the move, then lower the weight back to the start. Do all your reps on one arm, then switch. 

4 Reverse curl

Reverse curls are not only good for your biceps, but also help to increase your grip and forearm strength. They are a good option at the end of a biceps workout, because you only need a few sets with lighter weights to exhaust the muscles involved with reverse curls.

Hold your dumbbells in front of your waist in an overhand grip, palms facing you. Curl the weights up toward your chest—you should feel the tension in your forearms at the top of the move. Lower the weights slowly.

5 Zottman curl

The Zottman curl is another variation that will improve your forearm and grip strength while still working the biceps. Start by holding the dumbbells by your waist with your palms facing each other. Curl the weights up to your chest, rotating the dumbbells as you go so that your palms face upward at the top of the move. 

Hold for a second, then rotate your hands so your palms are facing downward and slowly lower the weights back down, taking three to five seconds to do so. As the dumbbells near your waist, turn your hands again so that your palms face each other to finish.

6 Spider curl

Though this curl variation is most commonly done with an EZ-bar and a preacher bench, our dumbbell workout plan includes a variation where you don’t need any other equipment. 

Holding dumbbells, push your hips back and bend your knees slightly so your elbows rest on the inside of your thighs, with your arms straight, palms facing forward. Keeping your upper arms perpendicular to the floor, bend your elbows to curl the weights up, then slowly lower them again.

This hanging position allows for a greater range of motion than the classic standing curl, but it also means you have to be very strict in using only the biceps to lift the weights. 

Take a look around at your fellow gym-goers next time you visit the weights room and it’s almost certain that you’ll see one or two of them doing biceps curls or some other laser-focused biceps exercise. 

It’s far rarer that you’ll spot someone paying similar attention to their triceps. That is a darn shame, because if you’re chasing sleeve-bursting upper arms, you need titanic triceps just as much as—if not more than—bulging biceps.

Some of the best triceps exercises, such as the push-up and bench press, work the triceps as a secondary muscle, but the triceps extension puts these muscles squarely in the limelight. As a result of this extra focus, you should find that your triceps get stronger in rapid fashion.

Read on to find out how to nail the dumbbell overhead triceps extension, along with a few other effective triceps-targeting lifts, as recommended by strength and conditioning coach Ryan Horton of Horton Barbell. 

How To Do The Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension

The overhead triceps extension can be performed standing, sitting on a bench set at an incline or decline or lying down. Each variation will allow you to make the exercise slightly easier or harder, depending on your range of movement around your shoulders and upper back. 

You can also perform this move with a barbell, EZ-bar, a single kettlebell or a single dumbbell. The advantage of doing it with a dumbbell in each hand is that you will be able to identify and address any strength imbalances on either side. 

And because it can ruthlessly expose any weaknesses, the overhead dumbbell extension should be considered a tough exercise to be performed carefully and with light weights to begin with to minimize the risk of injury. 

The Set-Up

If new to this exercise, Horton recommends starting out with the overhead dumbbell triceps extension performed in a seated position, either supported or unsupported. 

“Hold dumbbells and sit on the end of a bench,” says Horton. You can do this with a backrest too, just set the bench to just shy of a 90° angle. “Press the dumbbells up to full extension overhead. Try to keep your elbows pointed forwards as much as possible.” Once in position, aim to keep your elbows in the same place throughout. 

The Movement

“Bend your elbows to lower the dumbbells behind your head, before pressing the weights back up to full extension,” says Horton.

Common Mistakes When Performing The Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension

1. Poor Mobility

The overhead dumbbell triceps extension requires a surprising degree of shoulder mobility to do properly. “Most people are probably not going to have their elbows dead ahead when they do this,” says Horton, but that’s what you’re aiming for. 

“If poor shoulder mobility limits your range of motion, it’s going to put everything in a really awkward position and you won’t be able to execute the move properly.” 

To address this limitation, Horton suggests using resistance band shoulder dislocations and similar shoulder stretches to unlock greater flexibility in the pecs before returning to this exercise.

2. Performing Partial Reps 

The second most common mistake concerns range of motion, perhaps because of the aforementioned limitations in mobility, or because you’ve optimistically selected too heavy a pair of dumbbells. 

If you do this, you’ll only be able to perform a partial rep, meaning the muscles aren’t working to their full potential and range of motion is restricted further. 

If you want to shift more weight or struggle with the mobility element, Horton suggests using alternative triceps exercises such as the triceps push-down, dumbbell skullcrusher or diamond push-up.

Benefits Of The Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension

Unlike push-ups and overhead presses, which involve multiple muscle groups working in unison, the overhead dumbbell triceps extension is an isolation exercise that primarily targets the triceps. As such, it’s best served for building strength and size in the upper arms. 

Horton says this can transfer to other exercises too, giving your overall gym game a lift. “Strengthening your triceps will carry over to being able to do more push-ups, bench more weight, and even increase your Olympic weightlifting lifts like the jerk or split jerk,” he explains.

You can also perform this triceps exercise at home—all you need is a pair of light to medium heavy dumbbells. And if you only have one pair of weights, you can easily modify the exercise by slowing down the tempo to make each rep harder, or just use one dumbbell at a time, held in both hands, to make it easier. 

Drawbacks Of The Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension

Despite its many benefits, Horton says there are quite a few other triceps-targeted exercises he prefers to the overhead triceps extension, including dips and floor presses. 

“When you really drill down into it, you can simply move more weight with other triceps movements,” he says, and more weight equals greater strength gains. 

“The dip or close-grip floor press, which restricts range of motion to target the triceps and works the top half of the pressing movement, are fundamentally better triceps strength builders than a really isolated move like the overhead triceps extension.”

Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension Variations

One-arm overhead dumbbell triceps extension

By using dumbbells instead of a EZ-bar for the overhead extension you work each arm separately and ensure one stronger side isn’t carrying the weaker one, but it’s also worth doing the exercise with one arm at a time. This lets you focus on perfect form in that one arm, and also allows for a greater range of motion so you can be sure you’re working every part of the triceps with the move. As with all forms of the exercise, make sure you don’t overdo it with the weight you use and ideally you want to be able to rest the weight evenly in both palms. 

Overhead cable triceps extension

If you use a cable machine instead of dumbbells to perform the exercise, the main benefit is a consistent level of resistance throughout the movement. Attach a handle to the low pulley on the machine and hold it in both hands above your head with your arms fully extended. Lower the rope behind you, keeping your upper arms stationary, then flex your triceps to return to the starting position.

Lying triceps extension

If you fancy a lie-down during your workout, move your triceps extensions to a bench. This can help you focus on the movement of your arms better than the standing variation, and both exercises produce the same benefits – namely bulkier upper arms.

Lie on a flat bench, holding the dumbbells above you with your arms extended and your palms facing each other. Bend at your elbows to lower the weights on either side of your head, keeping your upper arms stationary and making sure you don’t flare your elbows out to the sides. Slowly take the dumbbells back up to the starting position.

We’d all love to be able to spend hours at the gym doing a series of laser-focused exercises that target each muscle in turn, but for most people that isn’t practical. Instead you have to be smart and pick exercises that provide the maximum return on time invested, and the dumbbell pull-over is most decidedly one of those exercises.

So the next time you’re in the gym worrying about whether you have the time to hit your pecs and lats during a workout, worry no more, because the dumbbell pull-over is a superb exercise for both.

Despite this, it’s an exercise that’s gone out of fashion since its heyday during the 1970s when it was popular with Arnold Schwarzenegger and his bodybuilding ilk. But all that means is that people will start copying you when you start doing dumbbell pull-overs in your local gym, especially when they see the barrel chest it helps you build. And rest assured that you don’t need a body like Arnold’s to do the dumbbell pull-over and enjoy its benefits. All you do need, in fact, is a dumbbell and a bench.

How To Do The Dumbbell Pull-Over

Lie down on a bench with your head and upper body supported, and your feet planted on the floor. Hold a dumbbell in both hands above your chest. You should be holding the far end of the dumbbell in both palms, with your fingers and thumbs against the handle, and your arms extended. Don’t go too heavy – if you already do triceps extensions use a similar weight.

Keeping your core engaged, take the dumbbell slowly down behind your head. Keep a slight bend in your elbows throughout the movement and don’t arch your back. Take the weight down until it is about level with your head, then slowly bring it back up to the starting position.

Don’t lower the weight so far that it feels uncomfortable, especially in your shoulders – if you don’t have good shoulder mobility that might be something to work on before trying the dumbbell pull-over.

Dumbbell Pull-Over Variations

Dumbbell pull-over on gym ball

If you want to ramp up the challenge to your core, introduce some instability to your exercise. Instead of lying on a solid weight bench, lean back on an inflatable gym ball. As you bring your arms behind your head to perform the pull-over, your core will have to work overtime to maintain good form and prevent you toppling over to the side. The first time you give this variation a try it’s wise to use a very light weight, or even no weight at all, so you can get an idea of the difficulty involved.

Dumbbell pull-over with raised legs

Lifting your legs and holding them just above the weight bench during the pull-over is another great way to increase the difficulty of the exercise and target your core muscles. Start with your legs raised and knees bent at 90°, then progress to extending your legs so they’re straight and hovering just above the bench. Naturally, by lifting your legs off the ground you reduce your stability, so be wary of the weight pulling you back off the bench during your pull-overs.

Barbell pull-over

The pull-over is also commonly performed with a barbell, which can allow you to use a little more weight, although the exercise is not one where you want to go too heavy – just ensure you’ve really mastered the form before you switch to a bar. The set-up and movement of the exercise are exactly the same. You hold the barbell in an overhand grip with your hands shoulder-width apart.

See related

• The Best Dumbbell Exercises For All Levels Of Gym-Goer
• The Best Chest Exercises For All Levels Of Gym-Goer
• Build Muscle With This Full-Body Dumbbell Workout

Cable pull-over

This one takes a little bit of setting up, but it’s worth the effort because using a cable machine for the pull-over places the targeted muscles under constant tension throughout the exercise. Attach a straight-bar handle to the low pulley, then position a bench in front of the cable machine so you can lie down with your head towards the machine and grab the handle in both hands. You’ll need to leave about metre between the bench and the machine.

Lie down and reach back to grasp the handle, or get someone nice to pass it to you. Holding the handle in both hands with an overhand grip, pull it over your head and down until your arms are at 45° to your body. Then take the handle back over and down behind your head. Keep your arms straight throughout.

The forearms are neither the easiest nor the most exciting part of your body to train. They don’t look good in beach photos and only impress in social situations when you get a chance to show off your awesome grip strength with a firm handshake.

That doesn’t mean you should neglect them, however, because a strong grip will be a major boon when you attempt all manner of other lifts, not to mention life-or-death situations. Should you ever find yourself hanging from a ledge, you’ll definitely regret spending all your time on squats when you could have been building stronger forearms.

If you’re still not convinced of the merits of forearm training, the Zottman curl might be a good way to ease yourself in, because the exercise also helps build bulging biceps while working your lower arms. In fact, because you rotate the dumbbell as you perform the curl you hit the entire biceps group of muscles. That’s greater functional strength and bigger mirror muscles courtesy of one simple arm exercise. Why isn’t everyone doing Zottman curls?

How To Do The Zottman Curl

Hold a pair of dumbbells by your sides with your palms facing. Curl the weights up to your shoulders, keeping your upper arms still and turning your hands so your palms face up as you lift. Pause at the top of the movement and slowly rotate your grip so your palms are facing downwards. Lower the dumbbells slowly back to the starting position using this overhand grip, counting for three to five beats as you lower the weight to make sure you’re not moving it too quickly. When the dumbbells are close to your thighs again, turn your hands so your palms are in the starting position facing one another. You can perform Zottman curls with both arms at the same time, or alternate the arm you lift with.

Zottman Curl Benefits

Named after early-20th-century American strongman George Zottman, this curl variation offers a more comprehensive approach to building bigger arms than the standard biceps curl.

“I absolutely love Zottman curls and have been on a mission to get everyone to incorporate them into their routine,” says certified strength coach Melissa Kendter.

Zottman Curl Variations

Reverse curl

If you’re ready to go full forearm with your curl, then skip the rotation part of the Zottman and do a reverse curl. Holding dumbbells with your palms facing you means you target the brachioradialis (which links the biceps to the forearm) and the upper forearm muscles, with less focus on the biceps.

Hold dumbbells in a reverse grip with your hands hip-width apart. Slowly lift them to your shoulders, keeping your elbows close to your sides. Pause at the top of the lift, then slowly lower.

Zottman preacher curl

Combine these two classic curls by resting your arms on a preacher bench during the exercise. In doing so you’ll be putting all the focus on your biceps, with the rotation during the movement ensuring you’re hitting them from different angles.

Set up on a preacher bench with your upper arms resting on it, holding a dumbbell in each hand by your shoulders with your palms facing away from you. Slowly lower the weights until your arms are fully extended, then turn your palms around so they are facing you and curl the weights back up to your shoulders.

There’s a particular type of exercise you should rely on to build a stronger back: rows. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of variations of this fundamental back exercise. 

The king of rows is the bent-over barbell row and it fully deserves its preeminent status thanks to the massive back-boosting benefits it provides. However, you could argue that the one-arm dumbbell row is even better for your back. That’s because using one arm at a time allows you to focus your efforts on the lats, rhomboids and other back muscles called upon by this pull exercise.

Using dumbbells instead of a barbell also prevents you from relying on one side of your body to do the bulk of the work, and can highlight any strength imbalances that you need to work on. The one-arm row also allows for a greater range of motion than the barbell bent-over row, enabling you to target more accessory muscles around the scapula. 

To help you master this move, we spoke to experienced strength and conditioning coach and sports scientist Ryan Horton of Horton Barbell. Read on for an expert guide on how to perfect your one-arm dumbbell row form, along with its chief benefits and the common pitfalls to avoid. 

How To Do The One-Arm Dumbbell Row

Common Form Mistakes

The one-arm row is not a complex exercise, so don’t overcomplicate it. “Assume a solid base, keep your core tight, grab a dumbbell and row. If you follow that instruction, 95% of the time it’s going to be spot-on,” says Horton. That said, there are a few common mistakes that can creep in and undermine your progress. 

1. Starting Wrong

Rounding your back and positioning your feet too close to your center of gravity is a typical error Horton sees all too often. “If your set-up position is garbage—your back is rounded, your feet are too close together—you’re going to be all hunched up and off-balance,” he says. 

Instead, focus on setting up with a solid platform. “Remember to maintain a wide base with your feet, a flat back, a tight core and keep everything square. Get that right and the row, for the most part, will take care of itself.”

2. Flaring Your Elbows

Another common mistake is to flare your elbows out to the side when performing a one-arm dumbbell row. Instead, keep your elbow tucked into your body.

“If you get into a proper set-up position, keep your elbow tight to your body and use a weight that’s heavy enough to be challenging, then when you row towards the top of your stomach you’re naturally going to use the correct range of motion,” says Horton. 

3. Twisting Your Torso

The final pitfall is overly rotating or twisting your upper back at the top of each rep and shifting the focus of the exercise away from the target muscle groups. 

“You’re not starting a lawnmower,” says Horton. “Don’t twist your torso and turn as you row. Keep everything tight and your back flat to work the right muscle the right way.”

Benefits Of The One-Arm Dumbbell Row

The lateral raise is one of the best shoulder exercises for those looking to build muscle in their shoulders. It’s also a very simple movement: essentially you just raise weights to the sides and up to shoulder level, then lower them again—though naturally we have some far more detailed advice about perfect form to follow.

However, don’t let that simplicity fool you into thinking you’re in for an easy time. The lateral raise is devilishly hard, even with very light weights. What seems incredibly simple on rep one is absolute murder by rep eight, so pick your weight wisely. If you’re doing this exercise for the first time, choose the weight you think will allow you to complete all the reps with good form—then go lighter. One set shouldn’t take much more than a minute—so why risk an injury for the sake of 12 reps with weights that are too light?

Read on for our comprehensive guide to how to do the lateral raise, including the basics, expert form tips and a couple of variations to try that will round out your shoulder session.

Lateral Raise Benefits

The lateral raise can help you build bigger, stronger shoulders, which should be enough to prompt most to reach for the nearest dumbbells—but the benefits don’t end there. The plus points of the lateral raise extend to increased shoulder mobility, stability and health too. 

Since the shoulder joint is the least stable and most mobile in the body, it’s vulnerable to injury and dislocation. “The lateral shoulder raise is a great way to ensure good shoulder health, because it helps maintain good range of motion in all directions,” says Noelle McKenzie, a certified personal trainer at Leading Edge Personal Trainers in New York City. “If we only train the shoulder one dimensionally, we’re putting ourselves at risk of hurting ourselves, not only during exercise but also during everyday life.”  

The lateral raise can also help improve performance in compound exercises, such as the overhead press and the barbell bench press. And because you’ll need only a fairly light weight for the lateral raise, it’s well suited to exercising at home where you may only have a light pair of dumbbells or a resistance band. 

How To Do The Lateral Raise

Selecting the correct weight is key to doing lateral raises safely. You’ll find that even with  light weights, the last few raises are a real challenge, so there’s no need to grab the heaviest dumbbell. “Trying to lift too heavy is probably the biggest challenge is maintaining good control. Focus on working on form and technique first, rather than increasing load,” says McKenzie.

Stand or sit with a dumbbell in each hand at your sides. Keep your back straight, brace your core, and then slowly lift the weights out to the sides until your arms are parallel with the floor. Lower the dumbbells slowly and keep them under control. Don’t go beyond horizontal when you’re raising the weights, and ensure you keep your arms out to your sides. If they start creeping forward it’s time to opt for a lighter weight.

A lot of people will cheat by “shrugging” the weights up using their traps. Resist the urge to do that by not raising your shoulder blades during the rep and focusing instead on the delts. “The crucial part of the lateral raise is to control the weight well on both the concentric [lifting the weight] and eccentric [lowering the weight] portion of the movement,” says Sprague.

Lateral Raise Form Tips

1. Don’t use momentum

What “The most common error when performing lateral raises is using your momentum to lift the weight up by swinging the dumbbell,” says Sprague. This is often caused by picking weights that are too heavy.

Why “When you rely on momentum, it can result in you using less of the lateral head of the delt and using your traps instead,” says Sprague. “This is a common fault with a lot of upper-body movements, which can lead to the traps becoming overdeveloped.” Throwing the weights up and down also reduces the control over the weight, which increases the chances of injury or strain.

How If you can’t lift weights without relying on momentum, select a lighter weight, then focus on your form and pacing. You want the movement to be slow and controlled.  

2. Lead with your elbows

What Raise the dumbbells leading with your elbows, so that they’re the highest part of your arm.

Why Ensuring your elbows lead the move will keep the focus on your delts and minimize the stress placed on your rotator cuffs, a small group of delicate but crucial stabilizing muscles.

How Raise your elbows out to the sides, maintaining a slight bend in the joint. Concentrate on how your side delts feel and contract as the weights are raised.

3. Turn your wrists

What As your hands approach shoulder height, rotate your wrist so that your little fingers are uppermost.

Why Turning your wrists as the dumbbells reach the top of the move activates more muscle fibers in your side delts, meaning each rep works the muscle even harder. “But if you turn your palm so that your thumb faces up, it’s going to hit more of the anterior (front) part of the shoulder,” says McKenzie.

How Once your elbows are at shoulder height, turn your wrists as if you were pouring two jugs of water so your little fingers are the highest parts of your hands. Reverse this movement as you lower the weights again. “Make sure not to grip the dumbbell too tightly as this will prevent the recruitment of your forearm muscles,” says Sprague.

4. Go down slower

What From the top of the move, lower the weights back to the start as slowly as possible.

Why Taking your time to lower the dumbbells forces your shoulders to work harder to manage the weight, so you recruit more muscle fibers in order to maintain control. The more muscular damage you do, the greater your growth return. “Manipulating the time under tension helps increase the intensity without increasing the load,” says Kern Alexander, a certified personal trainer at Leading Edge Personal Trainers. 

How Aim for a two-second lowering phase at first, then increase it over time.

5. Raise and stop

What Make a strategic stop just before the top of the move.

Why Adding a pause is great for muscle enhancement. “It’s a way of stopping momentum and increasing the time that you’re spending under the force of gravity pulling directly against the muscle fibers,” says Alexander.

How Before a set of lateral raises, hold the weights just below shoulder height for 10 seconds, then do 10 reps. Repeat three times.

Lateral Raise Variations

Front raise

Why If you get bored with lateral raises (as if that could ever happen) then you can mix things up with front raises. These involve exactly the same movement, but with your arms straight out in front of you, shifting the focus to the anterior or front deltoid.

How Hold dumbbells in front of your thighs with palms facing you. Lift to shoulder level. Lower under control.

“Both of these exercises are equally difficult, but you might be a little stronger doing a front raise,” says Alexander. “That’s because the front delts get a lot of work when you press, and most of us do a lot of pressing movements. So those muscles are usually more developed than the mid delts.”

Resistance band lateral raise

Why The lateral raise is a great exercise to use resistance bands for, because you don’t need much weight to get great results and the bands will provide more of a challenge at the top of the lift. It’s also a gentler option on your joints if you’re worried about any shoulder niggles and, of course, using portable bands means you can get a spot of lateral raising whenever the mood takes you. “A resistance band allows you to maintain resistance throughout the entire range of motion, and you can always adjust the intensity of the band because different bands have different levels of resistance,” says McKenzie.

How Stand on the middle of the band holding one end in each hand, then raise your arms out to the sides until they are parallel to the ground. Lower slowly, working against the pull of the band.

Reverse flye

Why Also known as the reverse or bent-over flye, this variation puts more focus on your posterior (or rear) deltoids and the muscles in your upper back because of the change in the angle.

How Stand with dumbbells by your sides. Hinge at the hips and bend over until your torso is parallel to the floor, or close to that point, keeping your back straight. Let the dumbbells hang down beneath your chest. Raise the weights out to the sides until your arms are parallel with the ground, then slowly take them back down.

Make sure you don’t rock your body or move any other part of it to create momentum. If you’re struggling to stay still, try the bent-over lateral raise while lying on a bench.

Lateral Raise Workouts

Now you’re au fait with the lateral raise you need some workouts to use it in, and you’ll find these below. Just remember when doing dumbbell workouts that you might need lighter weights for the lateral raise than other exercises.

Shoulder workout routine for size: This challenging shoulder session involves doing rounds of exercises with little to no rest. The first round involves three heavy barbell lifts and the second a trio of dumbbell exercises, including the seated lateral raise.

Superset shoulder workout: This taxing shoulder session starts with a couple of big compound lifts before moving into supersets using lighter weights to work your shoulders from a variety of angles. You’ll need dumbbells, a barbell and weight plates, and access to a cable machine for the workout, so it’s best done in a gym.

Home shoulder workout: If you’d rather build the lateral raise into a home workout, this session just requires one set of light dumbbells. The workout is made up of three sets of the 30/30 push press, followed by a tri-set of shoulder exercises including the lateral raise.

Dumbbell shoulder workout: You can use this short dumbbell workout as a standalone shoulder session or add it to the end of a bigger workout as a challenging finisher. It involves three rounds of three shoulder moves done without any rest, with the lateral raise featuring alongside the reverse flye and Arnold press.

About Our Experts

In these days of budget airlines hand luggage is king. Every regular traveller has a suitcase that pushes the limits of the size allowance for on-board bags without ever exceeding them, because nothing ruins the start of a holiday like having to pay a premium to check your luggage into the hold.

Why are we talking about this? Because this is just one example of how lifting heavy objects overhead is now a key life skill and no exercise prepares you better for this than the shoulder press (also known as the overhead press), which is arguably the best shoulder exercise going. What’s more, compared with the barbell, dumbbell exercises allow you to work each side of your body independently, preventing or remedying any muscle imbalances. 

So if you want strong, broad shoulders that make you the envy of everyone in the cabin, add the dumbbell shoulder press to your gym routine. Check out the form guide below, and remember to come back and thank/shout at us when everyone on your next flight asks you to lift their baggage into the lockers.

Dumbbell Shoulder Press Benefits

For many, the dumbbell shoulder press is the exercise for building shoulder strength and size. As a compound movement that recruits the triceps and chest as well as the shoulder muscles, it allows you to move more weight than other shoulder-focused exercises such as the lateral raise or Arnold press. Engaging these muscle groups can help them grow as long as you are following the principles of hypertrophy training. 

The dumbbell shoulder press also has an edge over its barbell equivalent, aside from helping to prevent muscle imbalances. Research published in The Journal Of Strength And Conditioning Research found the standing dumbbell shoulder press stimulated more muscle activity in the front and middle parts of the shoulder than its barbell counterpart. 

The study compared electromyogram activity (EMG) in the anterior, medial and posterior deltoids in 15 healthy men during barbell and dumbbell shoulder presses performed both seated and standing. It found EMG in the anterior (front) deltoids was, on average, 15% lower during a standing barbell overhead press than a standing dumbbell shoulder press. It was also 7% lower in the medial deltoid.

How To Do The Dumbbell Shoulder Press

First, select your dumbbells. Don’t go overboard on the weight here, because this is an exercise that suddenly feels very tough halfway through a set. You almost want to feel like you’ve picked too light a weight for the first couple of reps. Opting for too heavy a weight can also mean you risk injury to your shoulders if your form gets sloppy as a result of the load.

Hold the dumbbells by your shoulders with your palms facing forwards and your elbows out to the sides and bent at a 90° angle. Without leaning back, extend through your elbows to press the weights above your head. Then slowly return to the starting position.

Form Tips

If you’re lifting heavier weights, manoeuvring the dumbbells into the starting position can be tricky. Rest the ends of the dumbbells on your knees, then explosively lift your thighs to kick them into position without putting undue stress on your shoulders and rotator cuffs. 

Another top tip if you’re looking to build muscle is to stop just short of fully locking out your elbows when pressing the weights overhead. This will maintain tension in your shoulder muscles throughout the movement, maximising their time under tension during each rep. 

Dumbbell Shoulder Press Variations

Seated dumbbell shoulder press

Shoulder pressing dumbbells from a seated position – using a bench with an upright back for complete support – allows you to lift heavier than the standing version, something the study mentioned above confirmed. Why’s that? You no longer have to support your torso (the bench takes care of that) so you have a more stable base from which to generate pushing power. As a result you get to grow bigger and broader shoulders. Here’s how to do it.

Sit on an upright bench holding a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder height with your palms facing away from you. Keep your chest up, brace your core and look straight forwards throughout the move. Press the weights directly upwards until your arms are almost straight and the dumbbells are directly above your shoulders. Slowly lower the weights back to the starting position, pause, then start the next rep. If you bounce back up from the bottom position, you’re placing greater strain on your shoulders and using momentum to move the weights instead of your muscles.

Always remember to warm up thoroughly when attempting any heavy lifts with your shoulders because the shoulder joint is one of the most intricate and mobile in the human body, making it more susceptible to injury.

Dumbbell push press

For a more dynamic shoulder move, try the push press. This exercise has the added benefit of allowing you to lift heavier weights than a standard shoulder press, although you should only increase the load when you’ve perfected your form. 

Stand holding dumbbells next to your shoulders with your elbows pointing to the sides. Bend your knees to lower into a quarter squat, then push up through your heels and press the weights above your head, using the momentum generated by your legs to complete the movement. Slowly lower the dumbbells back to your shoulders.

Hammer shoulder press

For this variation, change your grip so that your palms are facing each other while lifting the dumbbells. This change in grip recruits different muscles in the shoulders and can also put less pressure through the joint than the traditional method, so if you’re looking to reduce the stress on your shoulders while still strengthening them, the hammer variation is one to consider.

Dumbbell thruster

While in the push press you drop into a quarter squat before pressing the weights overhead, the thruster incorporates a full front-racked dumbbell squat to create an incredibly demanding total-body movement. It’s a terrific compound exercise that works muscles all over the body – hard. Popular in CrossFit and HIIT workouts, it can also be a great conditioning tool if you combine lighter weights and high reps, which will spike your heart rate while boosting your muscular endurance and cardiovascular fitness. 

Holding the weights by your shoulders, drop into a squat until your thighs are at least parallel to the floor, then drive back up by pushing through your heels and press the dumbbells overhead. 

Dumbbell Shoulder Press Workouts

So now you know how to pull off the perfect shoulder press, but who heads to the gym, does a few sets of one exercise and hits the showers? No-one. What you need is some workouts which include the move you’ve just learned, and we have plenty of suggestions. If you’re just starting out, it’s a great option to use in our beginner’s gym workout template, but you’ll find it used in lots more workouts too. Here are a few to consider.

Full-Body Dumbbell Workout

Be prepared to sweat with this session, which mixes weights with cardio. The routine switches between upper-body and leg exercises, interspersed with bouts on the treadmill. It’s a great conditioning workout.  

See the full-body dumbbell workout

Dumbbell Workout Plan

One entire workout in this training plan is dedicated to your shoulders (the other three focus on your chest and back, arms, and legs and abs), and that testing session begins with the dumbbell shoulder press. 

See the dumbbell workout plan

21s Workouts

This three session plan uses partial reps for certain exercises, including the dumbbell shoulder press, to maximize muscle fatigue, and therefore growth. Just make sure you pick a lighter weight than you usually would, because this is an advanced technique. 

See the 21s workouts

Superset Shoulder Workout

If you have plenty of training experience and have been hanging on for a gym workout that focuses on your shoulders, and only your shoulders, your patience has paid off. This six-move workout begins with straight sets of two barbell exercises, followed by two supersets. Pro tip: don’t stash your kit in a locker above head height. 

See the superset shoulder workout

We don’t want to come over all fitness hipster here, but frankly, the barbell bench press isn’t the be-all and end-all of chest exercises. Sure, it’s a great strength-building compound move for the upper body, but its place as a workout staple is largely due to its ability to inflate one’s ego, rather than pump up their pectorals. 

If you’re ready to look beyond the bench press, we believe there are five chest exercises you should do instead—one of which, suitably, is the dumbbell bench press. That’s right, all you need to do to boost your bench is switch out the barbell for a pair of dumbbells, especially if you’re looking to build a bigger chest.

To help you get the most from the dumbbell bench press, we enlisted the help of strength and conditioning coach and sports scientist Ryan Horton. Here he explains how to master the move and how to avoid common pitfalls, and weighs up whether the dumbbell bench press deserves to knock its barbell cousin off its perch once and for all. 

How To Do The Dumbbell Bench Press

You need only a weight bench and set of dumbbells for this move, making it a versatile option when you can't get to the bench press stations. 

The Set-Up

“Grab a set of dumbbells and sit on the end of a bench with your feet flat on the floor,” says Horton. “Start with the dumbbells resting on your thighs, then lie back on the bench and, as you do, use your legs to push the dumbbells into place at your chest.”

The Press

Most people tend to hold the dumbbells perpendicular to their body, but Horton advises holding them so they form a 30-45° angle with your torso, with the end of the dumbbell closest to your chest also closest to your head. 

“This angle means the elbows can be tucked in, rather than flared out from the shoulder when you press,” says Horton. He also recommends pressing the weights from level with the bottom of your chest, below your nipples, then driving them until your arms reach full extension directly above your chest.

The Return

The eccentric, or lowering, phase of the lift is arguably more crucial for muscle growth than the press. “Generally you should be looking to drive the weight up powerfully, taking about one second on the way up, then keeping everything under control on the way down, taking three to five seconds to lower so you promote greater hypertrophy,” says Horton.

Common Form Mistakes

Going Too Heavy

The dumbbell bench press isn’t rocket science, but there are still a few bad habits and common pitfalls to avoid. “Firstly, there’s the common mistake with every exercise of trying to use too much weight,” says Horton. 

Of course, you need to lift something challenging to build strength, but you should never opt for a set of dumbbells so heavy that they force you to compromise on your form. 

This ego-driven approach is a one-way ticket to partial reps and injury, which leads us nicely on to Horton’s next point.

Not Completing The Full Range Of Motion

“After going too heavy, the biggest mistake I’ve seen is when people are not working through a full range of motion, instead only lowering or pressing the weight halfway,” says Horton. 

Taking shortcuts will reduce the overall muscle activation involved with each rep, hampering your ability to add size and strength. Instead, Horton says, make sure you lower the dumbbells until they’re just about in line with your chest.

Elbow Position

Another all too common mistake Horton has spotted relates to the angle of the area between the upper arm and torso at the start of the dumbbell bench press. 

“I want a 45° angle, not a 90° angle where the elbow is all the way out, in line with the shoulder,” he says. Not only will the correct position help you press heavier, it’ll also considerably reduce your risk of injury. 

“Flaring out your elbows puts a lot of unnecessary strain on the shoulder joint, while also taking a lot of the emphasis of the exercise away from the pecs,” Horton adds.

Benefits Of The Dumbbell Bench Press

First and foremost, the dumbbell bench press is a tried-and-tested way to build strength and power to your upper body, while also adding considerable size to your pushing muscles. 

“The dumbbell bench press involves multiple major muscle groups,” says Horton. “Your pecs, anterior delts, triceps, even muscles like your core and your lats, are all required to engage and help stabilize the weights for a smooth motion.”

Horton notes that the dumbbell variation of the classic bench press has the added benefit of being an isolateral exercise, meaning that you can work both sides of your body independently from each other to address weaknesses. 

“This helps to prevent or even correct muscular imbalances,” says Horton. “If you have one side of your body that’s stronger than the other because you favor it, switching from the barbell bench to the dumbbell bench press can help correct that.”

Dumbbell Bench Press Variations

Incline dumbbell bench press

The incline press works the top of the chest and the front of your shoulders harder than the standard exercise, boosting the strength of your muscles and hopefully increasing the amount you’ll be able to lift when performing the standard flat bench press.

Set up a bench at an incline of 30-45° and sit with your feet flat on the floor and your back on the bench. Lift the dumbbells to chest height with your palms facing forwards. Breathe out and push the dumbbells up until your arms are fully extended, using your pecs to power the movement. Don’t let the dumbbells touch. Pause for a second at the top, then slowly bring them back down as you inhale.

Decline dumbbell bench press

If the incline bench press targets the top of the chest it stands to reason that the decline bench press will hit the lower chest muscles harder, and you might also find with this variation that you can lift more weight when on a decline than with the flat or incline press. Set up a bench so it’s at a 45° angle and sit on the top of the slope. Lean back (carefully) and bring the dumbbells up to your chest. Press the weights straight up slowly, then bring them back down to your chest. The natural tendency is to let the weights drift back over your head during the lift, so focus on avoiding that. It can be worth having someone check your form when first attempting this move.

Alternating dumbbell bench press

If you’re using dumbbells rather than a barbell with the aim of evening out any strength imbalances in your body, the alternating version of the exercise is one you should get well acquainted with. The form is the same as with the standard dumbbell bench press, except that you lift one weight at a time, keeping the other by your chest. The effect is to isolate each side of the body even more effectively than the standard version of the move. Start on your weaker side and you’ll soon see how much more of a challenge it is to lift one weight at a time.

Hammer press

By holding the dumbbells in a hammer grip—with your palms facing towards each other—you increase the load on your triceps compared with the standard grip for the bench press. You can do this variation with either a flat bench or set it at an incline, with the latter focusing more on the upper chest muscles.

Set up with the dumbbells held at chest height in a hammer grip and press them up until your arms are fully extended. Pause at the top, then bring the weights back down slowly.

There are many benefits to building stronger, broader shoulders. Sure, some of them are aesthetic, because wide shoulders help you fill out T-shirts like nobody’s business, but there are also more practical benefits, like better posture, improved performance on other lifts to help you build strength and greater resistance to injury. And when it comes to broadening your Noddy Holders, there are few better exercises than the dumbbell reverse flye.

The reverse flye hits the side and rear parts of your shoulders as effectively as any other exercise, which will contribute greatly to building broader shoulders. The move also helps to improve stability in your shoulder girdle and rotator cuff muscles. These are both areas that can be injury-prone when doing weighted exercises that involve the shoulder joint, so the stability benefits of the reverse flye will please all keen gym-goers. Furthermore, it’s a great exercise for those worried about their posture, because it strengthens the shoulders in a manner that counters the hunched position many of us adopt at a desk all day.

However, all these benefits depend on you doing the dumbbell reverse flye with proper form and often that’s dictated by picking the right weight. It’s vital not to try to lift too heavy with this exercise, because that can pull you out of shape and risk putting too much stress through the shoulder joint. Go light – and always remember, what feels fine on the first rep can be torturously heavy by the fifth.

See related

• The Best Shoulder Exercises For All Levels Of Gym-Goer
• The Best Shoulder Workouts
• The Dumbbell Shoulder Workout to Build Cannonball Shoulders

How To Do A Dumbbell Reverse Flye

Stand tall with feet shoulder-width apart, holding a light dumbbell in each hand with palms facing each other. Lean forwards from the hips, keeping your chest up, core and glutes braced and keep your back, with the weights hanging forward in front of you and a slight bend in your elbows.

Keeping the bend in your elbows and leading with them, raise the dumbbells out to the side until they reach shoulder height. Pause at the top and squeeze your shoulder blades together, then lower them back to the start.

It’s vital to engage your muscles to lift and lower the weight, rather than relying on momentum to swing them up and down. Using momentum means you won’t work the target muscles effectively and exposes your shoulder joint to a significant risk of injury.

So building a bigger chest is on your agenda. That’s fair enough. The same can be said for many of us who regularly hit the gym. But before you make a beeline for the bench press, understand that there is another way to strengthen your chest and promote new growth in the pecs. That way is via the often-overlooked dumbbell flye.

The dumbbell flye targets all areas of the pecs, but most significantly the sternal fibers—those that attach directly to your sternum. Growth in this particular region creates the defined chest separation look associated with all your muscle-bound heroes. 

The move is also better at stimulating pectoral growth than the flat bench press. What’s more, you don’t have to lift anywhere near as heavy, and since there’s almost always a wait for bench press stations at the gym during busy times of the day, this offers a viable alternative when time is of the essence. 

Despite its long list of benefits, it’s also an exercise that’s commonly misunderstood. To make sure your immaculate form is the talk of the gym, we’ve spoken to strength and conditioning coach Ryan Horton of Horton Barbell. 

Here you’ll find his expert how-to guide to master proper dumbbell flye form, along with common pitfalls to avoid and his rule on when you should deploy this chest exercise and when you should stick to the bench press. 

How To Do The Dumbbell Flye

To do this move, you need a pair of dumbbells and a flat weight bench, or one set at a very slight incline.

The Set-Up

Sit on one end of a bench with the dumbbells resting on your thighs. “Lie back, using your legs to help ‘pop’ the dumbbells to your chest, then press them straight up over your chest,” says Horton. 

The Lower

“Turn your wrists so your palms face each other over the top of your chest. There should be a slight bend in your elbow,” says Horton. “From here, lower the dumbbells out to your sides until they are level with your torso.”

The Return

Once you feel a gentle stretch in your pecs, while you maintain a slight bend in your elbows, you’ve reached the lowest point of the lift. “When you reach this point, squeeze and contract your pecs to bring your arms back to the starting position over the top of the chest,” says Horton. 

Dumbbell Flye Form Tips

Avoid the arch

You may see elite-level powerlifters arch their back when performing chest exercises like the bench press. Don’t attempt to emulate them—remember that the goal of powerlifting is moving a weight from A to B with sufficient force. Your goal is to recruit and target muscle fibres to elicit new growth.

Keep your elbows bent

Be sure not to straighten your arms fully and lock them out. This takes the emphasis off the pectoral muscle fibers and channels the load you are lifting into the elbow and shoulder joints. This increases injury risk and doesn’t activate the chest enough.

Don’t overstretch

Be careful not to let your elbows drop too low at the bottom of the rep. Overstretching during this part of the movement could injure your shoulders and reduce the amount of work the pec muscles do. Horton says you should go by feel because one person’s range of motion could be wildly different from another’s. “You’re looking for a slight stretch in the pec. Once you feel that, contract your muscles and bring the dumbbells back to the top of the lift.”

Benefits Of The Dumbbell Flye

The number one benefit of the dumbbell flye, over and above all other chest exercises, is muscle growth, explains Horton. However, it should be used wisely and rarely in isolation. 

“The dumbbell flye is a good chest exercise to use towards the end of your upper-body workouts as a way to add volume and focus on hypertrophy for the pec muscles,” he says. 

But if your goal is strength, power and dynamism for a particular sport, it should only be used as a supplementary exercise. “It’s more of what I consider a bodybuilding-type movement, rather than one to aid sports performance.”

Dumbbell Flye Variations

Incline dumbbell flye

The incline flye targets the top of the pecs more than the flat version of the exercise does and it’s the variation used in our gym-based chest workout plan. To do it, set your bench up at an incline of around 30°. Then lie back and perform the flye as you would with a flat bench, paying extra care not to overstretch when you bring the weights down.

Gym ball dumbbell flye

To make the dumbbell flye a heck of a lot harder and enlist all manner of other muscles in the movement, try performing the move while resting your back on a gym ball rather than a bench. Because you’re supporting your shoulders and back on an unstable surface, muscles all over your body have to work throughout the exercise to keep your body upright, which means you improve your balance and core strength on top of the chest-building benefits of the flye itself.

To perform this variation pick a lighter dumbbell than normal, then rest your shoulders and back on the top of a gym ball with your feet planted firmly on the ground.

About Our Expert

So you’ve turned your back on regular rows. You’ve done so many that the one-arm row, the cable row, the upright row, the inverted row, even – gasp – the bent-over row no longer satisfy. You need something better, more impressive, harder. You sir, are a renegade, and you need an exercise that matches your willingness to turn your back on the norm. Meet the renegade row.

This tough compound exercise strengthens almost every part of the upper body as well as working the core as you struggle to hold an elevated position while lifting the dumbbells.

The other thing the renegade row does effectively is highlight any imbalances in the strength of your upper body. You’ll soon notice if the move is far harder on one side than the other, despite the dumbbells’ equal weights.

On the topic of weights, this is not an exercise to overestimate your strength on. Opt for too heavy a dumbbell and you’ll quickly lose your form and twist and jerk all over the place. Trust us when we say that even with a light weight, the renegade row will test your limits if you slow down and nail the form throughout.

How To Do A Renegade Row

Grab a pair of light dumbbells or kettlebells – err on the side of caution with the weight the first time you try the renegade row. You’ll probably need weights with a flat side to rest on – round dumbbells may roll under the inexperienced. Get into a press-up position with a dumbbell in each hand. Brace your body, then raise one of the dumbbells, supporting yourself on the other arm.

Row the weight upward until your upper arm is slightly higher than your torso, then slowly lower it back down to the ground. Aim for three sets of eight to 10 reps on each arm, you can either do one side all at once, or alternate. Once you can complete 10 on each side comfortably, increase either the reps or the weight.

Renegade Row Variations

Kneeling renegade row

If you find the full version of the exercise too tricky at first, try it with your knees on the ground. The rest of the movement stays the same, but the challenge to your core and upper body is reduced.

Renegade row with press-up

This one explains itself. You’ll have noticed that the elevated plank position you adopt with the renegade row puts you in the perfect position to pop in a press-up in between lifts. This is a harder variation, obviously.

Kettlebell renegade row

Another trickier variation involves swapping the dumbbells for kettlebells, which provide a less stable base that increases the challenge of staying in the plank position. Use a lighter weight than you would with dumbbells as you get used to the kettlebells.

At a glance, the Z-press looks easy. Popularized by the Lithuanian strongman Žydrūnas Savickas, this exercise is basically an overhead press performed while sitting on the floor with your legs straight. But don’t let its simplicity fool you. The Z-press requires strength in your shoulders and core, plus flexibility in your hamstrings and hip flexors, and there’s no way to cheat. Without a doubt, the Z-press takes pride of place among the best shoulder exercises for developing mobility, stability and co-ordination. 

However, your technique needs to be on point if you want to reap all the benefits of the Z-press. Good form is also crucial to avoid painful shoulder injuries and reduce unnecessary strain on your lower back. To help you master the Z-press, we asked strength and mobility experts to share their best training tips. Read on for top-notch advice on how to perform this challenging movement safely and effectively.

Z-Press Benefits

The Z-press is much more than a bodybuilding exercise. “The Z-press mimics the position in all sorts of push exercises. It really builds a lot of stability inside the shoulder,” says Cody Mooney, a former CrossFit Games athlete and the director of performance for the mobility and recovery app pliability. As a result, incorporating this exercise into your workout routine can help you master more complex movements, such as a handstand push-up. 

The Z-press is also a useful exercise if you want to increase your mobility, especially around your thoracic spine and shoulder blades. That’s according to Mitch Raynsford, a certified strength and conditioning coach at P3RFORM, a digital fitness coaching platform. “I always advocate using strength training to improve range of motion,” he says. “If you just do mobility and flexibility exercises, you can be flexible throughout the range of motion, but you might not be strong in those ranges, top and bottom.” 

How To Do The Z-Press

Sit upright, gripping the bar with hands just wider than shoulder-width apart. Aim to keep your hamstrings flat on the floor so your lower back remains tight. Press the bar overhead and push your head through the window created by your arms at the top of each rep—this’ll keep your shoulders healthy. 

“Same as with the push-up, go for a 45° angle with the elbows. Pressing slightly in front of you is going to allow you to work more towards front delts rather than getting pinched through the shoulders. Make sure to keep your shoulder blades retracted and depressed,” says Raynsford. And absolutely do not lean back during tough reps or break the sitting position when you’re not lifting.

“Hyperextending can place a lot of stress on the lumbar spine. Make sure you’re able to keep that neutral spine throughout the exercise,” says Raynsford. Resist the urge to break your form by tightening up your core muscles and pressing your hips into the ground. 

Z-press Form Tips

1. Switch To Dumbbells

Why “I’m a big fan of using dumbbells during the Z-press, because you can’t overcompensate on one arm,” says Mooney. “With a barbell, you sometimes start using more of your dominant arm. And because dumbbells take away some of the stability, your shoulders need to work all those little stabilizing muscles too.” 

How Since the dumbbell Z-press is slightly more difficult than the barbell Z-press, make sure you go for lighter weights.  

2. Slow Down On Your Way Down

Why “One of the best ways to increase intensity is to go slow on your way down. Increasing the time under tension fatigues your shoulder without the need to use a ton of weight,” says Mooney. 

How “You can get creative and mix your rep scheme or the descent time—there are many different ways to build muscles without the fear of hurting yourself,” says Mooney. For example, lower your bar on a count of three.

3. Don’t Skimp On Safety Measures

Why The Z-press is a challenging movement, so make sure you have safety measures in place. 

How “Keep safety bars close at hand. If you can’t rack it, then ask someone to spot you so the barbell doesn’t land on you,” Raynsford said.

Z-Press Vs Overhead Press

Both the Z-press and the overhead press involve lifting a bar above your head to build mass and strength in the shoulder muscles. However, the difference in lower-body position changes muscle engagement. “In the Z-press, there’s more focus on your thoracic mobility and a lot more stress through your shoulders and triceps than with a normal overhead press,” says Raynsford. “You’re not allowed to cheat in any way—you have to do it correctly. If you don’t, then the barbell is not going up.” As a result, the Z-press is a better choice for more advanced exercisers, but even seasoned gym-goers will need impeccable mobility to perform this exercise safely. 

Another notable difference is the maximum possible load you’ll be able to press. The overhead press allows you to put more weight on the bar. That means if shoulder strength is at the top of your priority list, you may be better off ditching the Z-press in favor of the overhead press.

On the other hand, the Z-press may be a better option if you struggle to isolate your shoulders. “If you have a tendency to flex your knees or your hips during a standing overhead barbell press, a bit of the work will come from your legs. By doing the Z-press, you take out all of that legwork, and rely on your rear delts,” says Raynsford. “So there’s no way of really cheating it.”

About Our Experts

We’re partial to a combination exercise here at Coach, since they are a great way to get a cardio workout with weights. Generally combo moves involve doing two exercises in one movement, but the squat to curl to press goes a step further by merging three of the best dumbbell exercises into one.

Those exercises are the dumbbell squat, the biceps curl and the dumbbell overhead press, and between the three of them there are very few muscles in the body that don’t get involved in the process. 

Squat To Curl To Press Benefits

The benefits of the combination move begin with the muscles you’ll work at each stage. The squat targets all the major muscle groups in the lower body, with the glutes and quads doing the bulk of the work. The biceps curl works pretty much just the biceps, but the overhead press targets the shoulders, triceps and upper back.

All the moves involve your core muscles, especially the squat and press, and the benefits to your core are enhanced by combining the three exercises into one since your body has to stabilise itself throughout. 

By using dumbbells for the three exercises you can also identify any strength imbalances in your body, especially when it comes to the curls and presses.

How To Squat To Curl To Press

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding the dumbbells by your sides. Push your hips back and bend your knees to lower until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Drive through your heels to return to standing and go straight into the biceps curl, bending your elbows to lift the dumbbells to your shoulders, keeping your upper arms close to your body.

Once the dumbbells reach your shoulders move straight on to the press, lifting the weights overhead until your arms are straight. Reverse the movements under control and go into your next squat.

When selecting the weights make sure you consider the curl and particularly the press parts of the move, where you will need to be using lighter dumbbells than you could for just squats.

In This Series

• Introduction
• Variation: External dumb-bell rotation
• Variation: Internal cable rotation
• Variation: External cable rotation

• Lie on your side with your knees bent for stability and your upper arm in line with your body.
• Hold a light dumb-bell with your palm upturned and your elbow bent at 90°.
• Rotate your arm so the dumb-bell points upwards, keeping the 90° bend in your elbow.