If there’s one exercise that feels beyond most gym-goers, it’s the pull-up. It makes sense that they’re one of the toughest moves to do. After all, you’re lifting your entire body weight.

“Consistency, patience, and progressive overload are essential principles for mastering the pull-up,” says Ali Malik, a personal trainer and founder of Fit Labs Kensington.

Our four-week pull-up workout plan for beginners sticks to those principles, but if you’re keen to speed up your progress or lay strong foundations while you wait for a home pull-up bar to be delivered, Malik has recommended a few exercises that will help you strengthen the muscles you need to do a pull-up.

“Incorporate pull-up-specific exercises into your routine at least two to three times per week, gradually increasing intensity, volume, and resistance over time,” says Malik.

“While calisthenics exercises like pull-ups and bodyweight rows are excellent for building functional strength, incorporating weight training exercises like lat pull-downs, rows and deadlifts can provide additional muscle stimulation and variety to your training regimen,” says Malik.

Here, he shares a variation of bodyweight and weighted exercises to help you achieve your first pull-up or improve the number of reps you’re able to do.

1 Negative pull-up

Why “This eccentric phase of the movement helps build muscle strength and control, which are essential for performing full pull-ups,” says Malik.

How Use a box or a step to get into the top of a pull-up position, with your chin above the bar and your hands gripping the bar shoulder-width apart. Lower yourself as slowly as possible until your arms are fully extended.

2 Band pull-apart

Why “Strengthening the muscles responsible for scapular retraction, such as the rhomboids and lower trapezius, is crucial for pull-up success,” says Malik.

How Stand holding a resistance band in front of you around chest height with your arms extended and your hands shoulder-width apart. Move each hand out to either side as far as you can. Pause and squeeze your shoulder blades before returning to the start under control. 

3 Face pull

Why This is another exercise to strengthen scapular retraction.

How Set up a cable machine with a double rope attachment fixed at eye level. Face the anchor and hold the handles with an overhand grip, palms facing the floor, Step back until your arms are extended at chest height and the cable is taut. Pull the handles towards either side of your face, then rotate your forearms to vertical, your elbow should be at a 90° angle. Pause and squeeze your shoulder blades together. Slowly return the handles to the start.

4 Lat pull-down

Why “Incorporating lat pull-downs and rowing exercises into your strength training routine can target the same muscle groups used in pull-ups, such as the latissimus dorsi, biceps and upper-back muscles,” says Malik. “Gradually increasing resistance and volume will contribute to overall pull-up strength.”

How Sit in a lat pull-down machine and hold the bar with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and your palms facing forward. Pull the bar down towards your chest. Pause and squeeze your shoulder blades. You can move backward slightly but don’t swing your torso to generate momentum to move the weight. Return the bar to the start under control.

If you’re ready to get serious with your upper-body training but don’t have access to a weights room, the pike push-up is a powerful bodyweight move that can produce major results. While it looks straightforward, don’t underestimate how challenging this workout can be. It’s one of the best shoulder exercises for stability and mobility, but also one that’s easy to get wrong. 

“The pike push-up has more in common with a handstand push-up than a regular push-up,” says Cody Mooney, a former CrossFit Games athlete and the director of performance for the mobility and recovery app pliability. “That’s because it’s done in an inverted position. You elevate your hips to create a triangle. This shifts the muscle engagement from your chest and triceps to your front delts. With the pike push-up, you can build a lot of strength within your shoulder joint, but you also put it at risk of injury.”  

The pike push-up is not easy, but with the right approach, it can be a great tool for building mass and strength in your upper body. Here is everything you need to know about how to perform this exercise safely and effectively.

Pike Push-Up Benefits

When doing the pike push-up, your shoulders, arms and chest drive the movement, but it’s down to your back and core to hold you securely in place. As a result, this exercise is a great choice for developing body awareness, co-ordination and stability. It is particularly favored by calisthenic athletes, because it helps with developing functional movement patterns needed in more complex exercises. “Practicing pike push-ups allows you to step toward a handstand push-up. It’s a perfect intermediate exercise to teach you how to get yourself into the upright position and hold your bodyweight overhead,” says Raynsford. 

The pike push-up can also help to prevent back pain and postural imbalances. The inverted position places significant stress on your spine, which forces your body to activate various stabilizing muscles in your trunk. This in turn translates into a stronger, more functional core. 

Pike Push-Up Risks

The pike push-up is not for beginners. Even if you’re an advanced exerciser who has mastered the regular push-up, you may find this exercise challenging. Before attempting the pike push-up, make sure you have sufficient upper-body strength and mobility, or you’ll put yourself in a position where the risk outweighs the benefits. You can easily find movements that target the same muscles but are much safer, says Don Saladino, a celebrity personal trainer and Lumen ambassador.  

“If I walk into a class where they’re trying to demonstrate a pike push-up, I bet 80% of participants would not be able to perform this exercise correctly,” says Saladino. “You have to possess a certain level of shoulder mobility, hamstring flexibility and core strength to be able to get into that inverted position, and move your body through the whole range of motion. Otherwise, the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.” 

So, what’s the best alternative? “If someone is unable to perform a pike push-up, I would advise them to get really good at the plank and the regular push-up. The farmer’s carry is another good option,” says Saladino. 

Moreover, people prone to dizziness, vertigo or those with very low blood pressure may find this exercise difficult. “When you’re upside down with your head on the floor and your hips higher up, there will be a rush of blood to the head. If you do have issues with blood pressure, always talk to your doctor first. You may need to avoid this inverted position altogether, or try to ease into it slowly and gradually, for example by doing decline push-ups first,” says Raynsford.

Understandably, the pike push-up is also not suitable for those battling wrist, elbow and shoulder injuries. “If you do have any pre-existing injuries, speak to a physiotherapist or sports therapist first. Once you are signed off, you can start including more advanced exercises like the pike push-up,” says Raynsford. 

How To Do The Pike Push-Up

The pike push-up can be performed at home without any equipment, but it will help if you have a comfortable mat to work on. To do a pike push-up, start on all fours. With your torso parallel to the mat, press your hands and toes firmly into the floor. Tighten your core, lower back, glute and hamstrings muscles. “Core engagement is crucial with this exercise, so make sure you’re braced throughout the movement,” says Raynsford. 

Straighten your legs and lift your hips until your body forms an inverted V shape. Bend your elbows, making sure they stay close to your body throughout the movement, to slowly lower your head toward the floor. Once your head is just above the floor, pause for a second, then straighten up your arms to return to the starting position. 

“Remember that the pike push-up gets harder the more you elevate your hips,” says Mooney. “If you struggle to achieve a full range of motion, you can either get the hips a little bit lower, or put a cushion or a box on the floor, so you don’t have to go quite as far.” 

Pike Push-Up Form Tips

1. Don’t Round Your Back

What Make sure your back is straight throughout the movement. 

Why A rounded back increases the pressure on your shoulders and traps, which puts you at risk of strain and injury.  

How Keep your core muscles engaged throughout the exercise. To do this, imagine that someone is about to punch you in the stomach. If your core is engaged, but your back is still rounded, that may mean your core is too weak or your lower back lacks sufficient mobility. In order to master your pike push-up stance, you may need to begin by strengthening your deep core muscles (for example, by practicing planks) and increasing the range of movement in your lumbar spine (yoga and Pilates can help with this).

2. Control Your Descent

What Don’t rely on momentum when bringing your upper body toward the floor. 

Why If you don’t control momentum, you fail to engage the muscles in your arms and upper back. This will not activate the correct muscles and will take away a lot of stability from your shoulder and elbow joints. This in turn creates ideal conditions for a painful injury.

How Don’t rush! Perform each repetition in a slow and controlled manner by lowering your body for a count of five. 

3. Don’t Flare Your Elbows

What Keep your elbows tucked in to your sides at a 45° angle.

Why “By tucking your elbows in, you’ll be able to retract the shoulder blades and reduce the pressure on your traps. This allows you to better recruit your shoulder muscles,” says Raynsford. 

How Try one of Mooney’s favorite cues, “Imagine your hands on a piece of paper and as you go down, try to rip it apart. It will allow you to drive your elbows in,” says Mooney. 

4. Modify Your Stance

What Modifying your stance can help you tweak your muscle engagement. 

Why and how “If you place your feet too close together, there’s going to be a lot of balance work involved,” says Raynsford. “So, a narrow stance may be more advantageous if you want to challenge your core. If you’re looking to increase your shoulder strength, a wider stance may be better.”

Pike Push-Up Vs Push-Up

In theory, the pike push-up is a variation of the regular push-up. However, these two movements have more differences than similarities. 

To start with, the pike push-up requires far more upper-body strength and mobility than the standard push-up, especially when performed for high-volume sets. They also target slightly different muscle groups. “Regular push-ups are a lot more chest-dominant than pike push-ups, and they may also require more triceps engagement,” says Mooney. “Pike push-ups, on the other hand, focus more on the shoulders.” 

In addition, the regular push-up is often viewed as a stepping stone to the bench press and other weighted chest exercises. The pike push-up, on the other hand, is often used as a transition exercise to more complex bodyweight movements, such as the handstand push-up. “The inverted position places way more stress on the shoulder than the plank position. It’s mimicking the upright position typical of many advanced calisthenics exercises,” says Mooney. 

About Our Experts

The handstand push-up is an eye-catching gymnastics exercise and the pinnacle of bodyweight shoulder strength. It requires impeccable form, shoulder mobility and balance to execute correctly, but with the right approach, this gravity-defying trick is achievable. 

Handstand push-ups are also not just for show. Practicing them can take your core strength, balance and co-ordination to a whole new level, all while giving you an enormous sense of achievement. They’re also one of the best shoulder exercises for developing upper-body strength and drilling functional movement patterns.   

To work your way up to a proficient handstand push-up, first you need to be capable of holding a wall-supported handstand for at least one minute. That’s no easy feat so we strongly recommend you work on your handstands with a fitness professional. They will show you how to build up to a handstand and guide you through any strength or mobility work you need to improve your form.

Here, we discuss which muscles the handstand push-up targets, explore its many benefits, highlight some pitfalls to avoid, and outline how to nail this complex movement. 

Our guide focuses on strict handstand push-ups, where you keep your body in a straight line throughout, rather than the kipping handstand push-ups commonly seen in CrossFit. The kipping variety, which involves kicking up your legs to generate momentum, is a more explosive move and requires a different training approach.

Which Muscles Does The Handstand Push-up Work?

The handstand push-up is a great example of a compound exercise. It targets your upper body, particularly your shoulder, arm and chest muscles. But to provide stability when upside down, your body also has to engage multiple muscles in your back, core, glutes and thighs.

“It’s especially effective at strengthening the shoulders because it simultaneously targets all three heads of the deltoids, along with several stabilizing muscles, such as the rotator cuff,” says Mitch Raynsford, a certified strength and conditioning coach at digital fitness coaching platform P3RFORM.

The shoulders take the greatest strain, but the triceps muscles, the pectoralis major and pectoralis minor of the chest, and the spine-stabilizing extensors, trapezius and latissimus dorsi muscles of the back are all targeted too. 

“Chest and back engagement is especially important for stabilizing your shoulder joint,” says Raynsford. And your deep core muscles, including the transverse abdominis, rectus abdominis, obliques and even your pelvic floor muscles will all be working overtime to prevent you from swaying to the side, tilting forward or collapsing altogether. 

“Your glutes and hamstrings will also be put through their paces too,” says Raynsford. These muscles will be particularly engaged during freestanding handstand push-ups, when the security of a wall to support your legs is taken away. 

Handstand Push-Up Benefits

The handstand push-up is a great exercise for building sculpted shoulders and increasing upper-body strength, but its benefits don’t end there.

To start with, you don’t need any advanced equipment. The handstand push-up can be done anywhere, any time—all you need is a wall or a box, and potentially a training buddy to help you get into position safely.   

Regular practice promotes proprioception, meaning it helps your body improve the perception of its own position in space, while establishing better communication pathways between your brain and muscles and more efficient muscle engagement. As a result, the handstand push-up does wonders for your balance, co-ordination and core stability. 

Handstand Push-Up Risks

Despite the move’s long list of benefits, there are a few potential risks you should bear in mind, especially if you have high blood pressure or are dealing with ailments affecting the ears or eyes.

Practicing this exercise may cause you more harm than good, for example, if you have an ear infection that affects your balance. Having your head upside down may also increase the pressure in your eyeballs, which can be particularly dangerous for people with glaucoma (damage to the optic nerve), according to the American Optometric Association. 

The handstand position also carries increased risk for those with high blood pressure and those vulnerable to heart disease, according to Harvard Health. That’s because pumping blood against gravity requires the heart to produce more forceful contractions. 

Don Saladino, a celebrity personal trainer and a Lumen ambassador, suggests those with especially poor posture should prioritize improving their mobility or flexibility before launching into a high-risk handstand push-up. 

“If someone has poor posture, with a rounded upper back and an inability to externally rotate their shoulders, the only way they're going to be able to get into the position is by overextending their lower back. This can easily lead to an injury,” he says. 

Cody Mooney, a former CrossFit Games athlete and the director of performance for the mobility and recovery app pliability, says the risks to your joints are even greater when adding a kipping movement into this exercise, especially if your hips are tight.

That said, if you have enough mobility, stability and upper-body strength, you’ll be able to do it safely. “I've seen intermediate level CrossFitters doing handstand push-ups with great form,” says Mooney. “It’s all about having the right foundations to put yourself in a good position and then build up from there.”

How To Work Up To A Handstand Push-Up

Mastering the handstand push-up requires thorough preparation, dedicated practice and plenty of patience. “It all depends on the individual: Their overhead strength, abilities and previous training history, but also their confidence and mental resilience,” says Raynsford.

Before you launch into it head first, check if your shoulders can sustain the weight of your body. “If you can do three sets of 10 reps of the pike push-up, that’s a good sign you can progress to handstand push-ups,” Raynsford says. 

Barbell pressing your bodyweight overhead is another good indicator, so long as you have above-average shoulder mobility to match this impressive feat. 

Here Mooney has outlined his three-step plan to build up to your first handstand push-up.

1. Practice the pike 

The first step is about learning how to get in and out of the handstand position using a box. Start in a straight-arm plank position, facing away from the box. Push your hips up and put your feet up on the box. Then, gradually walk your hands closer to the box until your torso is vertical, or “as far as you feel you can go comfortably,” says Mooney.

2. Master the kick 

“Once you’re comfortable being upside down, focus on the kick,” says Mooney. Now’s a good time to rope in a training partner for support. Start by facing the wall. Put your hands on the floor next to the wall, shoulder-width apart. Keeping your arms locked out and shoulders braced, kick your feet up so your heels rest against the wall. “Really focus on stabilizing your shoulders and think about all the muscles working to hold your position,” Mooney adds. 

3. Prime the push 

Once you feel confident in a handstand position, you can start working on the push-up. “Don’t shoot for a full rep straight away,” says Mooney. First, get used to the pressure the move exerts on your upper body. “Start by drilling half-range handstand push-ups, and only progress if you have full confidence in your shoulder mobility.” 

If in doubt, always consult a physiotherapist or a certified strength and conditioning coach. Raynsford also suggests using a thick padded gym mat or large cushion under your head to help break your fall, and insists you always train with another person present to help if anything goes awry. 

How To Do A Handstand Push-up

How To Warm Up For The Handstand Push-up

Warming up is an essential part of any workout, but it carries greater significance for handstand movements. If your body isn’t ready to take the load, you won’t engage your muscles properly, and will put yourself at risk of serious injury. 

To prepare properly, include warm-up exercises that mobilize your neck, shoulders, glutes and spine, such as the child’s pose and downward dog moves from yoga. These shoulder warm-up exercises are also well worth running through.

Resistance bands and cable machines can be particularly beneficial too. “These allow you to maintain constant tension throughout an exercise, helping activate all the stabilizing muscles, like the teres minor and teres major of the rotator cuff,” says Mooney. 

Handstand Push-Up Form

Stand facing a wall, ideally with a mat in position to provide cushioning. Bend down and place your hands about a foot away from the wall, slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, with your fingers spread. Bracing your shoulders and core, powerfully kick up into a handstand so that your heels rest against the wall. 

Once upside down, steady your position by squeezing your glutes. From your wrists to your feet, your body should form one straight line. Carefully bend your elbows to lower the crown of your head toward the floor or mat. Allow your head to lightly touch the floor, then press hard through the heel of your hands to drive back up. Extend your arms fully, breathe, and continue into the next rep. 

Mooney says: “A slow descent is one of the best ways to help avoid injury. Rushing on your way down can strain your neck. Instead of relaxing as you lower, take a big breath in to brace your core and help control your descent.”

About Our Experts

Let’s be honest, warming up your shoulders is not the most exciting part of your workout routine. Swinging your arms draws more attention in the gym than hopping on the treadmill to raise your heart rate, which might explain why many of us skip this crucial step. However, making time for a dedicated shoulder warm-up can dramatically improve your exercise performance. It’s also one of the best ways to protect your shoulders from injury.

Shoulder Warm-Up Exercises

This eight-move routine uses dynamic stretches covering all planes of motion. It’s a good option for beginners, people with poor posture and those recovering from injuries when preparing to do shoulder workouts, routines that feature shoulder exercises, and upper-body workouts in general. Just remember to use light weights. It doesn’t take a lot of tension to increase your mobility and “wake up” your shoulder muscles. If you feel weighted dynamic stretches are not enough to prepare your body for a heavy workout session, consider adding more complex shoulder mobility exercises.

1 Standing straight-arm circles

Equipment:

• Beginner / intermediate: none
• Advanced: light dumbbells 

How: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Raise and extend your arms to the sides so they’re parallel with the floor. Keeping your back straight and core engaged, move your arms in a small circular motion. Make sure the movement comes from your shoulders, and that your body does not sway or tilt to the sides. As your joints are warming up, gradually progress to larger circles. Complete at least 15 reps, then switch directions. Perform another 15 reps backward.  

2 Standing shoulder rolls

Equipment: none

How: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Keeping your back straight and core engaged, shrug your shoulders. Make sure that you’re not tensing your neck muscles, pushing your head forward or hunching your back. Then squeeze your shoulder blades together and roll your shoulders back down. Complete at least 15 reps, then switch directions. Perform another 15 reps backward.  

3 Shoulder swing (lateral)

Equipment:

• Beginner / intermediate: none
• Advanced: light dumbbells 

How: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Raise and extend your arms to the sides. Keeping your arms straight, cross them in front of you, and then rapidly bring them back to the starting position. Keep your core engaged throughout the movement to make sure you don’t give in to momentum and sway to the sides. Complete at least 15 reps.  

4 Shoulder swing (back and forth) 

Equipment:

• Beginner / intermediate: none
• Advanced: light dumbbells 

How: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Raise and extend your arms in front of you. Keeping your arms straight, gently swing them back, and then rapidly bring them back to the starting position. Keep your core engaged throughout the movement to make sure you don’t give in to momentum and sway back and forth. Complete at least 15 reps.

5 Shoulder corkscrew

Equipment:

• Beginner / intermediate: none
• Advanced: light dumbbells 

How: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Raise and extend your arms to the sides so they’re parallel to the floor. Keeping your back straight and core engaged, begin by slowly twisting the arms inwards and outwards. Make sure that you drive the movement from your shoulders, and that your body does not sway or tilt to the side. Complete at least 15 inward and 15 outward twists. 

6 Band pull-apart

Equipment: Long resistance band

How: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Holding one end of a light resistance band in each hand, raise and extend your arms in front of you. Keeping your arms straight, squeeze your shoulder blades and move your arms to the sides. Once your upper body forms a letter T, hold the position for a second or two, and then return to the starting position under control. Make sure you move in a slow, controlled manner, without yanking the band or swaying back and forth. Complete at least 15 reps.  

7 Banded face pull

Equipment: Long resistance band / cable machine

How: Attach a light resistance band to an anchor point located at or slightly above your eye level (or attach a triceps rope to a cable machine and select a very light weight). Facing the anchor point, hold the band in both hands and move a few steps away to ensure sufficient tension. Keeping your back straight and core engaged, begin by squeezing your shoulder blades and pulling the band towards your face. Your elbows should naturally flare to the sides. Once the band gets close to your face, hold the position for a second or two, and then slowly return to the starting position. Don’t yank the band, hunch your back or let your body sway to the sides. Complete at least 15 reps.

8 Banded overhead reach

Equipment: Mini loop resistance band

How: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Wrap a light mini loop resistance band around your wrists, then raise and extend your arms in front of you. Make sure your arms are separated so you can maintain slight tension in the band throughout the movement. Keeping your back straight and core engaged, raise your arms straight up overhead. Slowly return to the starting position. 

The upright row is one of the best back exercises around for building bigger traps. These upper-back muscles, which resemble a trapezoid shape and extend from the top of the spine to the mid back and laterally to the shoulder blades, are all too often neglected, even by committed gym-goers, because they’re tricky to train and impossible to see without a mirror (or two). 

Not training your traps could lead to imbalances and weaknesses that have an impact on your other lifts. Conversely, well-developed traps will help you perform a variety of moves better, including squats, deadlifts, cleans and bench presses.  

Aesthetically speaking, the upright row is also among the best shoulder exercises to target the front and middle deltoids of the shoulders. These muscles not only help create the V-shaped upper back popular with bodybuilders, but they are also crucial to stabilize the shoulder joint and protect it from injury.  

Here we will outline the exercise’s key benefits, explain why it should always form the cornerstone of the best back workouts, and provide some expert tips for beginners and experienced gym-goers to help you truly master the upright row once and for all. 

Benefits Of The Upright Row

The upright row is a staple of bodybuilding workouts for its effectiveness at growing the upper-back muscles, but its benefits translate far beyond the weights room.

One of its main advantages is a greatly reduced risk of injury to the neck and shoulders. Well-developed traps and rhomboids help cushion the neck, spine and shoulder girdle from heavy blows you might experience in contact sports. 

A strong upper back also provides extra stability for compound moves like deadlifts and front squats, helping you resist the weight from pulling you forward. Strong, robust traps can also benefit CrossFitters and powerlifters when performing dynamic Olympic lifts like the snatch and the clean and jerk.

By helping improve your posture, upright rows can help with everyday activities, as well as correcting hunched shoulders from too much time spent at your desk. 

Finally, upright rows carry plenty of cross-over benefits for your core. Holding the weight in front of your body increases the engagement of your abdominal muscles, while pulling the load towards your chin will test the strength of your lower back. 

How To Do A Upright Row

Here’s our expert guide, suitable for beginners and advanced gym-goers alike, although if you have limited training experience it’s a good idea to read out FAQs below, especially the advice on whether the upright row is safe for shoulders.

Start with your feet shoulder-width apart, standing tall, holding a barbell or EZ-bar with an overhand grip (palms facing you). Position your hands slightly narrower than shoulder-width apart. Keeping your chest facing forward and abs braced hard, lift the bar until it is level with your upper chest, keeping it close to your body at all times. Keep the lifting stage smooth to avoid excess strain on your wrists, elbows or shoulder joints. Pause in this top position, focusing on squeezing your traps as hard as possible, then slowly lower the weight to the start position. 

Sprague says: “Focus on lifting the weight with your back muscles rather than your biceps and lead with your elbows, keeping them above your forearms throughout.” 

Upright Row Form Tips

1. Start light

Check your ego at the door to avoid embarrassment—or worse, injury. “Lifting too much weight will always be to the detriment of your form,” says Sprague. If you can’t keep your body upright and have to use momentum to shrug the bar up, you’ve gone too big too soon.

The Fix: If you’re unsure how heavy to go, start with a set of upright rows using an unloaded barbell. Once you’re confident with the technique, add weight in small 1.25kg or 2.5kg increments.

2. Don’t cheat

Lifting too heavy can also lead to jerky upper-body movements, loss of balance and an overarched back, meaning the muscles you want to work are missing out and your risk of injury increases.

The Fix: To avoid using momentum, perform the lift with your back against a wall, suggests Kern Alexander, a certified personal trainer at Leading Edge Personal Trainers in New York City. “The wall will stop you rocking back and forth so you can’t cheat the reps with your back or legs. And if you can’t lift the weight with your back against a wall, then you shouldn't lift it at all.”

3. Adjust your grip

The upright row is typically done with a shoulder-width grip, but small adjustments can subtly alter which muscles are recruited.

The Fix: A narrow grip will shift the focus to the front deltoids and forearms, although it may increase the strain on your rotator cuff muscles. If you’re battling any lingering shoulder issues, or want to focus on your traps, widen your grip.

4. Watch your elbows

Your elbows should remain higher than your wrists throughout the upright row to effectively activate the muscles of your shoulders and reduce undue load on your wrists.

The Fix: Keep your knuckles pointed down toward the floor. Bend your elbows and pull the barbell straight up until it reaches your chest, ensuring your wrists stay below the level of your elbows at all times.

5. Use a foam roller beforehand

“Tight or overactive traps are common in people who carry a lot of tension in their neck and shoulders, which can reduce the effectiveness of this exercise,” says Alexander. It’s vital to relax and mobilize your traps before your first set of upright rows.

The Fix: Spend a few minutes using a foam roller on your upper back as part of your pre-upright row warm-up. Check our guide on how to use a foam roller for the best results.

FAQs

Upright Row Variations

Dumbbell upright row

Why Switching to dumbbells for your upright row means that you can work each side of the body individually and identify any strength imbalances in your shoulders and back. It also allows for a more natural range of movement than using a barbell, even if you might have to reduce the overall weight used a little when lifting dumbbells. 

How Hold the dumbbells by your waist in an overhand grip, with your palms facing you. Lift the weights to your shoulders, squeeze your traps, then lower.

Cable upright row

Why Using a cable machine means that there is tension in the muscles throughout the entire exercise, because you will be resisting the pull of the machine when you lower the bar with control.

How Attach a straight-bar handle to the lowest position on a cable machine and hold it in both hands in front of your waist. Lift the bar to your shoulders, pause for a beat, then lower it slowly.

About Our Experts

To effectively train your shoulders you need to work them from all angles. The best shoulder workouts contain a range of exercises that target all the shoulder muscles, and that includes the oft-neglected ones at the back. The straight-arm dumbbell kick-back hits the rear shoulder muscles, making it a useful move to add to your upper-body routine.

How To Do The Straight-Arm Dumbbell Kick-Back

Stand holding dumbbells by your sides, with your palms facing. Pick a light weight that you can control throughout the move, because being able to work through the full range of motion slowly is more effective when building muscle than simply swinging a heavy weight back and forth.

Hinge forwards at the hips and lower your chest until your back is parallel to the ground, letting the weights hang. Keeping your arms straight, move the weights up and back until they reach hip height. Pause for a beat in this position, then lower the weights under control.

Use This Exercise In A Workout

This quick shoulder workout hits the shoulders from a range of angles.

1 Neutral-grip shoulder press

Sets 3 Reps 8

Hold dumbbells by your shoulders in a neutral grip (palms facing). Press the weights up explosively, pause for a moment at the top of the move to ensure the weights are under control, then lower them slowly.

2 Quarter-rep lateral raise

Sets 3 Reps 10

Hold dumbbells by your sides with your palms facing. Keeping your arms straight, lift the weights to the sides until they are about level with your shoulders – don’t go higher than this to avoid placing too much stress on the shoulder joint. Lower the weights slowly, pausing for a moment when they are halfway down.

3 Straight-arm dumbbell kick-back

Sets 2 Reps 10

4 Shoulder stretch

Sets 5 Time 10-30sec

Finish off your shoulder session with this stretch to help your muscles recover faster and, hopefully, reduce DOMS in the days that follow. Take both hands behind your back and grasp one with the other. Pull your shoulders back and your hands apart until you feel the stretch in your shoulders, and hold.

Pressing weights over your head is a great way to strengthen your shoulders. Unfortunately it can also be a great way to injure your shoulders, especially if you choose too heavy a weight when performing the go-to overhead press or dumbbell shoulder press with your palms facing forwards. The neutral-grip or hammer shoulder press, with your palms facing, puts less stress on the more vulnerable parts of the shoulder joint, making it a good variation to add to shoulder workouts for those worried about shoulder niggles.

How To Do The Neutral-Grip Shoulder Press

Stand holding a dumbbell in each hand over your shoulders with a neutral grip, so your palms face each other. Engage your core muscles to ensure you are standing up straight throughout the exercise. Press the weights up explosively, pause at the top of the movement to stabilise the weight, then bring the dumbbells slowly back down to your shoulders.

Use This Exercise In A Workout

To work your shoulders from all angles, use the neutral-grip shoulder press in concert with two other exercises and a stretch for a full workout.

1 Neutral-grip shoulder press

Sets 3 Reps 8

2 Quarter-rep lateral raise

Sets 3 Reps 10

Stand holding a dumbbell in each hand by your sides with your palms facing each other. Keeping your arms straight, lift the weights up and out to the side until they are level with your shoulders. Lower the weights halfway back down, pause for a beat, then lower them all the way back down.

3 Straight-arm dumbbell kick-back

Sets 2 Reps 10

Stand holding a dumbbell in each hand. Bend at the hips and lower until your back is parallel to the ground with the weights hanging down beneath your chest. Keeping your arms straight, lift the weights back and up to around your hips. Pause for a moment at the top of the move, then lower the dumbbells slowly. It’s best to start with a light weight for this exercise to ensure you can control it properly on the kick-back.

4 Shoulder stretch

Round off the workout with this stretch to help your shoulders recover faster. Put both hands behind your back and grasp one with the other. Pull your shoulders back and pull your hands apart until you feel the stretch in your shoulders. Hold for 10 to 30 seconds and repeat five times.

Discover More Of The Best Shoulder Exercises

Arnold press | Barbell shrug | Cuban press | Face pull |  Front raise | Military press | Overhead press | Push press | Upright row

Shoulder exercises should be an integral part of any gym routine, because building strength and improving mobility in your shoulders will help with a range of other exercises. And of course, if you’re physique training, wide shoulders are a key part of a V-shaped torso.

If you’re hoping to sculpt cannonball shoulders then check out these excellent shoulder exercises recommended by Mitch Raynsford, strength and conditioning coach, Jim Crossley, co-owner of F45 Kingston, and Keith McNiven, founder of personal training company Right Path Fitness. We’ve thrown in a few of our favourites, too. There are shoulder exercises suitable for all levels of gym-goer below, from beginner classics like the dumbbell overhead press up to advanced moves like the handstand press-up.

Beginner Shoulder Exercises

Y-T-W

Named after the shapes you create with your arms when performing it, this is another movement Raynsford uses as a staple of his training. This is because it’s great for bolstering overall shoulder health, strengthening supporting muscles in the upper back to ward off injury. 

“Lie chest-down on a mat,” Raynsford says. “Move your arms into a Y position in front of you.” Then raise your arms and hold them just above the floor. To make sure you’re engaging the relevant muscles, he advises retracting your shoulder blades and squeezing.

“Next, move your arms into a T position out to the side of you. Finally, move your arms to a W position, where your elbows form the downward points of the letter shape.”

Dumbbell overhead press

“This is a good exercise for increasing shoulder strength and stability,” says Crossley. “Choose some light dumbbells to begin with. Hold them just above your shoulders with your palms facing forwards. Raise your arms straight above your head.

“When lifting the dumbbells don’t move your back and in particular don’t allow your lower back to arch. This move can be done standing or seated on a bench with a back for support.”

Alternating dumbbell front raise

“Stand with a slight bend in your knees, holding a pair of dumbbells in front of your thighs with your palms facing you,” says McNiven. “Lift the left dumbbell in front of you until your arm is slightly above parallel to the floor, keeping a slight bend in your elbow and the palm of your hand facing down. Then lower the dumbbell under control back to the start. Repeat with the right dumbbell.”

Face pull

The face pull is a fantastic way to strengthen the often overlooked rear deltoids – the muscles on the backs of your shoulders, which help move your arm backwards. 

“Set up a cable machine with the rope attachment at head height,” says Raynsford. “Stand facing the cable machine, grab each end of the rope attachment, and pull the rope towards your forehead. Return to the starting position and repeat.”

Raynsford advises squeezing your shoulder blades together at the top of each rep to get the full benefits of the movement. 

Barbell upright row

“Hold a barbell in front of your waist with an overhand grip and your hands shoulder-width apart,” says Crossley. “Lift the bar to chin height by raising your arms so your elbows finish above the bar.”

Intermediate Shoulder Exercises

Dumbbell shadowboxing

“Adding dumbbells to your shadowboxing routine is brilliant for the shoulders,” says McNiven. “Choose relatively light weights as you’re going to be doing a lot of reps, and hold them vertically at shoulder height.

"Push one dumbbell forwards, extending your arm fully and twisting the dumbbell to a horizontal position. Bring it back as you push the other dumbbell forwards and start to build up speed. As your experience increases, you can add in different shadowboxing moves.”

Dumbbell lateral raise

“Hold a dumbbell in each hand by your waist with palms facing each other and a slight bend at the elbows,” says Crossley. “Lean forward from your hips a little and bend your knees slightly. Raise your arms to the sides until your elbows reach shoulder height.”

Arnold press

“Hold two dumbbells in front of your shoulders, with your elbows bent at 90° and your palms facing your chest,” says Crossley. “Move your elbows out to the side while raising the dumbbells and rotating your arms so that you finish with the dumbbells overhead with palms facing forwards.

“The Arnold press works both the front and side of your shoulders.”

Overhead press

“This is a classic shoulder-building exercise,” says Crossly. “Start by holding a barbell in front of your neck with an overhand grip. Press the bar overhead until your arms are fully extended. Do not let your back arch when you press overhead.”

Battle rope slam

"Battle ropes work your shoulders as well as your pectorals and are great for mobility and conditioning," says McNiven. “There are many exercises you can try. A couple of good intermediate battle ropes exercise are slams and uppercuts.

“For slams, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your knees slightly bent, holding a battle rope in each hand. Raise the battle ropes simultaneously above your head and slam down as hard as you can. Do this exercise for 60 seconds, then move on to another exercise like battle rope uppercuts [see below].”

Battle rope uppercut

“As the name implies, you mimic an uppercut punch while holding the battle ropes. Use the same stance as with slams. Uppercut to one side and then the other. Build up speed throughout the 60 seconds of this exercise.” If you need a few technique pointers, check out our guide to using your gym’s punching bag.

Pike press-up

“From a standard press-up position walk your feet towards your body, raising your hips and keeping your legs straight,” says Crossley. “Your body should be in an inverted V-shape. Then perform a press-up by bending your arms to move your head closer to the floor. “

“You can vary the difficulty and the load on your shoulders by moving your feet closer in or further out, and it can also be done with feet elevated on a box to increase the difficulty.

“This is a challenging bodyweight shoulder exercise in its own right, and a good way to build the strength required to do a handstand press-up.” (See the advanced exercise, if you dare.)

Advanced Shoulder Exercises

Handstand press-up

“Start by either kicking up into a wall handstand or walking your feet up the wall into a handstand with your face to the wall,” says Crossley. “Your body should be in a straight line and close to the wall with your feet pointed upwards and your arms shoulder width apart. Bend your arms to lower your body towards the floor, then press up to return to the starting position.”

Behind-the-neck press

“This is the same as the overhead press, but your starting position is with the barbell behind the neck, rather than in front, which makes it a more challenging exercise,” says Crossley.

This exercise places more stress on your rotator cuff muscles than the standard overhead press and requires greater shoulder mobility. Make sure you warm up thoroughly and start with a light weight.

Z-press

This challenging variation of the overhead press will fire up your core while challenging your shoulders to shift weight without any help from your legs. It can be performed with dumbbells or a barbell – start with the former since they are easier to manoeuvre into the starting position. 

“Sit on the floor with your legs extended in front of your body – keep your legs slightly bent if needed,” Raynsford says. “Keeping your core engaged, push the dumbbells so that they are at shoulder height just outside your shoulders with your palms facing forwards, angled inwards slightly.

“Press the dumbbells directly overhead so your wrists finish directly over your shoulders. Reverse the movement and follow the same path to return to your starting position.” 

Crucifix hold

“This is an isometric hold that will challenge your shoulders and arms,” says Crossley. “Hold a dumbbell in each hand with your arms fully extended to the sides and your palms facing the floor. Hold the position for as long as possible.”

High-kneeling dumbbell overhead press

Start with your rear knee and front foot on the floor. Your front knee should be bent at 90° and directly above your ankle. 

“Pick up a dumbbell with the hand on the opposite side to your front knee,” says Raynsford. “Hold the dumbbell at shoulder height with your palm facing forwards at a 45° angle and your elbows pointing down. 

“Inhale, engage your core and on your exhale, press the dumbbell directly overhead so that your wrist finishes directly over your shoulder. Pause at the top of the rep, then reverse the movement to return to the starting position.”

Military press

This advanced exercise works your body harder than the standard overhead press by making it more difficult to keep your balance, meaning your control of the weight needs to be on point. Load up a barbell with a light weight on it – you’ll be surprised how quickly this weight will feel heavier once you start pressing. Hold the barbell at chin height with a grip slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and stand with your feet together like you’re standing to attention. Engage your core muscle and keep your elbows pointing forwards as you press the bar overhead, then lower under control.

Shoulder Anatomy

The shoulder is one of the most complex joints in the human body. It consists of three bones—the clavicle (collarbone), the scapula (shoulder blade) and the humerus (the bone in your upper arm)—connected by an intricate network of muscles and connective tissues. This unique structure allows you to move your arm freely in all directions. This high degree of mobility, however, significantly decreases the stability of the shoulder, making it vulnerable to injury and dislocation.    

Several muscles play a role in stabilizing the shoulder and powering its movements. These include the deltoids, teres major and rotator cuff muscles.

Deltoid: Sitting on top of the shoulder, the deltoid is a large triangular muscle that extends from the ridge of the shoulder blade to the end of the collarbone. It is divided into three parts: anterior (front), posterior (rear) and lateral (side). The front and rear deltoids help rotate your arm and move it forward and backward. Side deltoids allow movement of the arm out to the side and they also give shoulders the rounded shape desired by bodybuilders. The best exercises to target these muscles include shoulder raises and upper-back movements such as the rear delt flye and upright row.    

Teres major: The teres major is a small muscle that connects your humerus and the back of your shoulder blade. It is mainly responsible for rotating the arm inwards and stabilizing the shoulder joint, and it contributes to the V-shaped back—one of the main aims of physique training. The best exercises to target this often overlooked muscle include the resistance band pull-apart, lat pull-down and cable straight-arm pull-down.  

Rotator cuff: The rotator cuff consists of four muscles (the supraspinatus, the infraspinatus, the teres minor, and the subscapularis) that surround and stabilize the shoulder joint. This group is involved in many types of shoulder movement, and maintaining its strength and flexibility is essential to keeping the shoulder healthy. The best rotator cuff exercises to train this muscle group include the resistance band face pull, reverse flye and single-arm row.  

Other muscles involved in shoulder movement include the trapezius (back muscle), pectoralis major (chest muscle), serratus anterior (small muscle connecting the shoulder blade to the ribs) and rhomboid major (muscle located between the shoulder blade and spine).  

You probably don’t need us to tell you that the pull-up is one of the toughest bodyweight exercises there is. If you’ve ever attempted to knock out a set in the gym, or just pull yourself up and over a wall out in the real world, you’ll know the demands it places on your back, shoulder and arm muscles.

Being able to perform a strict pull-up is a great goal to have and our comprehensive guide to the movement can help you achieve just that. We also have form tips to help you refine your technique, and variations and challenges you can try once you’ve nailed it. But first, a few frequently asked questions, answered.

Pull-Up Benefits

Aside from the sense of achievement that comes with mastering a feat of strength most people struggle with, what are the benefits of hoicking yourself above a bar? To find out, we spoke to Fiona Scott, head of physical performance at Performance Herts at the University of Hertfordshire.

“The pull-up is a compound exercise, meaning it involves more than one muscle group,” says Scott. “This is positive news for anyone wanting to get globally strong. It’s a good way to train if you’re short on time too.” 

By using the muscles in your back and arms, this exercise will help build transferable strength that can improve your performance in the barbell bent-over row, a fundamental strength training move. 

But there are more benefits to performing pull-ups than just building muscle. “They can do wonders for your shoulders,” says Scott. “You’re holding your own bodyweight and you’re also moving through a good range of motion. The shoulder can have a lot of problems associated with it because it has such a free range of movement—the more movement a joint has, the more issues can often affect it. 

“In the initial part of the pull-up movement, you should do something called scap-setting. This is bringing the scapula, or shoulder blade, into a favourable position to perform the rest of the movement.” 

Scott warns that many people miss out on this benefit because they don’t start and finish in a dead hang position, so skip the lower portion of the movement. 

“When you’re at a full hang you’re training the muscles around the scapula (which are often weaker due to our hunched posture in everyday life) like the lower traps and rhomboids. You’re also strengthening the rotator cuff muscles, which many people become familiar with through injuries.”

How To Do A Pull-Up

You probably think you know how to do a pull-up, but refining your technique makes it easier to do and helps you get more from it. Here’s Scott’s expert form guide. 

First, grasp the bar with an overhand grip, palms facing forwards, with your hands just wider than shoulder-width apart. Depending on the height of the bar, you may need to jump up to grab the bar, or if you’re new to pull-ups, a box or step can help you get into position.

“Start in a dead hang, gripping the bar with your arms fully extended,”says Scott. “Then it’s time for scap-setting: pull your shoulder blades back towards each other and down.”

Brace your core and glutes to keep your legs and torso stable, then begin the movement. “Use your lats to pull yourself upwards—imagine you’re trying to pull your elbows into your jean pockets,” says Scott. “Your end point will depend on your shoulder mobility, but usually you should aim to bring your chin at least above the bar.”

Pull-Ups For Beginners

“It isn’t common for people to just walk up to a bar and do a pull-up straight away,” says Scott. “And, unlike other exercises like the back squat where you can start with bodyweight versions before progressing to a barbell, it’s a difficult movement from the off.”

Fortunately, there are techniques that will help beginners develop the strength required to do a pull-up—and develop quicker than they may expect.

“Most people will need to use regression options,” says Scott. The first thing to do is to learn to hang on to the bar. Build up to being able to do a dead hang for 30 seconds—that shows you can manage your own bodyweight. 

“Next up is practising scap-setting. This is where, in that hang position, you pull yourself up a couple of inches just using your shoulders (your arms should remain straight). The cue I use for that movement is to imagine squeezing a satsuma between your shoulder blades, then relax. If you struggle to do this with your bodyweight, you can also perform this exercise on a lat pull-down machine.”

After you feel comfortable with this, use banded pull-ups and eccentric pull-ups (explained in our sections on variations below) to build strength in your back and biceps. 

Our pull-up workout plan for beginners brings all this together in a four-week schedule. All you need is a pull-up bar, and our guide to the best pull-up bars helps you find one.

Pull-Up Assistance Lifts

Try these supportive machine moves to power up your pull-up prowess.

Lat pull-down

This machine move most closely replicates the muscle actions required to do pull-ups. The wider your hands on the bar, the more you isolate your lats, making each rep harder.

Cable face pull

This works wonders for your pull-up ability by not only improving your hunched-over posture from too much sitting but also making you learn how to retract your shoulder blades properly, which is key to perfect pull-up form. Do three light sets of 15 after your back or shoulders session.

Pull-Up Form Tips

For advice on how to perfect your pull-up technique, we spoke to Alasdair Nicoll, personal trainer and tutor at The Fitness Group, which provides personal training courses.

1. Face Your Chest Up

“Start off with your hands one-hand-width outside of shoulder-width apart,” says Nicoll. “Then extend your spine slightly and have your chest high, facing towards the ceiling, as if you’re looking almost directly up, so there’s a natural slight curve in the upper back.”

2. Don’t Think About Pulling Yourself Up

“Instead of thinking about pulling yourself up, I suggest people think about driving their elbows down into their hips,” says Nicoll. “What’s going to happen is your lat muscles and your upper-back muscles, like the rhomboids and traps, take over.

“Whereas when you think about pulling yourself up, often there’s going to be more strain and stress put through the biceps, which isn’t the goal of the pull-up.

“More engagement in the upper back means much more control of the movement.”

3. Use Tempo

“Be really explosive and powerful on that way up, then have a slight pause at the top position for one second, then on the way down it can be two or three, even four seconds,” says Nicoll. “That way you’re really going to be utilizing that eccentric portion of the exercise, making sure that the back is getting a good stretch all the way through.”

Different Pull-Up Grips

Overhand grip

An overhand grip pull-up is the hardest to do, because it places more of the workload on your lats. The wider your grip, the less help your lats get from other muscles, making a rep harder.

Underhand grip

This grip turns a pull-up into a chin-up, and places more emphasis on your biceps, which makes it more of an arms move than a back one. Your hands should be shoulder-width apart.

Neutral grip

A neutral or palms-facing grip is your strongest hand position because it distributes the workload between multiple muscles. Use it initially to start building strength, or even as your final grip for a drop set.

Pull-Up Challenges

When you become a relative pull-up pro, test your mettle with these challenges.

Russian Special Forces challenge

This test stems from the entrance exam undertaken by new recruits to the Russian Special Forces. It’s not for the faint-hearted. You’ll need to perform 18 complete pull-ups without sacrificing form or technique. If that doesn’t sound tough enough, you’ll have a 10kg weight attached to your body—either in the form of a kettlebell, plate or weighted vest.

Dead hang challenge

Select a weight with which you can perform 15 comfortable pull-ups. That may be your bodyweight alone, or you may be able to add 5-10kg via a weighted vest or dipping belt. Your challenge is to hang at the bottom portion of the lift for 1-2min (depending on fitness level). It’s not as easy as it sounds, and to make it tougher, retract your shoulder blades as if you were about to perform an actual pull-up—and hold that position. This is extremely useful for those looking to quickly gain strength on the pull-up.

The 10-set press-up/pull-up combo

Five pull-ups, straight into 10 press-ups. No rest in between. Ten sets. Ideally perform this at the end of your session for a strength and endurance test. It’s a favourite of Combined Strength coach Andy MacKenzie, and while appearing relatively simple at first glance, will lead to a lung-busting finish.

Pull-Up Variations

We’ve put together 13 variations—from the first-time negative pull-up to the ultra-difficult towel grip pull-up—to help progress your pull-up game. Once you can do a set of six to eight reps, move up the scale. Adding an extra pull-up each week is a good rule of thumb.

1. Banded pull-up

How to do it Loop a resistance band around the pull-up bar and place one foot in the loop. The greater the resistance of the band, the more assistance it will provide. 

Why? “This is a way to reduce the load of a pull-up on your muscles,” says Scott. “The band will help you more at the bottom of the movement and less at the top. This works well for most people because they’re weakest in the first phase of the exercise, pulling from a dead hang, and strongest at the top.”

2. Negative/eccentric pull-up

How to do it “Your starting position should be at the top of a pull-up with your chin above the bar,” says Scott. “To get there, you can jump up or use a box to give you a helping hand. Then, slowly lower yourself down to a dead hang, taking between five and ten seconds.”

Why? “We are stronger in the eccentric portion of the movement. So if we can’t do a pull-up, we can learn to control our body through this range of motion and build strength until we can eventually perform one.”

3. Kipping pull-up

How to do it Exactly the same as the classic move, except you swing your legs to generate the momentum to pull to the top of the move.

Why? Practising with this move will build power in all your major back muscles.

4. Close-grip chin-up

How to do it Take a narrow grip with your hands so that your palms are in front of your face.

Why? This variation increases the involvement of your biceps, reducing the load on your back muscles and making the move slightly easier.

5. Classic pull-up

How to do it Grasp the bar with an overhand grip with your hands just wider than shoulder-width apart. Let your body hang straight down with your arms fully extended. Pull up and squeeze your lats until your chin is over the bar, before lowering slowly to the start position without swinging.

Why? Because it's an old-school classic that will work your upper-body like few other exercises.

6. Tarzan pull-up

How to do it Grip the middle of the bar, with both hands almost touching. Pull yourself up and, as you reach the top, twist your body to go up and to the right before lowering and then repeating to the left side.

Why? This requires greater co-ordination during the 'up' move to raise your body to each side, while a strong core is developed to prevent your lower body from swinging.

7. Side-to-side pull-up

How to do it Grip the middle of the bar, with both hands almost touching, as with the Tarzan pull-up, but raise yourself higher, so that your head can clear the bar for each shoulder to touch it on alternate reps. Get good at this tricky move by first focusing on pulling yourself up as high as possible, ideally so that your chest touches the bar. As you get stronger move your head to one side of the bar to get even higher, and alternate sides with each rep.

Why? This variation requires a more explosive “pull” to get you, then keep you, moving to clear the bar. It also means you need greater core control and stability to manage your bodyweight when it’s moving quickly.

8. Pull-up with alternating knee twist

How to do it At the top of the move, draw your knees in to your chest before twisting to the left, then to the right, before lowering slowly to the start.

Why? Your entire core is engaged during the twists, working your abs and obliques, while forcing your muscles to hold you in the 'up' position while you twist.

9. Pull-up with leg raise

How to do it As you reach the top of the move, raise your legs out in front of you until they are parallel to the floor before lowering.

Why? This move will also work your abs and slow down each rep, forcing your back muscles to work harder.

10. Walking pull-up

How to do it With a standard shoulder-width grip, move your legs back and forth in a walking motion as you raise and lower yourself. To “walk” yourself up super-slowly you need to work on your strength. Start with straight pull-ups with knee raises, then fast walking, getting gradually slower.

Why? This is one tough variation, and the slower you raise and lower yourself, the tougher it is. It also requires your core to work harder to keep your leg movement stable.

11. Weighted pull-up

How to do it Secure a weight plate to a belt or place a dumbbell between your legs before performing the move.

Why? If you can do regular pull-ups without too much trouble, the additional weight will shock your muscles into growing bigger and stronger.

12. Round the world

How to do it Pull yourself to the top. As you approach the bar, lift up and to the left before moving across to the right and completing a semi-circle before lowering.

Why? This tough move requires huge strength to hold your body firm while moving sideways and downwards under control.

13. Towel grip pull-up

How to do it Wrap two towels over the bar and grip one with each hand shoulder-width apart. Gripping the towels, pull yourself up to the bar before lowering slowly.

Why? Using towels requires great grip strength and builds forearm muscle power, as well as taxing the whole upper back and biceps.

No-one should take risks with their shoulders, especially during workouts. It’s an important area to strengthen using shoulder exercises, because that will help with a range of lifts, but push too hard and it’s easy to injure your shoulder joint and put yourself out of action for weeks or even months.

To ensure your shoulders are strong and resilient, you need to work on your rotator cuff muscles, as well as the major muscle groups in your shoulders and upper back.

“The rotator cuff consists of muscles and tendons around the shoulder joint, and helps keep the head of the humerus bone stable in the socket of the shoulder,” says Leo Savage, a personal trainer at Third Space London.

“It’s important to train and strengthen your rotator cuff muscles because they reinforce the correct position your shoulder should function in. The shoulder joint can be unstable and often there is confusion around how to strengthen it. Building up the deltoids – the larger group of muscles around the shoulders – while neglecting the rotator cuff can lead to inhibition of the latter.”

With the impending reopening of gyms, now is a great time to begin rebuilding any strength lost over lockdown, so here are four great rotator cuff exercises that can help improve the strength and mobility of your shoulder joints. All the moves require equipment, but you should be able to source this cheaply and easily because it’s best to use light kettlebells and dumbbells, which are still widely available. You’ll also need a long looped resistance band, another piece of kit that’s easy to come by and affordable. Browse our round-ups of the best dumbbells, best kettlebells and best resistance bands if you need to add to your collection.

You can also use these shoulder mobility exercises and this shoulder workout without weights  will strengthen your joints.

Bottoms-up kettlebell press

“Start with a light kettlebell and turn it on its head so the body is above the handle,” says Savage. “Hold the kettlebell by your shoulder and press it above your head, holding the handle firmly. There will be instability as you press – this is what challenges your cuff.”

90/90 external rotation

“Stand or kneel, holding one arm out to the side with your upper arm parallel to the ground and your forearm vertical,” says Savage. “This creates a 90° angle at both your shoulder and elbow joints. Keeping the upper arm in position, lower your forearm so that it is parallel to the ground and then return it to the starting position. Resistance can be added using a resistance band or cable machine."

Lying external rotation

“Lie on your side with your knees bent and the arm nearest the floor supporting your head,” says Savage. "Hold a light dumbbell in your other hand with your elbow on your waist. Keeping your elbow against your body and maintaining a right angle at your elbow, bring the weight above your body and then return it to the starting position.”

90/90 internal rotation

Stand side-on to a cable machine or the anchor point of a resistance band and use the arm closest to the machine or anchor point to take hold of the handle or band. “With your arm by your side and your elbow against your body, raise your forearm so that it is parallel to the ground. The resistance should be pulling your arm away from your body. Keeping your elbow by your side, pull your arm across your body, then return to the starting position.”

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

There are plenty of compelling fitness-related reasons to do the overhead press, but first let’s address the obvious: hoisting a heavy weight skywards looks incredibly impressive. However, that can be a downside too, leading some people to attempt the move when they’re not ready for it or use too heavy a weight in an effort to impress.

To help you ensure you’re not one of those people, we’ve sought out expert advice from Wahoo Sports Science’s expert strength coach Jeff Hoobler, who provided a straightforward test to see if you are shoulder mobility and core strength to pull it off. Hoobler also detailed how to perform the overhead press, along with assistance shoulder exercises that will help you build strength in the muscles used in the movement. We also dive into the benefits of adding it into your training plan. But first, let’s clear up a couple of common questions. 

Benefits Of The Overhead Press

“I think the biggest reason to do this move is to load the entire body,” says Hoobler. “Any time you put a weight over your head, you’re doing that. 

“You might be working the shoulders, but the corollary benefit is building core stability and building structural integrity throughout the entire kinetic chain [the system of muscles and joints used to perform a movement].” 

Paired with the right nutrition, the overhead press can help build size and power in the active muscles (the delts, triceps and chest) while strengthening other stabilising muscles like the core and lats. And the pushing motion you’re training with this exercise has excellent transferability to sport-specific skills.

“This one’s a little more specific to sports like American football,” says Hoobler. “It depends on what position you're playing, but if you look at an offensive tackle, they’re pushing all the time, so the overhead press is a very key move.”

How To Work Up To The Overhead Press

The overhead press is a great barbell exercise for building strength and size in your shoulders, triceps and even chest, and you’ll find it featured in our favourite gym workout routines, upper-body workouts and shoulder workouts, but it’s not suitable for absolute beginners.

“It’s a good move but it’s not something that I would have a novice do,” says Hoobler. “I would start with dumbbells, the reason being that some people are very limited in their range of motion at the shoulder.” 

Work on mastering the seated dumbbell shoulder press before you reach for your nearest barbell. Using dumbbells allows you to train a greater range of motion through the shoulder, and using an upright bench will provide stability, making it easier to maintain a neutral spine so you can concentrate on keeping tension through your shoulders when pressing the weight. 

To check you’re ready to attempt the full overhead press, try Hoobler’s quick test below. 

“The requirements for the overhead press are that you have good shoulder mobility, and that you can get both hands straight up over your head keeping a neutral spine. Being able to do this is not as common as we'd like to think.”

How To Do The Overhead Press

If you’ve passed the test above, it’s time to try the barbell overhead press. 

“Your intention for this lift needs to be quality over quantity or load,” says Hoobler. “Timing is key, so pick a weight you can control. For most people, a one-count concentric [lifting] phase and a two or three-count eccentric [lowering] is a good place to start.”

“Start with the barbell in a rack at about chest height,” says Hoobler. “Step into the rack and hold the bar with an overhand grip.” Your hands should be just wider than shoulder-width apart. “Brace your core and drive your hands upwards to press it overhead, maintaining a neutral spine throughout.”

“Keep the bar close to your face as you press upwards, then control it on the way down rather than just letting it fall. It’s a simple lift, you’re just pressing a bar overhead, but it’s difficult to execute if you don’t have the core integrity.” This is why you need to keep your core tight throughout, providing a stable base from which to push from. 

You should also keep your forearms vertical throughout the lift, and avoid flaring your elbows too far out to your side.

You might think the body should stay as still as possible during this exercise, but Hoobler says your torso will naturally move when performing the lift. 

“The body does move, but it moves as a unit. As you press, your chest and head will move backward a bit—if you have poor mobility, your body will move more.

“I like to see people just clear their nose [with the bar], keeping the bar path as straight as possible.”

How To Perfect The Overhead Press

Use this advice from strength coach Andy McKenzie to master the movement.

Take a shoulder-width grip

“The wider apart your hands are on the bar, the weaker you will be and the less weight you will be able to lift. Aim for a grip with hands no wider than shoulder-width apart and keep your elbows directly underneath your wrists to keep you in the strongest mechanical position possible for the lift.”

Mobile wrists are key

“For the strongest press possible you need to have mobile wrists so that they can extend back towards your body,” says McKenzie. “The better the starting position of your wrists, the more able you are to initiate the move with a strong push.”

Squeeze your shoulder blades

“At the start of each rep focus on squeezing your shoulder blades together, then focus on using your shoulders to initiate the lift and get the bar moving. Lower the bar under control, ensuring that your shoulders are fully engaged and managing the weight with good form.”

Adjust your head position

“The bar starts across your upper chest below your chin, so your head must tilt backwards slightly as you push the bar up in the straightest line possible to avoid hitting your chin and nose. As you press the bar up, tilt your head backwards so that the bar just misses your nose on the way up.”

Keep your chest up

“You need to keep your chest up during each rep to maintain a strong and stable upper back, which in turn allows better and smoother movement patterns of all the muscles and joints involved in the lift – especially the shoulders, which are one of the most easily damaged joints in the body.”

Common Overhead Press Mistakes

Flaring your elbows: “It sounds odd when the lift is called the shoulder press but where you place your elbows when lifting makes all the difference,” says Scott Britton, CrossFit and powerlifting athlete as well as the co-founder of charitable fitness competition Battle Cancer. “Try to keep your elbows in front of you when lifting. When your elbows flare out to the sides during an overhead pressing move, this can lead to injury in your triceps and increase the risk of tendonitis.”

Incorrect breathing: “Make sure you take and hold a strong breath just before you press the weight,” says Britton. “Timing your breathing to each repetition will not only keep your body more stable but also help force more oxygen into your muscles to last longer.”

Thumbless grip: Use an overhand grip with your thumb wrapped under the bar to keep it secure. Some people place all five fingers over the bar, but Hoobler warns, “I’ve seen bad things happen when people do that, especially when you have sweaty hands.”

Lifting under fatigue: Lifting under muscular fatigue is a key element of strength and hypertrophy training, but it can lead to lazy form. “As you fatigue, it’s very common to use other muscles to assist your last few reps,” says Hoobler. “A lot of the time, you’ll see people get on their toes for that extra little pop of momentum [as seen in the push press].” Hoobler says this is OK to do if you’re consciously making the switch, just make sure you maintain a neutral spine. 

Overhead Press Variations

Dumbbell overhead press

By using dumbbells you’ll work each side of the body unilaterally, which should ensure that you don’t have any strength imbalances. So even if you’re accomplished at the overhead press you should sub in dumbbells from time to time just to check that both sides are working equally when lifting the bar, rather than one doing the bulk of the work. The dumbbell press can also be beneficial for your joint health because it enlists smaller stabilising muscles to control the weight.

Hold a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder height with your palms facing forwards. Press the weight directly overhead, keeping your elbows below your wrists.

Military press

It’s sometimes confused with simply doing an overhead press with strict form, but the military press actually differs from the standard overhead press in that you bring your feet close together, in the manner of a soldier standing at attention. This means your glutes and core have to work extra hard during the exercise to maintain the stable base required for the lift. Since you’re losing a bit of your lower-body stability with this variation, it’s important to put less weight on the barbell than you would for a standard overhead press.

Push press

The push press allows you to recruit your lower body to help you press the weight overhead, so it’s a great variation for people struggling with the full overhead press. There’s also nothing wrong with switching to it halfway through a set of overhead presses if you become fatigued. Start with the bar on your upper chest, then drop into a quarter squat and drive back up, using the momentum to help you thrust the bar above you.

Thruster

The thruster is similar to a push press, but you lower into a full squat before driving back up and pressing the barbell overhead. It’s a winning combination of the front squat and the overhead press, creating an exercise that challenges muscles all over the body. With so many major muscle groups involved, the thruster also gets your heart pumping hard, making it a great addition to a HIIT workout. However, if you are doing it as part of a circuit, be mindful of your form. There’s no point in losing your shape just to fly through the reps quicker – you’ll risk injury and reduce the benefits of the move.

Kettlebell press

This variation is a good way to make sure that your movement patterns are on point when you press, because the way the kettlebell sits on the back of your wrists encourages you to lift it straight overhead rather than to the side or behind you and putting undue strain on your shoulders.

Hold a kettlebell at shoulder height with your elbow underneath your hand, then press it directly overhead, rotating your arm 90° so your palm is facing forwards at the top of the move.

It is hard to imagine a well-rounded upper-body workout routine without the front raise. It is a true exercise staple for improving shoulder strength and mobility, and one of the best shoulder exercises for targeting the front delts. On top of that, front raises can be very effective even when using light weights or resistance bands. If you’re a beginner, you can just as easily do them with cans, bottles and other small everyday items. Even if you’re a seasoned gym-goer,  a light pair of dumbbells will be enough to give your shoulders a tough workout. 

However, it is essential to know how to do the front raise correctly. This movement may seem easy, but it’s also easy to perform poorly. Using weights that are too heavy, failing to engage your core or swaying to generate momentum may hinder your attempts to train your front delts. You can also set yourself up for poor posture and painful shoulder injuries if your form is not on point.  

So how to master the front raise? We asked Kern Alexander and Noelle McKenzie, certified personal trainers at Leading Edge Personal Trainers in New York City, and James Sprague, a CrossFit Games athlete, for training tips and advice so you can get the best possible results.

How To Do The Front Raise

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding dumbbells in front of your thighs with your palms facing your body (a pronated grip). Keeping your back straight and arms extended, lift the dumbbells in front of you in a controlled manner until your hands are in line with your shoulders. While your arms should be straight, avoid locking your elbows—keeping a slight bend in your arm will help protect your elbow joint from unnecessary strain. Pause, then slowly lower back to the starting position. 

“Choose a weight you can control and are comfortable with. Don’t go too heavy and risk bad form and, potentially, injury,” says Sprague. “Avoid swinging the weight and using momentum to get the weight up.”  

Front Raise Form Tips

Don’t Lift Too Heavy

What: The front raise can be a surprisingly difficult exercise so there is no need to choose a heavy weight. 

Why: The front deltoid is a relatively small muscle. Light weights can provide adequate muscular tension without risking an injury or strain.

How: If you are unsure which weight is best for you, start with 15 repetitions using a 5lb (2kg) dumbbell. “That’s my benchmark,” says Alexander. “Once you can do 15 reps with perfect form then you can increase the load, slowly and incrementally,” If you start rocking, swaying or using momentum to complete the exercise, pick a lighter dumbbell. 

Use A Reclining Bench

What: Using a reclining bench can help increase the front delt engagement. 

Why: “When you use dumbbells, you lose the resistance about three-quarters of the way down. That’s because gravity is not pulling directly against the working muscle,” Alexander says. “But you can mitigate that by using a reclining bench.” 

How: Lie with your chest on an incline bench (45° angle) while keeping your feet on the floor. “This way, gravity is pulling directly down against the working muscle.” 

Front Raise Benefits

Front raises are great at building strength and definition in the shoulders, but there are more benefits to be had from this movement. 

“Front raises are a great addition to your workout if you feel you are not getting enough front delt activation from your pressing movements,” says Sprague. For example, adding this movement to your workout routine may just give you that extra push if you can’t seem to progress with how much weight you can bench press. 

Front raises are also particularly effective at bolstering the shoulders for slam or medicine ball exercises. Since the sheer force generated by picking and throwing a heavy ball can thoroughly test your shoulder stability, adding front raises can help keep the joint healthy.  

Front raises can also improve the shoulders’ stability and range of motion, which in turn can lower the risk of injury and dislocation. “Shoulders are the most vulnerable joints in the body, because we use them in multiple planes of motion,” says McKenzie. “If we only train the shoulder one-dimensionally, we’re putting ourselves at risk of injury not only when exercising, but also during everyday life. It’s really important to maintain the health of the shoulder girdle by working not just one area, but the entire shoulder and surrounding muscles.” And since many shoulder exercises do not target front delts, this exercise may help bridge that gap. 

About Our Experts

Once a staple of the weights room, the military press is now something of an endangered species. The meteoric rise in popularity of the bench press is one reason for this, but the main factor in its diminishing presence is the simplest – the military press is really hard.

Fortunately you’re clearly not one to shy away from a challenge – that’s why you’re reading this guide. Below you’ll find all the information you need to nail this excellent shoulder exercise and impress at your local gym, and also correct someone when they compliment you on your overhead press. Which leads us neatly to…

Military Press Benefits

Like all presses, the military press will increase the strength of your chest, shoulders, upper back and triceps

The wider base of the overhead press – where you stand with your feet shoulder-width apart – provides a much more stable platform for the lift. When you bring your feet together, your core has to do more work to keep you stable during the lift, with your abs and obliques in particular handling more of the load.

Even though you’ll be forced to use less weight with a military press than with an overhead press, you get a better core workout during the exercise. Strengthening your core muscles in this way will have the added bonus of making you able to handle more weight when you do tackle the overhead press or push press.

In short, the military press builds both size and functional strength, making it deserving of a place in any serious training regime.

How To Warm Up Before The Military Press

Never go straight into heavy overhead presses. The ball and socket joint of the shoulder and the muscles that surround it are easy to injure, and this is one of the quickest ways to do that.

Prep your body by doing two sets of 20 shoulder dislocates with a broom handle and then two sets of 30/30 light push presses – that's 30 seconds of work, 30 seconds of rest. Do the two sets with no break, then rest for two minutes. Repeat once more and you’re ready to start working your way through your military press sets – starting light, of course.

How To Do The Military Press

Start with a barbell set up in a squat rack at mid-chest height. Take hold of the bar with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and your palms facing forwards.   

Stand close to the bar and bend your knees so you’re in a quarter squat, contract your core and glutes, and drive up with your legs to stand and take the bar off the rack support. Doing it this way means your lower back is protected when you pick up the weight. Take a couple of steps back so you’ve got room to raise the bar.

Stand with your feet together, like a soldier on parade, and squeeze your glutes and core muscles hard to give you a solid base to press from. Maintain this tension throughout. If you start to go soft in the middle you’ll lose power, arch your back and put pressure on your spine. If that starts to happen, set the weight down.

Holding the bar level with your chin, make sure your elbows are pointing forwards rather than flaring out to your sides. This means you’ll recruit more of your front and side deltoids and pec muscles to help you lift heavier and with more control. 

Take a sharp breath in, tense your glutes and torso, and drive the bar straight up, breathing out as you press. As you near full extension, push your head forwards so your biceps are close to your ears – this will ensure you use good form and don’t arch your back.

As you lower the bar under control to chin level, move your head back slightly so you don’t clip your forehead on the way down. Keep your core tensed throughout the set. Once you’ve put the weight down you can relax. At ease, soldier. Good job.

Military Press Form Tips

Drive through the floor

Think of each rep as a leg press or back squat and drive your feet through the floor. You want to drive down through your feet to create stability and tension in your lower body. This creates a rigid frame, which means more strength can be transferred upwards into your arms as you drive the bar up. So actively tense your glutes and quads as well as your core during every rep.

Work with your breath

“Taking a deep breath before you start the lift will help stabilise your ribcage and shoulder blades,” says strength coach Mike Causer. “Breathe out as you press the weight up and breathe in as you lower it.”

Switch on your core

Keep your core engaged when pressing the bar overhead. Not only does this protect your back from excessive strain, it creates a strong foundation from which to lift.

Hand placement

“Grip the bar with your hands just wider than shoulder-width apart so you can lock your arms out comfortably,” says Causer. “Any wider and you’ll lose drive.”

Forearm position

“Aim to keep your forearms vertical throughout the move to keep the weight balanced and put the load through the elbow rather than the wrist.”

Elbow position

“Keep your elbows vertically in line with your ears – don’t move them forwards or backwards – to make sure you press the weight up through the shortest possible distance.”

Lower to your chin

“Don’t lower the bar below your chin. If you lower the bar too far you’re likely to internally rotate your shoulders excessively and you’ll take the emphasis off your deltoids, so only go as low as your chin.”

Respect the lift

Lift with your body, not your ego, and don’t make the mistake of overloading the bar. This is a technical lift with minimal margin for error, so only lift a weight you can move with perfect form.

Military Press Variations

Dumbbell military press

Using dumbbells rather than the barbell adds another element of instability into the lift, making your core work even harder as you press the weights overhead. It’s also a good way to highlight any imbalances, because you could well be relying on one side of your body to do the bulk of the work when pressing a barbell overhead. When each side has its own weight to lift, that will iron out any strength discrepancies in no time.

Suitcase press

If you want a shoulder press that forces your core to work even harder – therefore demanding that you have your form absolutely perfect when you do military presses – try the suitcase press. Get into military press position, holding a barbell to the side of your head in one hand. You’ll need to have your hand in the middle of it to stop it toppling, and you’ll have to go super-light. Press it, making sure you don’t tilt your body to either side, then lower under control. As with the dumbbell version, working one side at a time ensures you’ll make balanced strength gains.

Arnold press

If you want one exercise to build boulder shoulders, the Arnold press could be just what you’re looking for. Popularised by Schwarzenegger himself, this movement increases the range of motion and time under tension of a standard overhead press and recruits all three heads of the deltoids (anterior, medial and posterior). 

Hold dumbbells by your shoulders with your elbows bent and your palms facing you, as at the top of a biceps curl. Press the dumbbells up, rotating your palms to face forwards and moving your elbows out to the sides as you raise the dumbbells, finishing with your arms extended and biceps next to your ears. 

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

Take a look back at your recent training routine and pick out all the shoulder exercises you’ve done. We’re willing to place a gentleman’s bet that the vast majority (if not all) of them were pressing movements, either out in front of your chest or above your head. Now there’s nothing wrong with pressing exercises, they’re terrific, but if you do them exclusively you won’t build strong, balanced shoulders.

The face pull might not be as glamorous as the bench press or overhead press, but it’s one that should absolutely be part of your routine. It works many muscles in the shoulders and upper back, bulking them up while also balancing out the effects of all those pressing exercises. That means improved posture and stronger shoulders all round, so you’ll be able lift more weight when you are pressing.

What Are The Main Benefits Of The Face Pull Exercise?

The rear deltoid muscles are chronically neglected, even by regular gym-goers, which can lead to poor posture and shoulder weakness. Fortunately, face pulls are an easy fix to help correct this common imbalance. 

“The rhomboids, the rear delts, all these muscles around the mid and upper traps help maintain good posture,” says Kern Alexander, a certified personal trainer at Leading Edge Personal Trainers. “Sitting at a computer all day, in a rounded position with your shoulders slumped, causes these muscles to get smaller and weaker over time.”

By simply introducing face pulls into your regular training routine you can arrest this gradual desk-bound decline, while also reaping the many benefits of a strong and robust upper back. 

“Face pulls enable you to hold on to more weight without rounding your upper back, which can help with deadlifts,” says Alexander. “If your upper back is weak, it will limit how much you can lift. But if you have strong upper-back muscles, you can hold your shoulders in the right position to pull the weight optimally.” 

This unsung exercise also helps improve your overall shoulder mobility and stability, says 2023 CrossFit Games athlete James Sprague, and significantly reduces the risk that a shoulder injury could scupper your training. “Face pulls will strengthen your rotator cuffs and other muscles that help keep your shoulder blades stable while your arms move and take load,” he says. 

How To Do The Face Pull

Set up a cable machine with a double rope attachment fixed at eye level. Grasp the handles with an overhand grip (palms facing the floor) and arms extended out in front of you. Leaning back with your weight on your heels, pull the handles towards and then either side of your face, then rotate your forearms to vertical and squeeze your shoulder blades together. “Try to keep the bigger muscles in the upper back relaxed as you pull the cable, and instead focus on using your rear delts to control the exercise,” says Alexander. 

At the end of the movement your forearms and upper arms should form a 90° angle. Pause at this point, then slowly return the handles to the start position. 

“Keep your body stable throughout to isolate the right muscles and avoid drawing on momentum,” says Sprague. “At the same time, try not to sway or overextend your back as this could place excess stress on your spine.”  

Face Pull Exercise Form Tips

1. Adjust Your Stance

If this exercise is causing you pain or discomfort in the lumbar area, take a staggered or kneeling stance instead. Changing position may also help you lift heavier by reducing pressure on your trunk and increasing your overall stability. 

The Fix: Place one foot slightly ahead of the other and adopt a slight bend in the knees in both legs. When performing the exercise, put most of your weight through your front leg. 

2. Retract Your Shoulder Blades

Squeezing your shoulder blades together at the end of the movement will help engage the trapezius and rhomboid muscles in your upper back, while allowing the rear delts to control the rest of the exercise.  

The Fix: If you struggle to recruit the right muscles, ask your gym buddy to place their hand flat between your shoulder blades. As you pull the handles towards your body, think about bringing your shoulder blades down and together to pinch their hand. 

Face Pull Variations

Resistance band face pull

If you don’t have access to a cable machine you can perform the exercise with a resistance band – just make sure you have a stable point to which you can connect the large looped resistance band. To add an extra dimension to the exercise, take your hands out to either side as you pull the band towards your face. By adding the pull-apart you’ll be hitting more muscles in your upper back and shoulders, which makes not only this a great exercise in its own right, but also a fine warm-up move for your upper body ahead of a free-weights workout.

Seated face pull

If you’re keen to increase the weight of your face pulls, the safest way to do so is to perform them while seated so you have a more stable base for the exercise. This will provide an added challenge for your upper back while offsetting the chance that the extra weight on the cable will yank your body out of position during the exercise.

About Our Experts

The push-up is often overlooked and considered unworthy of inclusion in many upper-body workouts. That’s a big mistake. Because when it comes to building a bigger and stronger chest, few moves are better than the classic bodyweight exercise that’s still used to separate the army men from the army boys.

This effective chest builder can be done anywhere, any time—and it works your shoulders, triceps and abs too. And there are a number of great variations that mean you’ll never run out of simple moves that sculpt impressive pecs. 

Former Royal Marine physical training instructor Sean Lerwill details—and demonstrates—his favourite push-up variations, as well as his performance and progress tips so you can build a bigger and stronger upper body.

We also have essential form tips from the PT who trains other PTs, Alasdair Nicoll.

How To Do The Push-Up

• Start with your hands underneath your shoulders and toes on the floor.
• Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
• Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor. Don’t let your hips sag or rise during the set: if they sag, it puts pressure on your back; if they rise, it takes the tension off your chest.
• Pause briefly at the bottom, with your chest as close to the floor as possible without touching it.
• Press back up powerfully to return to the start.

Tempo

“Far too many people think the push-up is an exercise that is beneath them—they favor barbell bench presses, dumbbell flyes, cable crossovers and other weighted moves to build up their chests instead,” says Lerwill. “But the push-up is a tried-and-tested upper-body muscle builder, and the beauty of it is it can be done any time. To get the gains you want, don’t rush your reps—taking your time to lower and lift your torso. Try a 4010 tempo—a four-second lowering phase, no pause at the bottom, a one-second pressing phase, then no pause at the top—to get your muscles better at controlling each movement. Or try a 3110 tempo that introduces a one-second pause at the bottom of each rep—all of a sudden this ‘easy’ and ‘boring’ bodyweight exercise is a legitimate muscle-building move.”

Push-Up Form Tips

For advice on how to nail a perfect press-up, we spoke to Alasdair Nicoll, personal trainer and tutor at The Fitness Group, which provides personal training courses.

1. Make Sure You Have A Stable Starting Position

“For most people, the hand position should be one-hand width outside of their shoulders,” says Nicoll. “Make sure that your wrist is directly underneath your elbow and your shoulder. The phrase we use is stacking joints. If you stack the shoulder and the elbow and the wrist on top of each other, it creates a really stable base from which to start the movement.

“Your feet should be pretty much in alignment with your shoulders, again to create as much stability as you can, because the more stability that you’ve got in any exercise, the more force production you can have and the greater level of muscle recruitment you can utilize in the exercise.”

2. Form An Arrow With Your Elbows

“You want to make sure that the direction in which the elbows are traveling is right,” says Nicoll. “You don't want them traveling out to the side because that’s going to put unnecessary stress through the shoulder.

“If we were to look over the top of the person, we’d want to see an arrow shape from the head down to both elbows. They should be angling back at pretty much a 45° angle. That would be optimal for prioritizing the chest, and will also help to get a full range of motion through the chest.”

3. Get The Tempo Right

“Make sure that when you go through the motion of the push-up that it's under full control,” says Nicoll. “Not just dropping into the movement, but doing it under control, potentially using a tempo. That could be two to three seconds on the way down, then a slight pause for a half second at the bottom. Then on the way up, making sure that that movement is really intentful. It should probably be close to a second for the powerful concentric part of the exercise.”

Push-Up Workouts

The classic push-up is a great exercise for improving muscular endurance in your pecs, front shoulders and triceps, as well as a fantastic way to work these muscles to full failure to encourage muscle size growth. To do this, perform a set of push-ups to failure after every set of bench presses. So once you finish your set of eight to 10 bench press reps, immediately move to the floor and do a set of push-ups to failure, which means you literally cannot do one more single rep with good form. This will work all those muscle fibers in your chest that don’t get worked by your heavy bench presses so you’ll build more muscle size, strength and endurance.

Push-Up Variations

Diamond Push-Up

Want bigger arms? The diamond push-up is the move for you, because this variation places far greater emphasis on your triceps than your chest to pack on size on your upper arms. To make the most of this move, focus on squeezing your triceps at the top of each rep, and think about how your triceps are contracting when you lower your torso towards the floor, using a good slow and controlled tempo. The more you can focus on a muscle moving during an exercise, the greater the rewards.

• Start in the push-up position but with your hands together so that your thumbs and index fingers form a diamond.
• Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
• Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor. Make sure your elbows point back, rather than out to the sides, during the lowering phase of a rep to avoid over-stressing the joint.
• Pause briefly at the bottom.
• Press back up powerfully to return to the start.

“This move is a lot harder than it looks, and that means a lot of people give up quickly because they can’t do many full-range reps,” says Lerwill. “To get stronger so you can do more reps, just do the lowering part of the move, keeping the tempo slow to make your muscles work harder, then kneel back up to return to the start. Alternatively lower yourself in the diamond position, then take your hands back to normal width to push back to the start.”

Wide-Arm Push-Up

Placing your hands wider apart increases the focus on your chest and lessens the involvement of the triceps and shoulders. It’s important to perform the move safely by lowering your torso to the ground slowly and under full control—doing so will both reduce the risk of injury and increase the effectiveness of the move. You want to feel a good stretch across your chest as you move closer to the ground. The quality of the rep is always more important than the width of your arm position – don’t sacrifice form by placing your hands too far apart.

• Start in the push-up position but with your hands about double shoulder-width apart.
• Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
• Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor.
• Pause briefly at the bottom, with your chest as close to the floor as possible without touching it.
• Press back up powerfully to return to the start.

“You need to ensure that your head and neck stay tight and in line,” says Lerwill. “Allowing your head to hang can cause your shoulders and upper back to round, which is poor form and makes the move less effective. This often happens as you get close to failure, so instead of going until you can’t do another single rep, stop once you notice your form suffering, rest on your knees for a count of 10, then do another set of reps. When you hit failure a second time, rest again, then do one final set to build chest strength without risking injury.”

Side-To-Side Push-Up

This variation is a great way of increasing the difficulty of the basic move to make the muscles of your chest, shoulders and triceps work hard to support, manage and move your bodyweight up and down and from left to right, while your core muscles need to be fully engaged to keep your torso level for the duration of each rep. The deeper you go each rep, the more effective it will be. That does make it harder so if you’re struggling, reduce the rep count and focus on quality of movement.

• Start with your hands underneath your shoulders and toes on the floor.
• Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
• Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor.
• As you lower, move your torso left so your head is in front of your left hand.
• Keeping your chest as close to the floor as possible, move your torso across so your head is in front of your right hand.
• Press back up powerfully to return to the start, moving your torso back to the middle as you do.

“This is a hard exercise, so it can be tempting to rush each rep to get the set finished quickly, but you need to resist that temptation if you want to work the target muscles effectively,” says Lerwill. “As with all exercises, it’s always better to focus on quality reps than quantity. Try to add an extra rep or two per set every time you do this move, but keeping reps slow and controlled is the first priority to increase muscular time under tension and minimize injury risk.”

Spider-Man Push-Up

This heroic variation is a move that’s not just about the chest, shoulders and triceps. Your upper and lower abs need to be fully engaged to draw one knee up to your elbow then back down again, and you’ll activate the deep stabilizing muscles of your core to keep your whole body stable throughout each rep. It’s a hard move, but mastering it will mean better performance and a better physique. Keeping your torso level with the floor, as opposed to rotating as you raise your knee, will keep the maximum amount of tension in your abs.

• Start with your hands underneath your shoulders and toes on the floor.
• Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
• Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor.
• As you lower, draw one knee up towards your elbow.
• Pause briefly at the bottom, with your chest as close to the floor as possible without touching it.
• Press back up powerfully to return to the start, straightening your leg as you do, then repeat with your other knee and alternate with each rep.

“The first thing to do to perform this move more efficiently and effectively is to engage your core before starting a set,” says Lerwill. “Do this by pulling in your bellybutton to tense your entire abs and deep core region. Bracing your midsection to keep it strong and stable—and focusing on keeping it tensed—will allow you to draw your knee all the way up while keeping your push-up form perfect to maximise your results.”

Dive-Bomb Push-Up

The very nature of this move means that for the duration of each rep there are a lot of different muscles fully engaged and under tension, which can only be a good thing when you want bigger, stronger and more defined muscles. The down-and-forwards then up-and-backwards movement also makes your chest, shoulders, triceps and core all work in different and more challenging ways from the standard push-up.

• Start with your hands and feet flat on the floor so that your body forms an inverted V-shape.
• Brace your core then lower your head and chest towards your hands, moving your torso and head forwards in a smooth arc as your head approaches the ground.
• Keep moving your upper body forward in a smooth arc until your eyes are looking forward and your chest is up.
• From there, raise your hips to return to the start position.
• Despite the aggressive-sounding name, the key to this exercise is maintaining a smooth movement path—the whole rep should be fluid and performed at an even tempo.

“Don’t worry about completing too many reps of this per set—instead, think about the muscles working at each point of the rep to build a stronger mind-to-muscle connection that will help you train more effectively in every session,” says Lerwill. “The nature of this movement means some areas will be far more difficult than others, with the most likely sticking points coming when your shoulders or triceps are fatigued but your chest is still strong. If that happens, do this variation to failure, then go straight into regular or wide-arm push-ups to keep working the chest muscles with a slow and controlled tempo for faster gains.”

Fingertip Push-Up

This variation is more about your finger and wrist strength than upper-body strength, so it’s best suited to people who want or need stronger fingers and wrists, such as MMA fighters, climbers and gymnasts. If that’s not you but you’re still up for a really big challenge, then give it a go—but don’t get disheartened when you fail! As with anything worthwhile, it takes time and effort to get good at this move, so add one or two reps per session over the weeks and months to build finger strength slowly without risking injury. If you’re unable to perform a rep on your fingertips, you can still develop finger and wrist strength by holding the top position for as long as possible.

• Start with your hands underneath your shoulders but with just your fingertips in contact with the floor.
• Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
• Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor.
• Pause briefly at the bottom, with your chest as close to the floor as possible without touching it.
• Press back up powerfully to return to the start.

“It’s worth experimenting with different finger positions,” said Lerwill. “We are all anatomically different, so some people find the exercise easier with fingers spread, others with fingers quite close, some somewhere in the middle. It all depends on finger length, size of hands, arm length and many other factors. If you’ve mastered one way, then try another—there are many ways to adapt and progress with an exercise, so don’t be afraid to use your imagination and experiment. Maybe one day you’ll be able to do a dive-bomb push-up on your fingertips!”

About Our Experts

When was the last time you thought about your shoulder mobility? Probably never, unless you’ve experienced issues with your shoulders.

But issues can strike at any time if you neglect your shoulders, and it takes just five minutes to work on your mobility before or after a workout. For advice on some exercises you can try, we enlisted Stephen Price, co-founder of BodySPace. Before you try those moves, however, it’s worth checking in on the current state of your shoulders.

Shoulder Mobility Test

Price has an effective range-of-motion test to help you find out how mobile your shoulders are. “Lie down with your back on the floor or stand with your back facing a wall. Set up by trying to straighten out – keep your rib cage in and brace your abdominals to maintain a neutral pelvis, spine, and rib position. Exhale fully. Then, with your arms straight, reach up and try to bring both arms to your ears.

“If your arms can lie straight against the floor or wall with your rib cage remaining stable or you arching your lower back, your mobility is really good. But if there’s compensatory movement from your rib cage or lumbar spine to straighten out your arms, then it’s advisable to avoid vertical pressing and pulling movements, and work on your shoulder mobility.”

Shoulder Mobility Exercises

Assuming you’re warming up your upper body before each workout, try slipping these four moves into your warm-up routine to improve the mobility of your shoulders.

1 Thoracic Spine Roll-Out With Shoulder Flexion

“Lie over a foam roller that’s perpendicular to your spine and just underneath your shoulder blades. Place a barbell on the ground above your head. Reach for the barbell, making a Y shape with your arms. Keep your elbows straight. Place your feet flat on the floor and hold your hips in the air. Slowly exhale and lower your hips toward the floor.

“You should feel your upper back extending and a stretch in the front of your chest. Pause for five seconds, then lift your hips and move the roller slightly closer to your shoulders. Lower your hips and pause again for five seconds. Perform with the roller at several locations on your upper back.”

2 Downward Dog

“Begin in a kneeling position on a mat with your hands directly under your shoulders, fingers spread wide. Tuck your toes under and engage your abs as you push your body up off the mat so only your hands and feet are in contact with the ground.

“Press through your hands, gently moving your chest towards your thighs and your heels towards the floor. Relax your head and neck and take a deep breath. Visualise yourself forming a straight line from your arms to your tailbone while keeping your knees bent. Hold for one minute and focus on the sensation in your lats and rear shoulders.”

3 Loosen Pecs And Lats

“Tight muscles can often be the culprit behind poor shoulder mobility. Soft tissue work with a tennis ball, golf ball or foam roller can help alleviate the tension and improve overall mobility.

“To target the pecs, sandwich a tennis ball between your upper chest and a wall. Place pressure on the ball and slowly roll the ball over your pecs. For the lats, lie sideways over a foam roller. Slowly roll your body up and down the roller so it massages your rear shoulder and lat muscles.

“When you find a sensitive spot, stop and apply direct pressure until the tightness and pain slowly dissipates. Be sure to hit both sides.”

• The best foam rollers to help you recover

4 Sphinx Pose With Anterior Reach

“Weakness in the serratus anterior – a muscle involved in stabilising your shoulder blade and its movement – can make it difficult to raise your arm during shoulder flexion. Improving this muscle’s strength can greatly improve range of motion in your shoulders.

“Lie on your stomach and place your elbows and forearms on the ground to prop up your upper body. From this position push your chest away from the ground, pushing your shoulder blades away from each other, and stretching your head upward. Hold this position and reach one arm forward.

“Focus on keeping your shoulder blade in that position and holding a neutral torso position while reaching forwards. Hold the reach for one minute, then return your arm to the starting position and reset your shoulder blades. Then switch sides.”

BodySPace is the new fitness, nutrition and wellness offering for luxury hotels and residentials from Stephen Price and David Higgins. It currently operates at Mandarin Oriental Hotel, London and BodySPace Knightsbridge, London.

The high pull may look similar to the upright row, but it is an entirely different beast. In fact, this compound exercise has much more in common with Olympic lifts than with the upright row. 

That’s because the high pull incorporates all your major muscle groups, including the posterior chain (glutes, hamstrings, back) to initiate and stabilize the movement. It also hits the upper, mid and lower traps in your back, rather than just working the upper traps–prioritizing these can make your posture look hunched. 

On top of all that, the high pull is one of the best shoulder exercises. It is a brilliant movement for targeting your rear delts and a great tool for improving the stability of your most mobile joint.   

Finding another movement that targets all these areas is difficult, and that’s what sets this exercise apart. It’s a great exercise to add to your training, but it’s also easy to get wrong. Here’s everything you need to know about the high pull.

High Pull Benefits

The high pull engages many different muscle groups in a dynamic manner, making it a great exercise for increasing co-ordination and developing functional movement patterns. This will come in handy when you perform compound exercises with a heavy barbell, such as deadlifts and bent-over rows. The high pull is popular with powerlifters because it helps them master more complex movements. “Going straight into a full clean is hard, so people often begin their powerlifting journey with the high pull. It’s a nice entry into the Olympic lifts,” says Raynsford.  

High pulls are also great for maintaining good posture. If you spend a significant amount of time in front of a screen, you are at a higher risk of developing rounded shoulders and tight chest muscles. This can lead to your delts being internally rotated, which places significant stress on the rest of the shoulder girdle. “It’s a nice exercise to get fully extended into that upright position,” says Raynsford. However, if you’ve already developed postural problems, the high pull may not be your best option. “As it’s quite explosive, it can easily go wrong,” he warns. 

Similarly with shoulder health, the high pull can be a double-edged sword. “Is a high pull going to correct issues in your shoulder? It depends on what those issues are,” says Don Saladino, a celebrity personal trainer and a Lumen ambassador. “For example, the high pull is a great movement if you need to work on your rear delts. However, this exercise is not for beginners. It adds power and strength to your shoulders, but it can also strain them.” 

High Pull Risks

The high pull offers many benefits, but this exercise is not for everyone. “Even though it’s not a highly advanced movement, but rather a prerequisite to more advanced exercises like a snatch or a clean, I would not recommend it for beginners,” says Saladino. “To put it simply, the high pull can mess them up.”  

To start with, it requires impeccable form. “The high pull is a movement where you can easily start in a poor position and use a completely wrong set of muscles,” says Cody Mooney, a former CrossFit Games athlete and the director of performance for the mobility and recovery app pliability. 

You also won’t be able to complete the high pull with good form unless you have sufficient mobility in your upper body. “When you start this exercise with poor posture, with shoulders internally rotated and tight pecs, you’re not going to set your shoulder position right,” says Mooney. “You will execute this movement by overusing your traps. You’ll be digging yourself deeper and deeper into poor posture. But if you have mobility, you can loosen your back and get your shoulders back and down. You can still engage your traps, but you’ll also work your front delts and lats. You’ll be able to get into that good posture and maintain it throughout the exercise.”

Your lower body also needs a good degree of mobility. “Because the high pull is an explosive movement and needs to be initiated from the lower body, make sure you know how to do a hip hinge properly,” says Saladino. Without a good range of movement in your hips, you are bound to put excessive strain on your upper body. “In that case, the risk of an injury outweighs the reward,” says Saladino. 

The takeaway? Master your basics before attempting the high pull. Even if you’re a seasoned gym-goer, be mindful of the strength and mobility needed to perform this exercise safely. “Before you attempt the high pull, consider booking a one-off session with a personal trainer or strength and conditioning coach to understand what kind of groundwork you may need to do,” says Raynsford. 

High Pull Vs Upright Row

At a glance, the high pull and the upright row look similar. However, they work on vastly different principles. “If you’re doing the high pull correctly, it’s almost like a vertical jump. It’s a ballistic exercise,” says Saladino. “The upright row focuses instead on creating tension in the muscle, so it’s more of a bodybuilding exercise.” 

The upright row and the high pull also differ in terms of muscle engagement. “The upright row is focused on isolating the shoulders and upper back muscles, while the high pull is more about working several big muscle groups at once,” says Mooney. As such, picking the right exercise will largely depend on your fitness goals. If you’re hoping to develop power and full-body co-ordination, choose the high pull. But if building strength and muscle mass is at the top of your priority list, you may get better results from the upright row.  

In addition, the upright row tends to be less demanding on the lower body than the high pull. There won’t be any need to work on your hip mobility or master the triple extension, and you can focus entirely on your upper body. As a result, it may be a better option for beginners or those who struggle with range of motion. 

How To Do A Barbell High Pull

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding the barbell just in front of your thighs. Your grip placement should fall about a hand’s width outside of each leg. Keeping your glutes and abs engaged, push your hips back and bend your knees slightly, then push through your heels and extend your ankles, knees and hips to pull the bar upwards in one controlled movement, keeping it close to your body. As the bar rises, shrug your shoulders to pull the bar as high as possible. Slowly lower back to the start position.

Pay attention to the positioning of your lower body. “The biggest issue we see with the high pull is when athletes try to lift the bar off using their upper body, turning this exercise into an upward row,” says Raynsford. “Make sure you maintain triple extension through your lower body, ensuring your ankles, knees and hips work together and extend simultaneously. Once you’ve nailed that, more power will come from your lower body. The momentum will carry the weight upwards, so it’s just a little bit of work through the upper body to finish the movement off.”

Getting enough momentum is important, but don’t overdo it. “If you want to lift really heavy weights, make sure that you use your traps, rhomboids and delts to finish the movement,” says Raynsford. “If you fully rely on momentum, you can end up hyperextending through the lower back.” 

High Pull Form Tips

1. Pick The Right Weight  

Why Lifting too heavy can lead to strain and injury, but going too light may be counterproductive. “When the barbell is too light, you won’t feel like you need to use your legs, because you’ll be able to lift the weight quite easily,” says Raynsford.

How “Take the weight you use for an upright row and increase it by roughly 20%, but make sure you’re still able to get that triple extension through the lower body,” says Raynsford. If you need to go on your toes at the end of the movement, or feel like you’re pulling with your chest, reduce the load. 

2. Go Slow On The Way Down

Why Lowering the bar in a slow, controlled manner increases the intensity without the need to rack up the load, but that’s not all. “The heavier the weight is, the harder it is to move it properly,” says Mooney. “Slowing yourself down will help you focus on your form and movement patterns, as well as build strength and stability in your upper body.”

How Lower the bar on a count of five, keeping an even pace throughout the descent. 

3. Pull From A Rack

Why “When you’re pulling from a rack you have to be really forceful to initiate the movement,” says Saladino. “It’s a good training tool to increase muscle engagement.” 

How Use a power rack, blocks or even stacks of weight plates to set the bar at knee height. With each repetition, pull the bar up and then put it back down on the rack.  

About Our Experts

3 Cable-Machine Exercises For Bigger Shoulders

Straight-arm pull-down

Stand in front of the cable machine holding a straight bar attachment with an overhand grip. Pull the bar in a smooth arc to your thighs, then return smoothly to the start.

Reverse cable flye

Stand in the middle of the machine holding a low-pulley D-handle in each hand. Bend from your hips, then raise your hands out to shoulder height. Return to the start.

Cable face pull

Stand tall holding a double-rope attachment on the high pulley with straight arms. Pull the hands to either side of your head, then return under control to the start.

6 Steps For Stronger, Broader And More Stable Shoulders

1. Activate the shoulder joint

Before you go near the weights, spend three minutes doing this bodyweight superset: alternate holding a straight-arm plank position and a horizontal hang (hang from rings or a racked barbell with feet elevated).

Why it works: “This drill switches on all three heads of the deltoids – your shoulder muscles – and decompresses the shoulder joint for smoother reps once you start lifting overhead,” says trainer Tom Eastham.

2. Mobilise your rotator cuff

Include this drill in your warm-up: grasp a light kettlebell tightly by the handle with the bottom end pointing up, and slowly press it overhead.

Why it works: “The bottom-up kettlebell press is perfect for improved shoulder stability,” says Eastham. “It works your grip strength and activates your rotator cuff muscles – a common area of weakness in the shoulder.” Aim for ten controlled reps on each arm, keeping your eye on the bell throughout.

RECOMMENDED: Shoulder Exercises

3. Flex your backbone

Resist the lure of the weights for a couple more minutes to first focus on your spine. Get in a cat/camel stretch on all fours, arching your back up and down slowly. Then do iron crosses: lie on your back with arms outstretched, legs raised and bent, and move them from side to side.

Why it works: “With any overhead lift, thoracic mobility is key to unlocking shoulder strength,” says Eastham. “That’s why your spine needs to be flexed and extended regularly.”

4. Suck in your stomach

When pressing overhead, think “abs, glutes, then shoulders”. First, draw your bellybutton towards your spine to brace your abs, and squeeze your glutes. Perform the move, and don’t release the tension until you’ve put the weight down.

Why it works: “This creates a solid base for your press and protects your lumbar spine from pressure,” says Eastham. “The stronger your core, the stronger your shoulders have the potential to be.”

RECOMMENDED: Dumbbell Shoulder Workout

5. Press with perfect form

Perfect the military press before moving on to the aggressive push press or jerk. Stand with feet together, grip the bar with hands outside your shoulders, touch the bar to your collarbone and finish with your arms straight, biceps close to your ears.

Why it works: “The military press is the ultimate overhead strength lift,” says Eastham. “It lays all the essential foundations you need for success with every other shoulder move.”

6. Impress with kettlebells

For serious deltoid hypertrophy, do this drill with two kettlebells: 12 strict presses, nine push presses, 60m overhead carry. Rest for 30 seconds, then repeat, doing as many rounds as possible in 12 minutes.

Why it works: “Kettlebells allow for greater range of movement around the shoulder joint, allowing for a smoother, more functional action and a greater workout for every fibre in your muscles,” says Eastham.

RECOMMENDED: Kettlebell Workout Guide

Chances are you do most of your shoulder training using a bench or rack, but if you want to maximise growth and minimise injury, lie down and get stuck in to the glute bridge floor press. 

This little-known move created by strength coach Ben Bruno should be performed super slow to maintain balance, which optimises muscle growth and reduces the range of motion, keeping your rotator cuffs protected. The bonus? By holding a bridge throughout, you’ll switch on your glutes, which will probably have gone to sleep if you spend your days as a desk-jockey. Lying down on the job? For once we approve. 

How to do it 

Sets 4 Reps 6 each side Rest 30sec 

Lie on your back with one foot on the floor, pushing your hips up into the air – the ‘bridge’ position. Hold the dumbbell on the same side as your raised foot and press it straight up, then lower it under control. Complete all your reps on one side, switch feet and repeat the reps with the dumbbell in your other hand. 

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

The bench press, shoulder press and behind-the-neck lat pull-down are all great muscle-building moves – but they’re also moves that put pressure on your shoulder joints. The ball-and-socket joint is responsible for a huge number of movements you make when training so it’s vital to know how it works and what to do if it’s causing you any pain. 

If you’re doing a lot of shoulder-sapping moves during a session, even minor weaknesses in the deeper muscles can lead to damaged cartilage, muscles, tendons, ligaments and nerves. And if your injuries and weaknesses aren’t addressed quickly they get worse until the shoulder can’t function properly. So it’s vital to have any shoulder injury properly assessed and treated before following any of the advice below.

The muscles of the shoulder can be divided into the big external movement muscles, such as the deltoids and the latissimus dorsi, and the deeper stability muscles that sit underneath them. Most people focus their training on the external movement muscles and neglect the deeper muscles that are vital for improving performance and preventing injury. 

Common Injury: Subacromial Impingement Syndrome 

What it feels like: Pain at the top of the shoulder that comes on gradually often after increasing training or training when tired. It’s often painful through the middle range of movement as you take your arm out to the side and then up to above your head. Try this test to see if you suffer from it but stop as soon as you feel pain: stand with your arms out in front of you as if you are hugging a huge cauldron of water. Now twist your arms so that you pour the imaginary water on the floor. If it hurts this is one of the signs of impingement. 

Most common cause: Soft tissue being squashed or irritated in the space under the acromium (the bony outer point of the shoulder). This results in inflammatory fluid being produced, which reduces the amount of space for the structures to move, leading to restriction and pain. 

Shoulder-Strengthening Moves 

Shoulder position: It is essential to position the shoulder joint correctly to make sure you don’t do more damage. Many people naturally hold their shoulders too far forward, which puts pressure on the joint. But you can’t just pull it back to sort it out - this can actually make it worse! You need to gently lift the shoulders upwards and then very slightly backwards and down in an outward twisting motion. You then need to train the shoulder to stay in this position as you train.

Train your scapular stabilisers: Lie on your stomach with your chin tucked in and your arms out to the sides at 90˚. Move your shoulders towards your ears and then move your shoulder blades towards your spine. Lift your wrists and then your elbows, keeping your shoulder blades together, then lower everything. Do NOT do this if you have any shoulder pain.

Train your subscapularis muscle: This stabilising muscle is often weak. Get on your hands and knees with your elbows slightly bent and your head up but your chin tucked in. Keep your elbows and neck fixed in this position as you lower your sternum (breast bone), squeezing your shoulder blades together gently, and then push through your arms to separate your shoulder blades as much as you can. 

Stretch the lats: These are often tight and overactive in relation to the rotator cuff muscles. Stand with your back to a wall and your palms facing forwards. Slowly slide your arms out and up towards your ears keeping them against the wall. If you struggle to get your arms up then your lats are tight. Stretch them by taking your arm up and then bending to the side to feel the stretch under your armpit. 

As anyone who’s suffered a sports-related injury will know, it’s vital to introduce movement back to the affected area in the right way. Using the correct exercises will speed up recovery and help ensure there are no problems in the long-term. We asked Dapeng Zhang, a Harley Street massage therapist, for his post-injury rehabilitation exercise recommendations for key parts of the body. In the first part of this series, we’re focusing on shoulder injuries. 

Shoulder Injury Rehabilitation Exercises

These are all resistance exercises intended to build and repair damaged muscle. They’re suitable for anyone recovering from breaks, fractures and dislocations.

“Although such exercises are necessary for recovery, it's important to listen to our bodies and gauge how they feel,” says Zhang. “If you find an exercise painful, you’re putting your body under too much physical stress to be beneficial. It can be frustrating when you want to speed up recovery but overly taxing an injury will slow down its recovery time and may even cause long-term problems.”

Arm raise

Hold your arm by your side with a slight bend in it, then try to lift it while someone else holds your elbow and applies a gentle downward force. A bungee cord held securely under the foot (don't let it snap back!) will also suffice.

Wall painting

Stand at arm’s length from a wall and slowly move your hand up and down as though you were using a paintbrush.

Standing press-up

In a standing position, push off a wall gently with both hands. To start with, repeat a number of times that feels comfortable. Try to increase this every few days.

Picking an apple

Imagine you are trying to pick an apple from a tree but it’s just out of reach. Stand on tiptoe trying to make every bit of yourself higher and taller to reach it.

Bigger isn’t always better. To get the most out of your workouts you don’t always have to fight over the heaviest weights in the gym – sometimes all you need is a couple of 1kg dumbbells.
 
These surprisingly challenging shoulder exercises, provided by former elite-level Olympic weightlifter turned coach Mike Causer, will help to improve your muscle mobility and posture and prepare the body for dynamic compound exercises that will pack on muscle.
 
"Without good posture and range of motion your form can suffer when training," says Causer. "This can also affect your range of motion in your daily life. Improve your posture and your workouts can be intense and your ability to sustain a good volume of training will become far easier. The results: better strength gains, better fitness levels and ultimately, you'll achieve your goals faster and more easily and will stay injury-free."
 
So remember the weights don’t need to be heavy. They don’t need to be pink either – that’s just our personal preference. 

Once you've tried the two shoulder exercises below, have a go at Causer's YTWL exercise, which will strengthen your lower-back muscles and improve your posture.

You may also find these lower-back exercises, posture workout and exercises for shoulder mobility of use.

Pinch rotation

Sets 3 Reps 8 each arm

Use this move to increase flexibility and reduce the chance of a shoulder injury.

"It will improve the rotation of your arm, stretching out your shoulder and helping prevent injuries to that joint," says Causer.

• Hold the bottom of the dumbbell between your thumb and first two fingers with your arm outstretched. 
• Using slow and controlled movements, rotate your whole arm one way as far as you can and then back the other way so you feel a stretch but still have control of the weight. 

Shoulder retraction arc

Sets 3 Reps 10

Do this move to strengthen and protect your shoulders.

"This will help you reduce shoulder injuries by increasing the mobility of the joints," says Causer.

• Hold the dumbbells above you with your palms facing behind you and your biceps in line with your ears. 
• Aim to keep your palms pointed behind you throughout as you bring your straight arms down beside you.

Weak shoulders leave you prone to injury during upper-body workouts. Sitting at a desk all day or focusing too much on the bench press can also cause you postural problems and leave your shoulders internally rotated. You can redress the balance by adding these two moves to your routine.  

“The proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, or PNF, stretch loosens your muscles and helps prevent them from being pulled out of alignment, while the second move makes the joint stronger,” says top trainer Gideon Remfry. 

You can also try this bodyweight shoulder workout from an orthopaedic surgeon which builds power and stability in all three primary shoulder muscles.

1 PNF wide arm body rotation

Sets 6-10 Reps 6-10sec

Lie on the floor in a Y shape and bring your right hand in to your shoulder for support. Rotate your hips towards your outstretched arm, sending your right leg over the left. Push your straight arm down on the floor with 30 per cent of your maximum strength and hold that position for six to ten seconds. Repeat the move to the other side.

2 Standing external cable rotation

Sets 3 Reps 9-12 each side

Set the cable at a low height and, using a split stance, retract your shoulder blades. Hold your arm so that your elbow is level with your shoulder and your forearm is parallel to the ground. Pull the cable so that your elbow stays still but your forearm ends in a vertical position.

Inverted shoulder press: Step 1

• Your body forms an inverted V.
• Hands shoulder-width apart.
• Feet on bench.

Inverted shoulder press: Step 2

• Bend your elbows until your face almost touches the floor.

The dumbbell shoulder press is a classic shoulder workout move that will strengthen the muscles around the shoulder joint, building muscular size and helping protect you from injury. Isolating the shoulder will help you focus on each shoulder individually, allowing you to work your muscles harder and with more control during dumbbell exercises.

As well as the alternating dumbbell shoulder press we have three variations that will help you target these muscles from all angles, and will work your core, back and legs too.

When choosing the best dumbbells for this exercise, know that you don't need to use huge dumbbells – in fact small dumbbells can be a smarter choice as explained in this shoulder strength workout. For more exercises that protect your shoulders from injury, try this rotator cuff shoulder workout using a cable machine.

Alternating dumbbell shoulder press

Start with one dumbbell raised and one at shoulder level. Stand with your torso upright, core braced and feet apart, looking forward. As you lower one dumbbell, raise the other. Use your core muscles to stabilise the movement – don't rock from side to side. Keep your hips aligned with your torso.

Variation: Rotating squat press

This turns a shoulder move into a whole-body move, working your legs, back, shoulders, arms and core all at the same time.

Stand holding the dumbbells at shoulder level. Keep a natural curve in your back. Drop into a squat. Lift your heel as you turn. As you stand up, rotate your body and press one dumbbell overhead. Return to the start and repeat to the other side.

Variation: Alternating wide-shoulder press

Hit your delts from a new angle with this variation on a classic move.

Hold the dumbbells at shoulder level. Press the weight up and out at a 45° angle to your body. Return the dumbbell to the start. Alternate sides, keeping your core strong and the movement steady.

Variation: Cable split squat to overhead press

This is a whole-body move that uses a cable to maintain a constant resistance on your shoulders. 

Stand in a split squat stance with your back to a low cable. Twist your torso towards the cable. Keep your front knee over the front foot, and the back knee close to the floor. As you stand up, press the handle upwards at 45°. Rotate your torso as you press.

The Cuban press targets the smaller internal shoulder muscles as well as your upper back muscles as you combining an external rotation of the shoulder with a dumbbell shoulder press. It’s a fine shoulder exercise.

How To Do The Cuban Press

• Stand with your feet apart. Keep your body upright and core braced throughout. Keep looking forward too.
• Hold light dumbbells by your sides, palms facing behind you.
• Lift your arms out to the sides until your elbows are bent at 90° and the weights are hanging straight down.
• Rotate your arms so your hands point up, keeping your upper arms horizontal.
• Press the weights directly overhead.
• Reverse the movement back to the start.

Cuban Press Variations

Lying Cuban press

A change of angle places your rotator cuff muscles under different stresses. If this is the first you’re hearing about these muscles, make sure you add some of these rotator cuff exercises to your routine to ensure your shoulders stay healthy.

• Set the bench at 30-45°.
• Holding the dumbbells, let your arms hang straight down.
• Lift your elbows out to the sides.
• Rotate your arms until your forearms are in line with your body.
• Keep your elbows bent at 90°.
• Press the weights straight ahead of you.

Standing four-point press

Combine pressing and rotating the shoulders in one move. Using a heavy weight for this move risks injury, so keep the dumbbells light.

• Start with dumbbells at shoulder level and your elbows to the sides.
• Press the weights overhead.
• Rotate your elbows to point forward so that your palms end up facing each other.
• Lower the weights and return to the start.

Lying reverse lateral raise

Work your rear shoulders and upper back muscles with this simple move that will help balance your physique and improve your posture.

• Lie with your stomach and chest on the bench, your gaze down and your feet on floor for stability
• Grip the dumbbells on the floor below your shoulders, keeping your palms facing each other
• Lift the weights straight out to the sides
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together for a second at the top of the move, then lower slowly to the start

Variation: Diagonal cable raise

The pressure starts on your front delts and transfers to your rear delts as you raise the cable.

• Stand side-on to a low cable
• Keep your core braced throughout
• Lift the handle up and across your body

Variation: High cable wide pull

Using a high, wide bar keeps the emphasis on your rear shoulders rather than your back.

• Use a wide bar with the cable set at shoulder level
• Keep your core braced
• Pull the bar into your chest, keeping your elbows high

Boxers swear by this shoulder-strengthener, which is worth adding to your next upper-body workout

Boxers can get hurt during fights. That’s unlikely to come as a surprise – getting hit a lot does tend to cause injuries – but what might be surprising is that boxers often get hurt when throwing a punch too.

That’s exactly why former heavyweight champ David Haye likes to do the cable rotation to punch exercise during his workouts.

“This targets the shoulder rotator cuff,” says Haye. “You often rotate your shoulder in a punch, and if it’s not strong enough you can injure it.”

The cable rotation to punch is one of the moves in this gym workout Haye would do when he was at the peak of his pugilist powers. Even if you’re not a boxer we reckon it’s a move to add to your workouts to increase your shoulder resilience and core strength, although you’ll find less taxing moves to start with in this guide to the best rotator cuff exercises.

Benefits Of The Cable Rotation To Punch

As Haye says, the move strengthens the shoulder rotator cuff, which is an injury-prone part of the body. If you’re doing frequent heavy lifts involving the shoulder muscles, strengthening the cuff is essential to reduce the risk of mishaps. Also consider the fact that one day you might end up in a situation where you have to punch someone in real life, and the last thing you need in such a situation is a torn rotator cuff.

The cable rotation to punch also increases the power you will put into your punches, which again is highly beneficial for boxers but useful for everyone else too. The move engages your core as you rotate through the punch, and rotational strength like this is vital for powerful strikes.

How To Do The Cable Rotation To Punch

Adopt a boxing stance, with one foot forward, while standing in front of a cable machine with your back to it. The handle should be attached to the high pulley on the cable machine.

Grab the handle with the hand that’s on the same side as your back leg. Start with your forearm held vertically. Drive your fist forwards into a punch, pulling the handle until your arm is fully extended in front of you. Shift your weight forwards during the move so your core rotates with the punch. Draw the hand slowly back to the starting position.