maratoolAlternating Cable Shoulder Press
How to do the alternating cable shoulder press
- Move the cables to the bottom of the tower and select an appropriate weight.
- Grasp the cables and hold them at shoulder height, palms facing forward. This will be your starting position.
- Keeping your head and chest up, extend through the elbow to press one side directly over head.
- After pausing at the top, return to the starting position and repeat on the opposite side.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the deltoids, which raise and rotate the upper arm at the shoulder joint.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the triceps straighten the elbow to finish the movement.
How this movement works
The working muscles shorten as they drive the load away from you, and more than one joint changes angle to do it. Load spreads down a chain instead of sitting on one muscle, which is why a compound push handles more weight than any single-joint alternative — and why joint position, not the muscle, is usually what fails first.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
A cable holds tension for the whole range, including the point where a free weight would go slack. Moving the pulley changes the angle the resistance arrives from without changing the movement.
Every exercise using:Cable
These train the shoulders too, using equipment this one does not:
- Alternating Deltoid Raisedumbbell
- Alternating Kettlebell Presskettlebell
- Anti-Gravity Pressbarbell
- Back Flyes - With Bandsband
- Backward Medicine Ball Throwmedicine ball
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 141 shoulders exercises in this database, 74 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.