maratoolMachine Shoulder (Military) Press
How to do the machine shoulder (military) press
- Sit down on the Shoulder Press Machine and select the weight.
- Grab the handles to your sides as you keep the elbows bent and in line with your torso. This will be your starting position.
- Now lift the handles as you exhale and you extend the arms fully. At the top of the position make sure that you hold the contraction for a second.
- Lower the handles slowly back to the starting position as you inhale.
- Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
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
The machine fixes the path, removing the balance demand and letting you train close to failure without a spotter. The cost is the stabilising work a free weight would have made you do.
Every exercise using:Machine
These train the shoulders too, using equipment this one does not:
- Medicine Ball Scoop Throwmedicine ball
- Narrow Parallel Grip Chin-upsbarbell + body only
- One Arm Dumbbell Shoulder Pressdumbbell
- One-Arm Kettlebell Clean and Jerkkettlebell
- Pullover On Stability Ball With Weightexercise ball + dumbbell
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.