One Arm Dumbbell Shoulder Press

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; the biceps add force at the elbow.

Every exercise for:ShouldersTricepsBiceps

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

Dumbbells let each side work on its own, surfacing a strength difference between limbs that a barbell would quietly cover for, and leaving the wrist free to rotate through the movement.

Every exercise using:Dumbbell

These train the shoulders too, using equipment this one does not:

• One-Arm Kettlebell Clean and Jerkkettlebell
• Push Press - Behind the Neckbarbell
• Return Push from Stancemedicine ball
• Reverse Machine Flyesmachine
• Seated Cable Shoulder Presscable

Difficulty

Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.

Of the 141 shoulders exercises in this database, 46 are listed at intermediate level.