One Arm Upright Row

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 traps anchor the shoulder blade against the load; the biceps add force at the elbow.

Every exercise for:ShouldersTrapsBiceps

How this movement works

The load travels toward you and several joints bend to bring it there. The arms finish work the back starts, so grip and elbow flexors sit in the path of every repetition: when people stall on a compound pull, it is more often the hands giving out than the primary muscle running out of force.

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.