maratoolSeated Front Deltoid
How to do the seated front deltoid
- Sit upright on the floor with your legs bent, your partner standing behind you. Stick your arms straight out to your sides, with your palms facing the ground. Attempt to move them as far behind you as possible, as your assistant holds your wrists. This will be your starting position.
- Keeping your elbows straight, attempt to move your arms to the front, with your partner gently restraining you to prevent any actual movement for 10-20 seconds.
- Now, relax your muscles and allow your partner to gently increase the stretch on the shoulders and chest. Hold for 10 to 20 seconds.
Muscles worked
The muscles under tension are the deltoids, which raise and rotate the upper arm at the shoulder joint.
A stretch loads them at the far end of the range they normally work in, so the position you hold is itself the resistance.
Nothing travels, but holding the position is not the target muscle’s job alone: the chest adds pushing force at the shoulder.
How this movement works
Nothing travels once you are in position. The muscle holds a length under tension instead of working through a range, so effort is measured in seconds rather than repetitions — and the honest progression is more time in a good position, not a deeper one forced early.
It is filed under stretching, so the target is range of motion rather than force — a position you can settle into and breathe in, held long enough for the tissue to give.
What you need
No equipment at all. The resistance is your own bodyweight, so you progress by changing leverage, range or tempo rather than by adding plates — and you can do it anywhere.
Every exercise using:Body only
These train the shoulders too, using equipment this one does not:
- Seated Military Pressbarbell + bench
- Seated Rear Lateral Cable Raisecable
- Seated Side Lateral Raisedumbbell
- Shoulder Press - With Bandsband
- Smith Machine One-Arm Upright Rowmachine
Difficulty
Listed at expert level. It asks for range, stability or speed that takes time to build, and it punishes a rushed set-up much harder than an easier movement would.
Of the 141 shoulders exercises in this database, 7 are listed at expert level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.