maratoolShoulder Press - With Bands
How to do the shoulder press - with bands
- To begin, stand on an exercise band so that tension begins at arm's length. Grasp the handles and lift them so that the hands are at shoulder height at each side.
- Rotate the wrists so that the palms of your hands are facing forward. Your elbows should be bent, with the upper arms and forearms in line to the torso. This is your starting position.
- As you exhale, lift the handles up until your arms are fully extended overhead.
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 band gets harder the further it stretches, so resistance peaks at the end of the range rather than the middle. It is also the easiest way to scale a movement in small steps.
Every exercise using:Band
These train the shoulders too, using equipment this one does not:
- Side Lateral Raisedumbbell
- Single-Arm Linear Jammerbarbell
- Smith Machine One-Arm Upright Rowmachine
- Smith Machine Rear Deltoid Rowsmith machine
- Standing Low-Pulley Deltoid Raisecable
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.