Smith Machine Upright Row

Muscles worked

Two muscle groups share the work: the deltoids, which raise and rotate the upper arm at the shoulder joint and the trapezius, which shrugs the shoulder blade up, rotates it, and pulls it back down.

Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the biceps add force at the elbow; the mid-back retracts the shoulder blades so the shoulder has something solid to work from.

Every exercise for:ShouldersTrapsBicepsMiddle back

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

A Smith machine runs the bar on a fixed track. You never have to balance it, so you can chase the target muscle harder, but your joints have to accept the path the rails picked.

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:Smith machineMachine

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

• Standing Alternating Dumbbell Pressdumbbell
• Standing Barbell Press Behind Neckbarbell
• Standing Low-Pulley Deltoid Raisecable
• Standing Two-Arm Overhead Throwmedicine ball
• Two-Arm Kettlebell Cleankettlebell

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.