What Can I Do At Home For A Dumbbell Press Exercise?

Dumbbells fall under the category of free weights. These tools have the versatility to work all of your body parts and they are also very resilient. From a muscle-building standpoint, free weights give you a slight edge over machines because you are forced to contract stabilizing muscles during exercises. When you are at home, you can do a press exercise that targets your upper body.

Shoulder Press

The shoulder press is a compound exercise, which means it works more than one joint and muscle simultaneously. These types of exercises can lead to big gains in size and strength --- though this depends on what weights you have available at home. You are best served using a heavy resistance to maximize your results. As a rule of thumb, use a weight that allows you to only perform eight to 12 repetitions.

Main Muscles Worked

The shoulder and elbow joints both get activated during a shoulder press. This in turn works the deltoids, trapezius, triceps and upper pectorals. The delts form the roundness on the shoulders, the trapezius is right on top of the collarbones, the triceps are on the back of the upper arms and the pecs span the chest.

Shoulder Press Form

The dumbbell shoulder press is often referred to as the military press. Regardless of what you call it, perfect form will lead to positive results. Begin the exercise from a standing position, with your feet spaced about shoulder-width apart and the weights held right above your shoulders with your palms facing forward. Keeping your abs tight and back straight, push the dumbbells straight overhead and toward each in an arcing motion. Do not let the weights bang into each other as you do this. After holding for a full second, slowly lower the dumbbells back to the starting point and repeat. A common error occurs when an exerciser arches his back while pushing the weights up. By doing this, you place excess stress on your lower spine; it is for this reason that you need to keep your abs tight throughout.

Variations

The standing shoulder press allows you to do multiple variations. Instead of holding the weights with your palms facing forward, turn your palms inward. This is called a hammer press. By doing a hammer curl, then shoulder press, you will also target your biceps. You also have the option of doing alternating presses or perform the exercise while seated in a chair. Doing the exercise seated will take away your ability to swing your hips for momentum, so it is actually a harder variation.