by James - This article may contain affiliate links.
Shoulder presses are a great way to train your shoulder muscles. However, you might notice that growing and defining your shoulder muscles are particularly challenging. Therefore, learning how to do a seated dumbbell shoulder press with the correct form is crucial to ensure you target all the right muscles to give you well-developed shoulders.
Following these steps will help you to do a seated dumbbell press correctly.
When training, you must use the proper form when doing any exercise. If you don’t, you will not get the best results from the exercise, and you might injure yourself.
This article discusses how to do a seated dumbbell press correctly and looks at some advantages and variations of the seated dumbbell press.
These are the steps for doing a seated dumbbell shoulder press:
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- Set up the bench with the back part at a 90-degree angle
- With a dumbbell in each hand, place your hands at shoulder height, facing away from your body
- Push the dumbbells up towards the sky until your arms are straight
- Bring them down slowly to shoulder height and repeat the movement
Following these steps will allow you to target your shoulder muscles correctly, giving you well-defined shoulders and increasing your shoulder strength.
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Contents
1. Set up the Bench for a Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Correct setup of the bench is an essential step to doing a seated dumbbell shoulder press.
Choose a bench with a high back and set the back at a ninety-degree angle.
You must sit upright when doing a seated dumbbell shoulder press.
Sitting upright allows you to engage all the right muscles when doing a seated dumbbell shoulder press.
It will also allow you to press more weight as your back is supported as you’re not engaging some minor muscles normally used when doing a standing variation of the exercise.
Check out our top three recommended workout benches below.
2. Choose the Right Weights
With the seated dumbbell shoulder press, you can use a heavier weight than you normally use when doing a standing overhead press.
However, if your weight is too heavy, you risk injuring yourself, so choose a lighter weight to start and move on to heavier weights when you feel ready.
There are certain variations of the seated shoulder press where you use kettlebells or a barbell.
In this instance, as the name suggests, you must use dumbbells for this exercise.
Doing a few warm-up sets will help you engage the targeted muscles better while determining the best weight for this exercise.
See our post, Shoulder Workouts to Get Bigger Delts, for more information.
3. Preparing to Do a Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Bring the dumbbells to your thighs and rest them on your legs to prepare for the press.
First, ensure you place your hands comfortably around the dumbbells in an overhead grip (your knuckles are pointing up towards the roof when you lift the dumbbells). Then, lift to the point where your hands are the same height as your shoulders.
Your hands should be facing forward, away from your body.
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4. Doing a Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press
To do the seated dumbbell shoulder press, lift the weights towards the sky until your arms are straight.
Don’t allow your hands to rotate while lifting the weights, and don’t let the dumbbells hit against each other.
Pause before lowering the dumbbells back down to shoulder height when you reach the top.
When your hands are parallel with your shoulders, you are ready to repeat the exercise and do the next repetition.
Do as many repetitions as your program indicates or as many as you can handle with a specific weight.
Don’t use the force of movement to drive your shoulder presses.
Instead of allowing your arms to fall back down, lower them slowly and in a controlled way. Doing so will prevent injury while allowing you to engage the muscles for longer, making the exercise more effective.
Check out our post on Shoulder Exercises for more information.
The Advantages of a Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press
There are a few advantages of doing a seated dumbbell shoulder press compared to other shoulder press variations.
Although all shoulder press exercises have some significant benefits, you should aim to incorporate various shoulder exercises into your training regime, as they differ in some ways. These are the advantages of seated dumbbell shoulder presses.
1. Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press Is an Isolation Exercise
While a standing barbell overhead press activates more muscles, the seated dumbbell shoulder press is an isolation exercise.
This means that only the targeted muscles are doing the work.
For example, when you do a standing barbell overhead press, you engage your deltoid muscles, triceps, and trapezius muscles (trap ). In addition, your core is doing stabilization work, and your back stabilizer muscles are also engaged.
However, when you do a seated dumbbell shoulder press, only your deltoid and trapezius muscles work.
The pectoral muscles and triceps are also engaged but to a lesser extent.
While working fewer muscles at a time might not seem advantageous, it helps you target those specific muscles. You can focus all the training on those muscles, allowing them to grow bigger and stronger.
Doing compound and isolation exercises is the best way to ensure your entire body is progressing and you can focus on the areas that need more work. See more in our article Best Compound Shoulder Exercises for Bigger Shoulders.
2. Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Presses Allow Heavier Weights
Because the seated dumbbell shoulder press is an isolation exercise, you can increase the weight of the dumbbells you use more.
There is less movement than a standing barbell overhead press, so the weights don’t have to travel as far.
In addition, your core muscles and other stabilization muscles aren’t doing as much work, meaning that all the energy is channeled to your deltoid and trapezius muscles.
This means you can focus on getting those muscles stronger and more defined when doing a seated dumbbell shoulder press than some other shoulder exercises.
However, check out The Ultimate Shoulder Workout Routine for more tips.
Variations of a Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press
As we have mentioned, a seated dumbbell shoulder press is a great exercise to target your shoulders, increasing their size and strength.
However, variations of this exercise are also worth incorporating into your training regime.
They will allow you to get a more fully rounded shoulder training, and each variation uniquely contributes to your shoulder muscles.
Here are some variations of the seated dumbbell shoulder press.
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- Military strict press
- Arnold press
- Single-arm landmine press
- Kettlebell press
- Barbell push press
These exercises have advantages and will add to your shoulder training when incorporated into your training regime.
Therefore, try to do some variations of the seated dumbbell shoulder press. Remember that your body gets used to a particular style of training or exercise, and over time a specific exercise can become less effective.
Therefore, doing variations of exercises allows you to keep your body engaged and keep making progress. It also makes the training more fun.
Try these Side Delt Exercises for a Stronger Lateral Deltoid with some exercise variations.
Conclusion
I hope you have learned how to do a seated dumbbell shoulder press from our tips.
You should always set the bench at a ninety-degree angle to do a seated dumbbell shoulder press correctly.
Then, choose the weights you want to use.
Place your hands in an overhead grip with the dumbbells aligned with your shoulders.
Press the dumbbells upwards to straighten your arms and lower them back down to complete one repetition.
There are many advantages of doing a seated dumbbell overhead press.
Other exercise variations are worth trying to ensure you are training all the necessary muscles to give you aesthetic and strong shoulders.
Last update on 2022-10-13 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
