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7 Excellent Benefits of The Dumbbell Shoulder Press

Optimise your upper body training.

This article will teach you all the amazing benefits of the dumbbell shoulder press.

Dumbbell shoulder presses are among the most basic and useful exercises for building strength and mobility in your upper body.

There are a lot of ways to do shoulder presses, including dumbbells, barbells, machines and even medicine balls.

sara sigmundsdottir crossfit games 2020 Benefits of The Dumbbell Shoulder PressSource: Photo courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

Should you focus on one exercise or should you incorporate multiple movements into your routine? How can you make sure that your shoulders don’t get injured while doing this exercise?

Let’s take a look at what makes dumbbell shoulder presses so great:

1. Benefits of The Dumbbell Shoulder Press – Strong Shoulder Muscles Help with Lifting, Carrying and Sport

Strong shoulders will help with almost every single weights exercise and every sport that involves the upper body in some capacity, from CrossFit to climbing, wrestling to yoga.

If you’re new to strength training or have just been exercising for a short time, it’s important to develop your muscles gradually.

You can do this by using lighter weights on exercises like dumbbell shoulder press. This way, the movement will be easier at first and you won’t need a spotter.

By working with lighter weights, you can also prevent injury by not working your muscles beyond their current capacity.

2. Benefits of The Dumbbell Shoulder Press – You Don’t Need a Spotter

The dumbbell shoulder press can easily be performed without a spotter.

This makes it accessible and easy to do anywhere, anytime.

3. Benefits of The Dumbbell Shoulder Press – Suitable for Athletes of All Ability Levels

If you’re new to weight training, using lighter weights will allow you to learn proper form and build up strength gradually.

If you’re an experienced lifter, using heavier weights will help you build muscle mass and strength.

4. Benefits of The Dumbbell Shoulder Press – Prevent Injury

One of the main benefits of dumbbell shoulder press is that it helps to prevent injury. This exercise strengthens and improves your shoulder positioning and strength, which in turn helps you prevent injuries from occurring.

For example, if you have a weak lower back or abdominal muscles, this can lead to slouching which puts stress on your spine. When this happens consistently over time, it can result in pain in your lower back and hips or even sciatica. With proper training using dumbbells for shoulder presses, however, you’ll strengthen these areas so there’s less chance of this happening!

5. Benefits of The Dumbbell Shoulder Press – Correct Muscular Imbalances

This movement helps to correct muscular imbalances.

If you spend a lot of time at a desk, your shoulders can become tight and inflexible. This imbalance can lead to pain in the neck and upper back.

If you spend a lot of time in front of a computer, your shoulders can become weak and lose muscle tone.

In fact, this is very common among people who type all day long! The exercise helps to correct these sorts of muscle imbalances by strengthening your scapular muscles—the small muscles at the base of each shoulder blade—while stretching out tight chest muscles on top.

This will make sure that both sides are working equally well together whenever they’re used during daily life activities (such as lifting heavy objects).

Additionally, as a unilateral exercise it will show you which arm is strongest and which is weakest. It will allow you to identify and rectify your muscular imbalances.

6. Benefits of The Dumbbell Shoulder Press – Recruit A Large Number of Muscles

The shoulder press is a great exercise for building upper body strength and mass because it recruits many different muscles.

This is because it works both the anterior and posterior deltoids. It also works the triceps, pectoralis major and anterior deltoid.

7. Benefits of The Dumbbell Shoulder Press – Better Shoulder Strength and Mobility

Shoulder presses are a great way to improve shoulder strength and they can provide tremendous mobility benefits.

Shoulders are one of the most mobile joints in the body, as they can rotate, flex, extend, abduct (move away from centre), adduct (move towards centre) and elevate.

While this is not a comprehensive list of what you can do with your shoulders it will help you understand why should press exercise can be so effective in strengthening your shoulders while also improving their range of motion.

Muscles of the shoulders

The complex shoulder joints are made up of the following muscles.

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The deltoid muscle

The deltoid muscle is a large triangular muscle that covers the shoulder joint. It’s located on the upper arm and made up of three parts: anterior (front), middle and posterior (back).

The deltoid primarily abducts your arm, meaning it moves it away from your body in various directions such as above or out to the sides. The anterior deltoid is responsible for flexing your shoulder forward, while its two other heads flex it outwardly and upwardly respectively.

The Trapezius Muscle

The trapezius muscle is a broad muscle that extends along the back of your neck and shoulders. It’s the largest muscle in your body, covering almost the entire length of your shoulder.

The trapezius originates at three points:

  • superiorly, it attaches to the occipital bone (just above your ears) and nuchal ligament;
  • laterally, it attaches to all seven cervical vertebrae;
  • inferiorly, it attaches to thoracic vertebrae T1-T7. The attachments make for two distinct regions in this large muscle: upper or superior region and lower or inferior region.

The Levator Scapulae Muscle

The levator scapulae muscle is a small but important muscle of the shoulders. It originates at the transverse processes of C1-C4 and inserts at the medial border of the scapula, where it works to elevate and rotate the shoulder blade.

The Rhomboid Muscles

The rhomboid muscles are located on both sides of the spine, connecting your shoulder blades with the vertebrae in your lower back. These muscles are particularly important for maintaining good posture, as they pull your shoulder blades together to counteract the effects of gravity and prevent slumped shoulders.

Because of their effect on posture, these muscles are often overworked from repetitive activity such as typing or driving for long periods of time. When this happens, there is increased tension on these muscles’ tendons which can lead to pain or even injury if not treated in a timely manner.

Conclusion

The shoulder is a complex joint with many muscles that work together to provide stability and movement. It’s important that you know how these muscles work so that you can understand what may cause pain in your shoulders.

If you’re looking for an exercise that will help to build strength in your shoulders, the dumbbell shoulder press is a great option. It works the chest, triceps and delts while also improving mobility through rotation. You don’t need a spotter with this one either!

Learn More

How to Increase Chest Size and Strength

Best Way to Train the Chest for Hypertrophy (Muscle Mass)

3 Hacks for a Bigger Chest

Upper Chest Exercises Ranked (Best to Worst)

9 Best Dumbbell Chest Exercises

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