Exercise guide

How to do dumbbell shoulder press

Front & side delts · triceps

Dumbbell shoulder press starting position — correct set-up before the first rep
Start
Dumbbell shoulder press finished position — the end of one repetition
End of rep

Step by step

  1. Third pressing movement of the day — start lighter than you think and chase the rep range.
  2. Sit tall, elbows slightly forward of the torso, dumbbells at shoulder height.
  3. Press up smoothly and stop just short of locking the elbows out.
  4. Lower for 2 seconds to shoulder height and go straight into the next rep.

The cue that matters

CueThe delts are already pre-fatigued by now — 10–12 clean reps beat 6 ugly ones.
AvoidLeaning back and quietly turning it into an incline press.

Where this sits in the split

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