Everyone knows that military presses are one of the best exercises for packing on pounds of shoulder muscle, but many people have never heard of Arnold Presses. They are a great compound shoulder exercise that can help build mass, and the unique movement will hit your muscles in a different way, which can lead to new growth.
Arnold Presses
Sit on an inclined bench with two dumbbells. They should be moderately heavy, enough so you can perform 3 sets of 6-8 reps each. Begin with the dumbbells resting on your upper chest with your palms facing towards your body. As you press the weights into the air, rotate your arms so that at their peak your palms are facing outward, as they are in a normal dumbbell press. As you lower the weights back down, rotate your arms back to the starting position, with your palms facing inward again.
Here is a video demonstrating how to do them properly:
June 5th, 2008 at 6:15 am
love
Im old school in my weights—–glad to see someone else is still as well.
the BOSU? love it for balance not for my weight time.
June 5th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Stick with what works, right?!
June 7th, 2008 at 11:05 am
I used to do these but now for some reason I just do the standard shoulder press. I don’t know when or why I made the change. It just sort of happened without me realising.
Thanks for the post and for reminding me about this great exercise. I think I will be substituting my usual shoulder presses with this much tougher variation from now on.
June 8th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I saw something about these in this months Mens Health Magazine and was quite interested in picking up some old school weight sets. The video was extremely useful.
Now I just have to give them a go.
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Love Arnold Presses! Way more than a standard seated dumbbell.
July 4th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I think that this video is very useful for everyone who want to excersise their shouldes.