With dumbbells in hand, simply begin with your palms facing your shoulders and your elbows down in front of you. As you press the dumbbells upward, the middle and rear delts become increasingly engaged but not until the front delts initiate most of the move. Your functional-minded personal trainer may want to cover his delicate ears or perhaps skip this section because we’ll be discussing the behind-the-neck press. MORE: The Arnold Press. Those attributes allow the partial press to be instrumental in helping you achieve your objective of getting boulder, sleeve-busting shoulders. The same goes for the standard and behind-the-neck versions of the press, both having everything to do with the position of your elbows relative to your body. So, more total muscle fibers are hard at work to perform the overhead press when using dumbbells than when using the bar. Thus, when doing presses behind the neck, your elbows move out to your sides to a greater degree than with presses to the front, and because of this, the middle delts are involved to a much greater degree than they are with front barbell presses. Military press is a weight exercise done using barbell or dumbbells and is considered a true reflection of one’s strength and hence its name. Control the dumbbells in the reverse motion all the way back down to the start position. Power Pointer: The dumbbell version is more difficult than using the barbell, so it recruits more muscle fibers for a longer range of motion. Because you keep your elbows out to your sides during standard overhead dumbbell presses, the emphasis remains primarily focused on the middle delts. When you do lateral raises, in which your elbows move out to your sides, you involve more of your middle delts. In other words, more total muscle fibers are hard at work when doing the overhead dumbbell press. What that means is that your delts are recruited for a longer period of time and through a greater range motion with dumbbells than during an overhead barbell press. The overhead press incorporates multiple muscles of the shoulder in addition to the muscles of the surrounding area. We know what you’re thinking: What move could possibly be better than the overhead press for shoulder size? When you perform an overhead press to the front of your head, you’re using mainly the middle and front delts, as well as the trapezius muscle that runs from your neck down the center of your back. Would the real overhead press please stand up? The key is learning to incorporate both versions into your routine rather than sticking to just one. As a way of quick review, the shoulder is composed of three heads: the front, middle and rear delts. Hi, I'm wondering what you guys think on the differences between these two exercises? Improved Core Strength. Arnold wins! Overhead Press. In fact, dare we say that after you’ve adapted to the standing version, you may never want to perform the seated version again. Press the weights straight up, pronating your hands (turn your wrists out once the dumbbells reach eye level) so that your palms face forward as you reach full-arm extension. Now, if you have pre-existing shoulder or cervical spine issues, you’ll obviously need to avoid this version, but for the healthy individual, the behind-the-neck overhead press is absolutely safe. It’s important to adequately warm up your shoulders as well as the rotator-cuff muscles prior to your heavier sets. The latest in featured workouts, supplementation, nutrition tips, and more! And with that increased ROM comes greater time under tension and the recruitment of the traps, which act to raise the shoulder blades. Many bodybuilders shy away from anything less than a full range of motion (ROM), and while we believe in a full ROM, the “purist” could gain a lot from working his way to the power rack. When the set is over (failure), you simply rest the bar atop the safeties. In other words, if your shoulder routine is always one big dose of old-fashioned barbell presses, this article is about to shake up and overhaul the way you train delts. Related:5 Bulletproof Moves for Wider Shoulders. Because you’re seated, your lower back and legs are, for lack of a better term, at rest. In an overhead press there’s less counterstrain on the joints because all muscles surrounding the shoulders are involved. Shoulder press pain is very common, and so are the causes. In fact, that added confidence factor actually brings us to the next main point, which is simply the amount of stress or weight you can place upon your shoulders in a partial environment. Little medial delts tbh. Overhead presses are compound moves (meaning more than two sets of joints are working together, in this case the muscles that attach to the elbow and shoulder joints, so the triceps are also assisting) that are typically done first in your shoulder routine. You may be working within a shorter range of motion, but your delts have the capacity to lift more weight partially than they can through a full ROM, and it’s time you put that truth to good use. Military vs Shoulder Press . This action also requires more stabilizer muscles to perform the move. Advantage: Arnold Press. Military Press vs Overhead Press . All you have to do is give them a try in order to expose the muscle fibers of your shoulders to different stresses and stimuli from one week to the next. That’s our first request as we dive into these variations of a classic. Power Pointer: By shortening the range of motion, you can use much more weight than you normally would. However, the Arnold press forces your elbows to drop in front of your body, in some regards similar to a front raise, which calls upon the anterior delts to a great degree. This helps strengthen hard-to-target muscles, such as the rotator cuff, which can make you stronger and less susceptible to injuries. But when you stand up, you immediately engage your entire body. Overhead presses work the front and side shoulder muscles and also engage the trapezius muscles---shoulder muscles at the base of the neck--- and the triceps.