Exercise of the Week: Alternating Overhead Press
By alternating the arms, you force yourself to slow down and concentrate on the movement. There's an isometric contraction in there as one arm holds its position and the other presses up, which adds intensity to the exercise. Add in some core bracing to keep your body stable (especially if you're on an exercise ball as shown) and you get a little more bang for your buck. I like to do this move after a barbell press because you can feel the difference between the right and left arms and work them more independently.
Do it right: Sit or stand and hold weights next to the ears, elbows bent like a goal post. Press the right arm up overhead while keeping the left arm in place. Engage the abs to keep the rest of the body stable. Lower the right arm and, keeping it in place, press the left arm up overhead. Continue alternating for 10-16 reps (on each side) for 1-3 sets.
What's your favorite shoulder exercise? Leave a comment and tell us about it.
More shoulder exercises.
Comments
This looks like a great move – good change of pace. Can’t wait to try it at the gym!
Favorite shoulder exercise, The Shoulder Matrix; use dumbells (6 to 15 lbs should be plenty based on your current strength level) and perform the sequence of moves in succession without rest – both arms at the same time: 6ea lateral raises, then 6ea front raises, then 6ea upright rows, then the last move is first to hammer curl up to shoulders – twist wrists so that dumbell turns from perpendicular to parallel to shoulders, then shoulder press up, then back down, then twist your wrists back to perpendicular, then do the reverse portion of the hammer curl down – repeat 6ea reps. The entire sequence is 24 total reps. The last set with the hammer curls and shoulder press should really “burn”. This hits every “head” of the shoulder and will make your shoulders shapely and quite strong.
I like that one – The Shoulder Matrix! Can’t wait to try it!!