Arnold Press

Start

Finish

How to do it

Start seated with the dumbbells in front of your chest and palms facing you, then rotate the palms outward as you press overhead and reverse the rotation exactly on the way down.

Muscles worked

Primary: shoulders · Also works: triceps, upper chest

Equipment

Dumbbells

Common mistakes

• Rotating the wrists only at the very top instead of spreading the turn through the whole press
• Using the same weight as a strict press — the rotation under load needs a lighter dumbbell
• Letting the elbows drop below the ribs at the bottom, which strains the front of the shoulder

Variations

• Standing Arnold press
• Half Arnold press, rotating only to a neutral grip

Can't do this one? Swap it for

• Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press
• Alternating Dumbbell Shoulder Press
• Dumbbell Bench Press

Take care: ABROFIT automatically removes this movement for anyone who has flagged a shoulder problem. If that's you, use one of the swaps above and speak to a physio before loading it.

Related exercises

• Standing Overhead Pressshoulders
• Pike Push-Upshoulders
• Dumbbell Lateral Raiseshoulders
• Shoulder Controlled Rotationsshoulders
• Face Pullshoulders
• Cable Lateral Raiseshoulders