Seated Barbell Shoulder Press

Start

Finish

How to do it

Sit on an upright bench with the bar racked at collarbone height, grip just outside shoulder width, and press the bar straight up past your face until the arms lock with the bar over the mid-skull.

Muscles worked

Primary: shoulders · Also works: triceps, upper chest

Equipment

Barbell

Common mistakes

• Pushing the head forward too early so the bar scrapes the nose on the way up
• Gripping far wider than the shoulders, which cuts the range and loads the joint capsule
• Letting the lower back peel off the bench pad to grind out the last rep

Variations

• Seated press with a two-second pause at the chin
• Seated press inside a power rack with pins

Can't do this one? Swap it for

• Standing Overhead Press
• Machine Shoulder Press
• Seated Dumbbell Shoulder 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