I want to know how to do the dumbbell shoulder press correctly. Am I suppose to lower the dumbbells until my arms are parallel to the ground, then push back up?
Or, am I suppose to lower my arms further than parallel (until they almost touch my lats), then push back up?
I seen this personal trainer (big guy) at my gym doing the same exercise, and he was lowering his arms until they were parallel with the ground.
[quote]serious_guy wrote:
I want to know how to do the dumbbell shoulder press correctly. Am I suppose to lower the dumbbells until my arms are parallel to the ground, then push back up?
Or, am I suppose to lower my arms further than parallel (until they almost touch my lats), then push back up?
I seen this personal trainer (big guy) at my gym doing the same exercise, and he was lowering his arms until they were parallel with the ground.[/quote]
Upper arm parallel with the floor is sufficient.
[quote]BIGRAGOO wrote:
Upper arm parallel with the floor is sufficient.
[/quote]
But is it as good as full range of motion? I’d guess there’s pros and cons both ways, but I tend to lower the weight down to my shoulders.
As long as it does not cause you pain, I would figure the more ROM the better.
Push yourself to the breaking point, feel the pain. Become One with the pain.
[quote]graphicsMan wrote:
BIGRAGOO wrote:
Upper arm parallel with the floor is sufficient.
But is it as good as full range of motion? I’d guess there’s pros and cons both ways, but I tend to lower the weight down to my shoulders.[/quote]
That’s fine, but the point is to not overstretch on the drop. I go past parallel, but it is comfortable for me to do so
[quote]graphicsMan wrote:
BIGRAGOO wrote:
Upper arm parallel with the floor is sufficient.
But is it as good as full range of motion? I’d guess there’s pros and cons both ways, but I tend to lower the weight down to my shoulders.[/quote]
Full ROM is not necessarily how far you can bend or move. There is no benefit to the movement for muscular purposes to drop below 90 degrees.
A tip to put extra stress on the shoulders. When holding the db’s–hold them so your pinkie is higher than your thumb–drop to 90 degrees and only go up about 75% of the way. Yes it is a shorter ROM, but it keeps constant tension on the shoulder. I love to super these with push presses.
I’ll try using full ROM, but stop a bit before it touches my lats to keep tension on the shoulder. I’ll also not lock-out to keep tension on the shoulder muscle.
Thanks
Dr. Buchberger, a well known chiro in NY who works with pro athletes, says that going all the way down to touching the torso creates a separation in the AC joint that can eventually cause laxity. It would probably be best to split the difference and do so while operating in the scapular plane (just to the front of the body) instead of in-line with the body. I’ve always done DB presses this way: DB to about mouth height at bottom, and about 90% lockout at top to keep the tension on the delts better.
Best,
DH
I do the middle 3/5 of the movement.