Cable Shoulder Press
Trains the Shoulders.
- Equipment
- A cable station
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Set both pulleys at the lowest setting and take a handle in each hand.
- Stand between them with your feet hip-width apart and the handles at shoulder height, palms facing forward.
- Brace your stomach and keep your ribs down.
- Press both handles overhead until the arms are almost straight.
- Let the cables pull the handles back down to shoulder height under control.
- Keep the elbows under the hands throughout rather than letting them drift behind.
Common mistakes
- Standing too far forward of the pulleys. The cable line should run up past the body; standing ahead of it turns the press into an incline press and pulls you backward.
- Letting the cables draw the elbows behind the torso at the bottom. Cables will allow it where a dumbbell would already have stopped, and behind the torso is where the shoulder has least to offer.
- Leaning back against the pull. The cables pull down and back, so staying upright is work — and giving in to it is the same arch a standing barbell press produces.
- Expecting it to replace a dumbbell press. The constant tension is different, not better: hardest at the bottom where a dumbbell is easiest, and lightest at the top where a dumbbell is heaviest.