Cuban Press
Trains the Shoulders, Infraspinatus and Teres Minor.
- Equipment
- Dumbbell
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Stand holding a light barbell or a pair of dumbbells with an overhand grip in front of your thighs.
- Pull the weight up along the front of your body into an upright row, stopping when your upper arms are parallel to the floor and your elbows are bent to ninety degrees.
- Holding the elbows at that height, rotate your forearms upward until they point at the ceiling and the weight is above your hands. This middle third is the rotator cuff working.
- From there, press the weight overhead until your arms are straight.
- Reverse the whole sequence: lower to the rotated position, rotate the forearms back down, then lower to your thighs.
Common mistakes
- Loading it like a press. The rotation is the limiting part of the movement and it is far weaker than either the row or the press, so the weight has to suit the weakest third.
- Letting the elbows drop during the rotation. If the upper arms fall, the rotation happens somewhere other than where it was supposed to.
- Rushing the sequence into one swing. It is three movements performed in order and each one should be recognisable.
- Treating it as a shoulder mass exercise. It is a cuff and upper-back exercise that happens to end in a press; it will never be loaded heavily enough to build the deltoid.
Muscles worked
Primary
- Shoulders
- InfraspinatusRotator Cuff
- Teres MinorRotator Cuff
Secondary
- Traps
- SupraspinatusRotator Cuff