Standing Front Barbell Raise Over Head

How to do it

1. Stand holding a barbell in front of your thighs with an overhand grip about shoulder-width apart.
2. Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart and your stomach braced.
3. Raise the bar straight out in front of you with a small bend at the elbows.
4. Continue past shoulder height until the bar is overhead and the arms are roughly vertical.
5. Lower under control back down the same path to your thighs.
6. Keep the torso still throughout — no leaning back to help.

Common mistakes

• Leaning back to get the bar overhead. The lower back arching is the trunk lifting the weight, and a bar travelling that far forward makes it very tempting.
• Going heavy. The bar is held at arm's length through a long arc, which is the least mechanically favourable way to carry a weight.
• Treating the overhead half as more front-delt work. Above shoulder height the shoulder blade rotates and the traps and serratus take over — the front of the shoulder has finished by then.
• Swinging from the bottom. A dead stop at the thighs is what makes a light bar hard here.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Anterior DeltoidShoulders