Military Press Form

The military press is a standing shoulder exercise where you lift either a weighted barbell or two dumbbells in unison from the top of your chest to a point straight above your head, with your elbows locked straight. The exercise gets its name from a soldier’s posture while standing at attention, with the feet together, the back straight, the chest out and the chin up. The only movement should come from your arms and shoulders driving the weight from the chest to the top position above your head, then returning the weight back to chest level. Movements of weight to and from the floor are not considered part of the form. Although the traditional concept of the military press requires a standing position, the contemporary conception no longer requires this. You can perform military presses while standing or seated. The seated position helps you maintain precise form through the movement, but it doesn’t engage as many stabilizers as the standing position.

Execution

No matter which piece of equipment you use for the military press, warm up properly prior to performing your reps. Your muscles need to be warmed up before you begin to avoid potential injury and strain. For the military press that targets your deltoids, a set of 10 side raises with a 5-pound free-weight plate will limber up the muscles sufficiently. When doing the exercise, ask a partner to spot you, and don’t press more weight than you can handle. Bend at the knees when raising or lowering the weight to or from the floor. When you’ve completed your military press sets, stretch your left arm across your chest and brace it with your right arm, pinning your left arm as tightly as you can to your body. Hold the stretch for several seconds and then switch arms.

Barbell

Whether you choose to perform military presses with a weighted barbell or with two dumbbells, your deltoids will get the same workout, provided that you use the exact same form for each exercise. The difference between the two is how your stabilizer muscles are engaged through the form. Also, the main difference between barbells and dumbbells is the position you’re allowed to go while performing presses. For example, with the barbell, you’re restricted to pressing in front of your head and raising and lowering the bar above your chest, which engages your upper pectorals. The static nature of the bar requires less effort to balance through the motion, letting you better isolate the deltoids and ultimately lift more weight per rep than you would with dumbbells.

Dumbbells

The main advantage to using dumbbells instead of a weighted barbell is that you can perform your presses with the weight directly over your deltoids. Raising and lower weight in this position shifts the stress from your upper pecs directly to your deltoids and triceps. Also, lifting two separate weights forces you to engage smaller, often-neglected stabilizers in your forearms to maintain balance, which translates to small but increased performance for other arm exercises.

Considerations

Ideally, you should find the time to incorporate both variations into your shoulder routine, if only for the fact that subtle changes can pay big dividends. If you don’t have time to perform presses of each type in the same workout, consider alternating one version for the other in successive workouts, or do four weeks of one type, then switch to four weeks of the other. This prevents your shoulders from getting used to the exercise, which diminishes its effectiveness. Group all shoulder workouts into the same session to avoid overtraining, and get enough rest in between workouts targeting the same muscle group.