Dumbbell Alternate Shoulder Press
The Dumbbell Alternate Shoulder Press targets your shoulders and improves upper body strength. This exercise involves pressing one dumbbell overhead while stabilizing your core.
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand at shoulder height.
- Engage your core and press one dumbbell overhead while keeping the other at shoulder level.
- Lower the dumbbell back to shoulder height and repeat with the opposite arm.
- Continue alternating arms for the desired number of repetitions.
How to perform the Dumbbell Alternate Shoulder Press
- Set up. Set up in a stable, balanced starting position appropriate for the Dumbbell Alternate Shoulder Press using your dumbbell.
- Brace and execute. Brace your core, control the descent, and move through a full pain-free range of motion while emphasizing your triceps.
- Reset. Reverse the movement under control and reset between repetitions, keeping your form crisp on every rep.
Coaching cues
- Move with intent — every rep should feel deliberate, not rushed.
- Drive force through your triceps rather than momentum.
- Keep your breathing steady: exhale on the hard part, inhale on the reset.
Common mistakes
- Using too much weight and losing positional control.
- Cutting the range of motion short and missing the target muscle.
- Letting your spine round or hyperextend instead of staying neutral.
Detailed cues, common mistakes, and demonstration video are available in the Fitly app.
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