Arnold press: technique of performing while sitting with dumbbells, what muscles work

Arnold Schwarzenegger loved to do shoulder presses. One of the options with which Iron Arnie appeared in front of the cameras was the bench press with dumbbells while seated from the chest. Sounds complicated? Nobody wants to call the movement exactly that, so a shorter and brighter name was attached to it - the Arnold press. It is unknown, by the way, whether Schwarzenegger came up with this variation himself or borrowed it from someone. During the Golden Era of bodybuilding, people simply lifted weights, dieted, and competed without trying to patent every technique. Today this movement is used by both professionals and fitness enthusiasts.

History of the exercise

Most likely, this exercise could have been called the “dumbbell press with a turn”, if at one time the iron Arnie had not used it in the process of preparing for competitions. The athlete worked on his deltoid muscles, which were lagging behind others, with the help of bench presses so often that the exercise was named after him. At that time, there were few sports stars that aspiring athletes would aspire to be like. Therefore, since the golden era of bodybuilding, the name of an outstanding athlete has been associated not only with his merits in sports, terminator, but also with his bench press technique.

Common mistakes

The most common mistakes are:

Sharp jerks, lack of smooth movements.
Changing the position of the body, trying to help yourself by moving your shoulders or bending your back.
The breathing mode should correspond to the type of movements. Chaotic breathing should not be allowed.
Choosing too much weight. Even for experienced athletes, overloading the back muscles is fraught with unpleasant sensations, but for beginners this is generally unacceptable.
If the Arnold Press is the main goal of your workout, you should do a warm-up first. Under no circumstances should you exercise directly on cold muscles.
Do not allow the dumbbells to touch at the top of the lift. This allows the deltas to relax somewhat, reducing the effectiveness of the exercise.

Working out the deltoid muscles of the shoulder is one of the main areas of bodybuilding. These classes are no less important for other athletes, as well as for people in need of corrective or restorative physical education. The Arnold Press is an effective way to define shoulders that produces noticeable results in all applications. You can achieve the expected result only by performing the complexes correctly, without immediately setting too high loads and strictly observing the movement technique. Then you can achieve a clear relief line of the shoulders, achieve elasticity and strength of the ligaments and tendons.

Features of the exercise

If we talk about the classic version, at the lower point of fixation of the elbows the load on the front deltas does not decrease. The essence of keeping your elbows hanging (without moving them to the sides), in contrast to the dumbbell press, is that the deltoids muscles are constantly exposed to a large load, albeit with a small weight. In addition to the front, in the middle of the movement the middle delta is activated. In the upper phase, the posterior bundles of the deltoid muscle work, albeit slightly. Thus, the tension in the muscles stops only after its last repetition - at the moment of rest.

Features of the training

What muscles work when performing the Arnold press? The following types are involved in the process:

the maximum load occurs on the delta bundles (front and middle);
the posterior bundles, as well as the infraspinatus and supraspinatus muscles, receive a slight warm-up;
when extending the upper limbs, the work includes the triceps and the upper zones of the muscular apparatus of the sternum;
At the highest point of the push-up, the latissimus dorsi muscles are stretched.

This exercise is recommended to be performed at the end of sports training. It will help to form a clear outline and give the desired shape to the deltoid muscles.

Benefits of classes

The advantage of training compared to the classic bench press is the slight rotation of the weight. This factor forces the middle segment of the delta to work harder, and as a result, shoulder width is formed. The Arnold press pumps up the shoulder muscles, which makes it easier to do with heavier weights. For example, bench press in a sitting or standing position.

Contraindications

The optimal weight of weights for the Arnie press is 25-30% less than in the standard version. This circumstance reduces the load on the rotator segment of the shoulder and shoulder joints, which allows you to increase the number of repetitions to 15 r. If you use weights with significant mass, then even for a trained bodybuilder this creates a considerable risk of injury.

When performing the exercise in a standing position, a powerful axial load occurs on the spinal column. For preventative purposes, take small dumbbells and put on an athlete’s belt.

Pros and cons of the exercise

Pros:

Works the delta muscles, providing continuous tension in the anterior bundles.
Hones the shape of the muscle, creating a more prominent structure and separation.
The use of light weights reduces the possibility of injuring joints and ligaments.

The disadvantages of the exercise include:

Inability to use exercise to increase muscle mass. This technique does not allow you to lift heavy weights and perform low reps.
The bench press is only suitable for working on relief, for honing the shape of the deltas, which even Arnold was imperfect and disproportionate.
The exercise is not suitable for beginners. First, you need to strengthen the delta muscles and gain a certain shape, and then move on to grinding with the Arnold press.

Disadvantages of the exercise

The main disadvantage of the exercise is the relatively high risk of injury to the joints and muscles of the shoulder girdle.

Remedies for shoulder injury recovery. Left: kinesio tape. Right: Shoulder joint fixator.

Nevertheless, if you do not chase heavy weights, concentrating on the correct execution technique, you can undoubtedly derive much more benefit from the Arnold press than harm.

The first effect is clearly evident after a couple of weeks of training, and the best demonstration of its effectiveness is the personal example of the iron Arnie, who has won a huge number of various awards and titles.

Arnold press technique

The exercise can be performed standing, provided that the technique is free of swaying and bending of the lower back. To start mastering the technique, you can sit on a bench, leaning on the vertical backrest.

Place your feet firmly, press your lower back into the bench and tighten your abdominal muscles.
Bend your elbows and lift the dumbbells, holding them with a reverse grip towards you, moving your hands a little further from your body. Keep your elbows at chest level. Feel the tension in the front deltoids, do not lower the dumbbells to your stomach.
As you exhale, begin to raise your elbows, moving your arms to the sides; in the middle of the amplitude, turn your hands away from you, straightening your elbows at the top point of the movement.
As you inhale, lower the dumbbells in reverse order. Bring your hands together in front of you, with your palms facing you; at the lowest point, do not lower your elbows too low.

Since this exercise is all about definition, perform over 14 reps per set. Do 3–4 approaches. Choose small dumbbells that will allow you to get a noticeable load in the range of 14-20 repetitions. The load should be accompanied by a burning sensation in the deltoids. If the weight turns out to be light for this cycle, then increase the weight of the dumbbells a little.

Types of technology

Push-ups are performed standing or sitting. For a sitting position, you will need a bench with an adjustable incline angle.

Sitting option

The Arnold press technique involves the following steps:

sit straight on the bench and press against the back;
raise the weight to the shoulder line;
turn your arms, pointing your knuckles forward, this is the starting position. By rotating the hands, the weights are placed in front, this increases the weight on the front of the deltoid;
do a weight squeeze. When the dumbbells rise to the forehead line, you should unfold them. As you exhale, perform a bench press. It is recommended to calculate the moment so as to complete the turn before the time when they are squeezed out to the amplitude;
then smoothly lower the projectile down without pausing in the upper peak position;
the turn is carried out in the same way - complete the unfolding of the weight along with the lowering.

Standing method

The Schwarzenegger standing dumbbell press is performed as follows:

select the weight of the sports equipment, which can be easily lifted to the shoulders;
Straighten your torso, keep your spine straight, and push your chest slightly forward and upward;
lift the weights and rotate them so that the knuckles are in front;
do presses similar to the sitting technique. There is no need to help yourself with your lower limbs. Movements are carried out by isolated shoulder activity;
As you inhale, lower the weights to the shoulder line, while turning them around.

For the weaker sex

The Arnold press technique is suitable for girls. It is practically no different from the method of training performed by men. But there are some nuances:

Until a woman masters the correct push-up pattern with weights, it is better to start training with light sports equipment;
It is advisable to increase weight smoothly, without sudden transitions;
Representatives of the fairer sex are recommended to work on the relief. This means increasing the number of repetitions.

As a result, girls' shoulders will not be as massive and pumped up as men's. Because for such an effect, they train with impressive weight and a lot, and also consume protein in huge volumes.

Common Mistakes

The main mistakes that athletes make greatly affect the effectiveness of the exercise.

The elbows drop too low in the lower phase of the movement , reducing the load on the front deltoids.
In the first half of the amplitude, the arms are spread wide apart, turning the hands below the level of the crown. This movement is more like a simple seated press and removes most of the load.
A strong deflection is formed in the lower back when pressing , compensating for the lack of strength in the back.
When pressing, the shoulders rise too high , the trapezius muscle takes on excess load and pinches the neck too much. A useless movement that takes more energy.
A large load weight is selected. Due to this, it becomes impossible to perform the technique efficiently.

Implementation options and common errors

Now let's look at how to do the Arnold press correctly.

There are two diametrically opposed types of technology:

The movement is carried out strictly upward, in one straight line

In this case, the front deltas work more, and the load on the middle delta is an order of magnitude less.

The starting position is the same as in the first option - arms in front of the body, palms turned towards you. From the bottom point, the arms are spread to the sides, while the hands are simultaneously turned with the palms facing away from you. This already resembles the classic dumbbell press. From this position, the dumbbells are pressed up

It is believed that this technique involves more of the middle deltoid bundle.

A common mistake when doing the Arnold Press is using dumbbells that are too heavy. This is often the case with beginners and intermediate level players.

The Arnold press is not anatomically suitable for working with heavy weights.

The intensity of the load here should be increased in other ways - by shortening rest pauses between approaches, increasing the number of repetitions, approaches, and so on.

For variety, the movement can also be performed while standing, but this is not recommended for back problems.

How to enhance the effect?

Many athletes perform this exercise standing, but it is more effective to do Arnold presses while sitting, leaning on the hard back of a bench or chair. In a sitting position, your body is fixed and you do not waste energy maintaining its stability. Thanks to this, you can direct maximum effort specifically to working on the shoulder muscles.

We hope our material turned out to be useful and soon this exercise from Iron Arnie’s arsenal will become one of your favorites. Good luck and good results!

Guillotine press

The guillotine press or guillotine barbell press is an exercise that was invented by one of the greatest trainers, Vincent Gironda.

Once upon a time, Arnold Schwarzenegger himself was among his students.

Before we talk about the technique of performing this exercise, let's remember the anatomy of the pectoral muscles.

Here is the anatomy of the pectoral muscles:

We see that the pectoral muscles consist of:

Pectoralis major (m. pectoralis major) – brings the arm to the body, turns it inward (pronation), and the part that is attached to the collarbone bends the arm and is involved in pulling the body when climbing somewhere;
Pectoralis Minor (m. pectoralis minor) – when contracting, pulls the scapula forward and down;
The serratus anterior muscle (m. serratus anterior), together with the rhomboid muscle, which is also attached to the medial edge of the scapula, forms a wide muscle loop that covers the body and presses the scapula to it;

The pectoral (pectoral) muscles are unique in nature because they attach at different angles to the sternum and collarbone.

Visually, you can see the letter “G” if you pay attention to their fastening. That is why they need to be trained from different angles to maximize the involvement of all muscle fibers of the chest

That is why they need to be trained from different angles to maximize the involvement of all muscle fibers of the chest.

But the guillotine press is a unique exercise because... is capable of involving almost the entire chest mass into work, and is also extremely effective.

The fact is that when studying the electrical activity of muscles using EMG (electromyography), it was found that the guillotine is only 2-3% less effective for the UPPER CHEST than the dumbbell bench press, but for the middle and lower chest it has been proven that it is best exercise.

Moreover, Bret Contreras studied the involvement of muscle fibers precisely from the point of view of muscle growth, and not strength growth, which is especially important for us.

Main working muscles

The Arnold press affects the shoulders in such a way that the deltoid muscles (deltoids) work more actively:

at the very beginning, the front deltoids are included in the work;
in the middle part of the exercise, the lateral deltoids and, to a lesser extent, the rear deltoids are tensed;
At the top of the bench press amplitude, a maximum load occurs again on the front, as well as on the lateral muscle bundles of the deltoids.

But more tension than always falls not only on the deltoids, but also on the triceps muscles of the arms (triceps).

Moderate load falls on:

trapezoid-shaped muscles located in the back of the neck and upper back;
coracobrachial muscles;
muscles located in the upper part of the thoracic region.

Finally, the Arnold press with dumbbells works (albeit to a lesser extent) the latissimus, teres and small dorsi muscles.

Common mistakes and general recommendations for performing the exercise

What mistakes do athletes most often make when they first encounter Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bench press one-on-one:

Too heavy weights (start with light or medium weights, even if you are confident in your strength).
Poor warm-up of the shoulder joint (try to warm up for 7-10 minutes before any training session of basic exercises).
Hunched back (keep your back straight throughout the exercise).
Sudden movements (all phases of the press should proceed smoothly).
Incomplete range of wrist rotation/too strong wrist rotation (follow the recommended technique to avoid injuries to the wrist joints).

Arnold Seated Press (photo)

Ideal technique

General recommendations for the Arnold press (video)

The breathing technique in this exercise is really important: if you consciously hold your breath, the chest will help relieve strong tension from the spine.
To fully contract the deltoid and trapezius muscles, squeeze the dumbbells to the end, working with full amplitude. Your arms should go as high as possible.
You can raise your arms with a narrow or wide distance between the dumbbells. But it is best to alternate these trajectories.

Now you are ready to perform the Arnold Press yourself. Don't forget about warm-up exercises, watch your technique and strive to get closer to the ideal. Not only the quality of the exercise, the pumping of the deltoid muscles, but also the health of your joints depends on this. Don't chase big, hard-to-lift weights; you'll get closer to them very quickly if you perfect your technique first. Regularly performing the Arnold press will help form proportional deltoids, shoulders and pectoral muscles, and hide imperfections such as asymmetry and skewed muscles.

Description of the exercise

The exercise is a modification of the usual standing or seated dumbbell press. The main difference is that due to the turn of the hands and the extension of the arms forward, the front delta is loaded more. And when squeezing up not in a straight line, but in an arc, the middle delta also receives more load than with a regular dumbbell press.

The exercise can be done both sitting and standing. With the sitting option, you can press your back against the back, this will allow you to do more repetitions or take on more weight. That is, it’s easier this way. In general, in the Arnold press, the weights are usually 60% - 70% of the regular dumbbell press.

Main features

1. A simpler option is to press straight up. This way the trajectory is shorter and the middle delta is less loaded. If you do it in an arc, it’s more difficult, but the middle delta also benefits more.

2. The more you move your arms forward, the more load the front delta will receive.

3. It is not necessary to turn your arms at the top with your palms facing forward. You can also place your palms facing each other.

4. I would not recommend this exercise as a basic exercise. But at the end of the workout, the Arnold shoulder press will come in very handy.

5. If you do the Arnold press while sitting at an angle of approximately 60 degrees, then the upper pectoral muscles will also receive a small load.

6. Overall, if you want to try something new, then I think you will like this exercise. Just don’t use it with heavy weights. It is not created for this. Place it at the end of the workout and take such a weight that you can do 10-12 repetitions correctly.

7. By the way, I don’t think it was Arnold Schwarzenegger who came up with this exercise. Most likely, he popularized it. As far as I know, something similar was done before.

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What are the possible contraindications?

As practice shows, you should not abuse too much weight.

The fact is that a fairly large load falls on the shoulder joint and rotator cuff. Therefore, it is worth taking a weight 30% less than that with which you work in the classic exercise - seated/standing dumbbell press.

For an inexperienced trainee, lifting heavy weights may pose a risk of injury. Therefore, the progression of weights should be approached very, very carefully. Bringing the dumbbells forward a little will reduce the stress on your joints.
It is not recommended for anyone who has problems with the shoulder joint. And for those who have had injuries, it is better to work in a high-repetition mode with light weight. Pumping is a great tactic in this case.
For those with back problems, it is not recommended to perform the exercise while standing. Since a high axial load is created on the spine.

Common mistakes

The overall score for the load on the target muscles is 22, this is a fairly high indicator, and it is not surprising that mistakes are often made when performing it. The effectiveness of the technique performed will directly depend on compliance with the rules. If the exercise is performed incorrectly, the athlete may get injured.

Quite often, athletes make the following mistakes when using the Arnold technique:

try to perform techniques with a large working weight;
when performing a bench press, the body tilts backward;
improper dumbbell press;
rotation of the hands when starting to lift the dumbbells.

Only correct adherence to the technique, regardless of body position at the time of performing the exercise, will help avoid injury and allow you to achieve the desired result.

Arnold press for girls

This exercise is also suitable for women's training. In terms of execution technique, it is not at all different from the classic version, but has a number of its own features:

In the Arnold press, girls do not need to use too much weight. What is more important is not the number of kilograms of iron, but the number of repetitions and approaches. Therefore, we recommend using light weights, but with an increased number of repetitions (for example, 4 sets of 15-17 repetitions).
Many girls do not use the Arnold press for a reason - their shoulders will become large and masculine. This is wrong. The exercise will not enlarge your shoulders, but will only outline their contours and create a beautiful, athletic relief.
For a harmonious workout, girls need to combine the Arnold press with a standing or lying barbell press.

Women's version of the Arnold press

Execution technique

Video demonstration of the Arnold press for girls:

Tips for maximum efficiency

Before starting your workout, be sure to do exercises to warm up your entire body. Pay special attention to the shoulder joints and neck. To warm up, you can use the usual exercises that you remember from physical education lessons.
If you experience pain or discomfort during exercise. You should stop the exercise immediately.
In order to increase the load on the middle head. In the middle phase (elbows moving to the sides), you need to tilt your hands slightly inward. This will shift the center of gravity slightly. This technique was used by the very first Mr. Olympia Larry Scott.
Before performing working approaches, do 1-2 warm-up approaches with light weight.
It is best to perform the Arnold press at the end of your workout. Using light weight and performing the exercise in an average number of repetitions. Approximately 4 sets of 12-15 reps.
At the end of your workout, be sure to do a small set of muscle stretching exercises.

Exercise technique[edit | edit code]

Sit on a bench with a vertical backrest and press your back tightly against it. Legs are bent at the knees at a right angle.
Starting position: Take dumbbells and lift them to neck level. Align your elbows so that they are in the same plane as your torso or slightly forward. Turn your hands at the wrists with your palms facing your torso.
Take a deep breath and, holding your breath, press the dumbbells vertically upward. Don't lower or raise your head. The chin should be parallel to the floor, and the gaze should be directed straight ahead.
As soon as the dumbbells pass the level of the crown, begin to turn the dumbbells (palms) outward. At the top point, the arms should be fully straightened, but not locked at the elbows, the shoulders raised, and the palms facing forward.
After squeezing the dumbbells, exhale, stop and, with additional effort, tighten your deltoids even more.
Inhale and smoothly lower the dumbbells to the starting position, turning them inward so that when they reach shoulder level, your palms are again directed towards your torso.

Arnold press (video)