Written by Tom MacCormick | BSc Sports Sci. & Coaching | MSc Str. & Cond.
Fact checked by Kirsten Yovino, CPT Brookbush Institute
FACT CHECKED
Gym rats have idolized the great Arnold-Schwarzenegger for decades, so it’s no surprise a shoulder press variation named after him has become a staple in the routines of many. This dumbbell overhead press variation has often been heralded as the key to developing boulder shoulders.
And if the Arnold press yields results even close to Schwarzenegger-like shoulders, sign us up for including the exercise in our regular workout rotation.
This article will discuss:
- What is the Arnold press?
- What does the exercise do?
- Muscles worked in the Arnold Press
- Pros and cons of the Arnold Press
- How to perform the Arnold Press
- Variations of the Arnold Press
- Programming the Arnold Press
Let’s get into it! Serious shoulder muscle growth awaits.
What is the Arnold press?
To perform the Arnold press, the dumbbell starts in front of your face, palms pointing toward you. As you press up, you twist the dumbbells overhead, finishing the movement overhead with your palms facing away.
This unique twist has been touted to target all three heads of the shoulder, giving you Arnie’s shoulders in no time. And if you want to fully train like him, make sure to check out Arnold's full training split. The question is: Should you use the Arnold press in your training?
What muscles does the Arnold Press work?
Above we outlined some common claims about the Arnold press, but how true are they? To determine the move's effectiveness, we have to first understand the shoulder's muscle anatomy.
Deltoids:
The shoulder has three main heads, all with vastly different functions. Combining this with the highly mobile ball-and-socket joint makes your shoulder the most mobile joint in the body, with a plethora of movement capabilities and an enormous range of motion.
- Anterior Deltoids: As the name suggests, the anterior delt is on the front of the shoulder. Its primary functions are shoulder flexion (lifting your arms in front of you) and upper arm internal rotation. Accordingly, it’s used predominantly during exercises like front raises and pressing movements. This includes both flat and incline pressing, alongside typical overhead presses. You'll get a great sense of its functions after looking at these top front deltoid exercises.
- Lateral Deltoids: These muscles give your shoulders a broad look, capping the delts and helping to accentuate the V-taper and X-frame physique so many are chasing. The lateral deltoids' primary role is abduction, lifting the upper arm sideways away from the body. This isn’t a function often used during compound exercises and can only really be utilized through isolations like lateral raise variations. For more side shoulder inspiration, check out these best lateral deltoid exercises.
- Posterior Deltoids: They sit on the back of the shoulder. These perform the exact opposite role of the anterior delts: shoulder extension and upper arm external rotation. Rear delts help with back with rows and pull-downs and are often targeted through reverse fly variations. There are also many rear delt dumbbell exercises that will help you hit your shoulder goals.
What shoulder muscles does the Arnold Press actually work?
What does this mean for the Arnold press? Just like standard shoulder pressing variations, the Arnold press works on shoulder flexion. Combining this with the twist and internal rotation during the concentric means it hammers the anterior delt. Those are the primary shoulder functions the Arnold press facilitates.
There is little to no abduction, making any lateral delt work primarily as a stabilizer, much the same as standard overhead pressing. As the posterior delts perform the opposite role as the anterior delt, it wouldn't make sense for an exercise that attacks the anterior delts to hit them in any meaningful way. This is no different.
The posterior delts might get some work in stabilization, but that's where the buck stops. This means the Arnold press isn't a complete shoulder silver bullet. It is, however, a good compound exercise to focus on the anterior delts and triceps that can be used in place of overhead pressing variations.
Learn more about this in our article comparing the Arnold Press vs Shoulder Press.
Arnold Press: Pros and Cons
The Arnold Press is popular for several reasons: It is a joint-friendly exercise that gets great results. Plus, thanks to dumbbells you can work the full range of motion at the shoulder joint, which is great for mobility. For those interested in further improving their range of motion, check out these tips for improving shoulder mobility.
Pros:
Whether you're looking for an exercise that's shoulder friendly or contributes to shoulder muscle hypertrophy without using ultra-heavy dumbbells, the Arnold Press has got your back (or in this case, your shoulders).
1. It’s better for your shoulder joints.
The first benefit of the Arnold press is the result of the elbow position twisting the dumbbells. By having your palms face you at the bottom of the movement, and with the dumbbells in front of your face, the exercise is generally performed within the scapular plane. This helps to reduce tension on the anterior shoulder joint, which is under a lot of strain with standard shoulder presses and often contributes to nagging shoulder injuries.
2. The Arnold Press increases your range of motion.
First, if you don't know how good your range of motion is, we suggest testing your mobility. Then, once you know where your mobility is at, start including exercises that can help improve it. Arnold presses can help to increase the range of motion of the anterior delts through several methods. First, twisting the dumbbells and bringing them down in front of your face avoids the obvious stumbling block of standard shoulder presses: your shoulders getting in the way. This is especially an issue when you get stronger and dumbbells start to become larger and larger.
Secondly, sticking in the scapular plane, and avoiding the coronal plane, can help reduce tension and discomfort at the front of the shoulder (as mentioned above). If you find standard shoulder pressing too sore on your shoulders, you probably have a hard time at the bottom and look to cut the range short. Arnold presses can provide a pain-free way to achieve a full range of motion.
Finally, the twist causes external rotation at the bottom and internal rotation at the top. This caters to the internal rotation function of the anterior delt, increasing stretch at the bottom and contraction at the top.
3. You don’t need to lift as heavy.
The final benefit of the Arnold press is that it reduces the amount of weight required. Some of you might feel this should fall into the drawbacks section. That might seem like an odd “benefit” but it can genuinely be useful. The first reason is that a lighter dumbbell is easier to get into position to press. Once you have developed decent overhead pressing strength, the hardest part of dumbbell shoulder presses can often be simply kicking the weights up into position. This is inefficient from a muscle-growing perspective. You should be exerting yourself trying to train and fatigue the target muscles, so you can build muscle and gain mass.
Instead many lifters find themselves leaving reps (and valuable shoulder training stimulus) on the table simply because they’ve wasted energy wrestling the dumbbells up to their shoulders. For those looking to optimize your stimulus to fatigue ratio, reduce warm-up time, side-step injuries, and achieve muscle hypertrophy, lighter weight for similar stimulus are a big bonus.
Cons:
The Arnold Press is a great pain-free move for many, but everyone is individual. You may have shoulder pain, a previous shoulder injury, or a muscle imbalance that may cause pain. If so, it’s important to not work through hurt, making sure to fix muscle imbalances that exist and correct any issues causing pain.
Fortunately, there’s also a great replacement exercise you can do instead (more on this in a bit!).
1. Arnold presses can cause shoulder pain for some.
Arnold presses may help avoid shoulder issues for you but increase them for others. Internally rotating the shoulder can cause other shoulder issues for some. Just like with any other exercise, you need to find what works for you and allows you to train pain-free.
2. Lighter weights are required.
You need to use a lighter weight. And while we discussed the benefits of lighter weights above, there is also a downside to using lighter weights. Supporting muscles get less stimulus, so muscles like the triceps might not get through the same amount of work. This makes Arnold presses slightly less “compound-y” than standard shoulder presses.
How to do the Arnold press exercise
Arnold presses are an easy variation that won’t take long to master. Set up just as you would for a shoulder press, with an exercise bench vertical (or as close to vertical as you usually perform shoulder presses).
You can follow the same form for both the standing Arnold press and seated Arnold press. Your shoulder muscles will get the same great workout whether you're sitting or standing. If you perform it standing, start with feet hip width apart. As a side note, sitting on a bench offers more back support if you have lower back issues (if you're dealing with back problems, these exercises can help relieve low back pain).
- For your starting position, you want two dumbbells, one dumbbell in each hand. Start with the dumbbells slightly in front of your face, with your palms facing toward you and elbows bent.
- You want to twist the dumbbells so your palms are facing away from you as you press up. The key is to time the twist so it ends at the same time as your pressing movement finishes. The eccentric portion of the exercise is the same in reverse. At the top of the movement, your palms face forward.
- Starting from overhead and palms facing forward, or away from you, lower the dumbbells while rotating your palms to face toward you. You want your palms to be fully facing you at the bottom, the twist finishing at the same time as the dumbbells reach the bottom.
You want to avoid going too heavy with this movement, as it's tougher than a standard shoulder press. Going too heavy will place unneeded stress on the internal rotators and, like a regular shoulder press, will probably lead to an arched back and reduced range of motion.
Finally, avoid the common mistake many make when trying to do the Arnold press. This mistaken variation happens when lifters break the Arnold press into two distinct sections.
Rather than rotating the palms from toward them to away in an even-paced flow throughout the rep they perform a standard shoulder press - with the addition of bringing the dumbbells together in front of their face at the bottom.
Then they rotate them all the way out again before initiating the press back up. This hugely reduces the weight you can use without any notable muscular benefits. It might be useful in some rehab situations, but certainly not to pack on shoulder mass.
Variations of the Arnold Press Exercise
Variations of this movement seem a little strange to discuss as it is just a variation itself. However, there is one overhead press variation that is more shoulder-friendly than both the Arnold press and standard barbell and dumbbell overhead presses: neutral grip dumbbell presses. Otherwise known as the hammer press, you can perform this move unilaterally or bilaterally.
To do the neutral grip dumbbell press, start with your elbows pointing forward, hands facing one another, and elbows in line with your shoulders at the bottom.
Press up in one motion by straightening the arm. The dumbbells should move in a straight line, continuing upward until your arm is completely straight. Lower your dumbbells to the starting position by bending at your elbows.
This keeps you in the scapular plane, without the stress that internal rotation can cause. For those who struggle with shoulder troubles, this might be a variation you can employ to still target the anterior delts without the frustration of nagging injuries.
If you are currently doing Arnold presses or want to swap them for something, pick an overhead press you can do pain-free, and have a good connection with. The seated military press is another great exercise for hitting the shoulders and correcting poor press form.
Programming Guidelines for the Arnold Press
Figuring out where to put this exercise is simple - wherever you have normal shoulder pressing movements! The following guidelines all assume you’re doing 6-8 (or more sets) of pressing (flat and incline) per week, split over 2 or more sessions.
Volume:
Anterior delts contribute heavily to pressing, so flat and incline bench press volume count towards anterior delt volume. This means you likely require 2-6 sets of direct work per week on top of your standard chest work.
We recommend a maximum of 4 sets from Arnold pressing, and if you need a second exercise, give the rest of your sets to them.
Frequency:
Anterior delts should probably be trained directly with regular shoulder presses once or twice per week. As you use them a lot in other presses, direct work can be done just once per week.
If they’re lagging or you need more than 4 sets in a session, you can add a second exercise on another day, like any of these front deltoid exercises, increasing frequency to twice per week. When talking Arnold presses specifically, limit this to one session per week
Intensity:
If you are a relatively experienced lifter, this is a pretty safe exercise, as you can drop the dumbbells to the sides if something goes wrong. This means you can feel pretty safe taking these close to failure. Generally, aim for sets to be 1-3 reps shy of failure.
How does the Arnold press fit into a full exercise program?
Obviously, one exercise that works one muscle group is not going to get you to your fitness goals. You’ll need to incorporate the Arnold press into a full routine. For more workout ideas, try this full-body workout to ensure all your muscles are fully developed.
A few things about the program below. First, adding arms to lower body days feels like a bit of a reward for finishing a hard leg session. It also helps keep your upper days shorter.
Secondly, if you wanted to change this into a 5-day split, you could easily keep the first upper and lower sessions the same and split the final two days into “Push”, “Pull”, and “Legs”. This will help stop sessions from taking too long, especially if you’re someone who requires a lot of volume.
This can also help to increase volume for body parts that might struggle otherwise, like arms and lateral delts. Finally, as the lateral delts can handle relatively high volume and frequency and don’t get a lot of volume from compounds, adding a third day to train them might be what you really need to make your shoulders pop. You can also check out this plan to see how the Arnold press is incorporated into a chest and shoulders workout.
Below we show you how the Arnold press can fit into a 4-day, upper-lower split.
Upper Lower Split:
|
Upper (Push dominant) |
Lower + Arms |
Upper (Pull dominant) |
Lower + arms |
|
Bench Press x3 |
Squat Variation |
One arm row |
Deadlift Variation |
|
Incline DB press x2 |
Hip Hinge |
Cable row |
Squat variation |
|
Machine fly |
Leg extension |
Pull down |
Hamstring curl |
|
Barbell Row |
Hamstring curl |
Flat DB bench presses x3 |
Leg press |
|
Pull down |
Triceps isolation |
Arnold press x2 |
Triceps isolation |
|
Lateral raise |
Bicep isolation, like the dumbbell curl |
Lateral raise |
Bicep isolation |
|
Reverse fly |
Calf raise |
Reverse fly |
Calf raise |
This is an example of how this could be included in a full routine. This isn’t the be-all and end-all of training but provides an example of how it could fit.
Arnold Press Programming Tips
With this training structure, you’ve got adequate anterior delt stimulation in the first upper day with the bench press and incline dumbbell press so the Arnold press isn’t needed in there. Lateral raises are included as they won’t get a whole lot of stimuli otherwise.
Rows and pull-downs provide stimulus for the rear delts and reverse flys are there to finish off the rear delts and provide some upper back stimulus that might be missing depending on barbell row execution.
This session provides well-rounded stimulus for the whole shoulder, without needing direct anterior delt work.
During the second upper day you’re looking to focus mainly on the pulling exercises, but “top up” the pushing movements. The flat dumbbell press hits the chest and anterior delts and the Arnold press hits the anterior delts. Lateral raises and reverse flys are included for the same reason as for day 1.
When you combine the upper body sessions, you take all the upper body muscles (excluding the arms) through a full range of motion, with a good variety of other lifts. This should ensure your delts get all the love they need to pop.
For simplicities sake, count all pressing toward front delt volume. Provided you keep volume counting consistent - and know what signs to look for to increase or decrease volume - how you count set volume is largely unimportant.
Using this method means you have 8 sets of anterior delt exercises before you come to the Arnold press (Bench Press = 3, Incline DB = 2, Flat DB = 3).
Then you can add in 2 sets of Arnold press giving you 10 sets for the week, which is an excellent starting point. If you need more volume, start with the other pressing variations, as they’ll give you some extra chest work too.
If you don’t want or can’t handle more chest volume you can add sets on the Arnold press, likely maxing out at about 4 for the session.
You can see how you could quickly go from 10 sets of anterior delt work to 12 or even 16. For most of us, this is more than enough to pack on some serious mass.
Should you Arnold press?
Yes, despite not living up to the lofty aspirations and claims of some, the Arnold press is a legitimate overhead pressing variation. The Arnold press can easily slot into any training plan and provide a great stimulus to the anterior deltoids while other upper arms muscles worked include the triceps and stabilizing muscles.
The Arnold press should be part of a complete shoulder routine. This should include rear delt work, through pulling movements and rear delt isolation exercises, and lateral delt exercises, like lateral raise variations. This will ensure that with a little hard work you can build shoulders and get those 3-D delts you’re chasing.
Author: Tom MacCormick (BSc in Sports Science and Coaching, MSc in Strength and Conditioning)
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