Lateral To Overhead Press

What Makes This Exercise So Effective?

This exercise keeps continuous tension on the lateral delts by bridging the gap between the lateral and the overhead press. This means continuous tension on the lateral delts throughout their entire effective range of motion.

How To Do It

Dumbbell version

• Start by doing the lateral raise movement as you normally would do. Use proper form and go all the way up to the top of the movement.
  
  
• At the peak of the movement while you are holding the dumbbells up in the air, rotate the dumbbell from an overhand grip to an underhand grip.
  
  
• Bend the elbows a little more after this point then continue the movement up as a “W” press (a shoulder press with your palms facing in towards your head).
  
  
• Bring the weight down to the bottom of the press with your arms out wide, rotate back to an overhand grip and continue all the way down like the negative phase of a dumbbell lateral.

How to incorporate this exercise into your workouts:

This exercise can be placed anywhere in your workouts.

• As usual, the closer it is to the beginning, the more weight you’ll generally be able to use with it.
  
  
• It works well as a finishing movement, placed after heavier movements such as shoulder press.

Common Errors

1. Doing the exercise too fast

Use a light enough weight that you don’t have to use any momentum to raise it up. Using momentum to get the weight up in the lateral will decrease the tension on the delts. Continuous tension is what makes this exercise so effective.

2. Bending the elbow too much after you flip the dumbbells over

If you immediately bend your elbows after flipping the dumbbells over, you will lose tension in the lateral delts and place it on the biceps. This defeats the purpose of the exercise.

Tricks

1. Changing ranges

In this exercise, what you will notice is that as you tire and your lateral range of motion decreases, your press range of motion will increase. This is good and will really force the delts to work because of the increased help from the triceps in the pressing action.

2. Hold the movement at the flipping point

At the top of the lateral, hold it at the top for a moment before you flip the dumbbells over. Rotate the dumbbells very slowly to maximize the tension on the delts.