2.) Assume a seated position with your upper back, head, and hips resting on the pads. Spread your legs, feet flat on the floor.

3.) Maintain stance and grip the handles with your palms facing forward. Don’t press too hard on the handless, relax.

4.) Keep your core steady and start to push the handles upward. Hold it for 1 to 2 seconds.

5.) Bring it back down slowly but do not let the weight stack drop to the bottom.

6.) Repeat the movement until you are satisfied.

2.) Maintain your stance so that your arms are always parallel to your body and move it to your sides when you lower the weight.

3.) Always keep your back, head, and buttocks in contact with the shoulder press pads.

4.) Bring down your hands to eye level.

5.) Drive your biceps to your ear as you push upward.

6.) Exhale as you press, look straight ahead as you repeat the movement.

7.) Don’t lock out the elbows all the way up. Keep it slightly bent to keep the tension in your shoulders.

8.) Don’t excessively let your head and body lean forward.

Utilising multiple support muscle groups when doing standing weight exercises puts you at risk of straining too much or pulling muscles excessively than if the motion is fixed and concentrated. Shoulder press machines focus your movement only to your shoulder muscles minimising the danger of accidentally stretching your muscles beyond their limits. This is an important factor to consider when you are recovering from an injury.

Constant Tension Assurance

When done properly, the routine you do with the shoulder press machine provides constant pressure on your shoulder muscles. This ensures that your effort is not put to waste. When tension is not maintained on the muscles you are targeting, chances are the routine it would take longer to see the results you are looking for.

Improved Strength of Bones

Just like any other strength-training exercise routines, using the shoulder press machine improves bone strength along with your muscle strength. This is because your bones also adjust to the added stress or tension exerted on your muscles. They respond by increasing the mineral density to cope up with the added muscle you develop during training.

Improvement on other Muscle Areas

The shoulder press machine concentrates more on developing your anterior and lateral deltoid (front and middle shoulder muscles) but can also help in improving muscle thickness of your biceps and triceps as well as your chest.

Develops your ability to feel the Muscle Tension

When exercising, you should always try to feel the burning sensation of the target muscles for a particular exercise. Not being conscious of it will just render the workout ineffective. Shoulder press routines enable you to feel the increasing tensions in your shoulders as the machine guides you on the correct stances provided that you adhere to its proper execution.

Shoulder Joints Stability

Shoulder machine press trains your anterior and lateral deltoid (middle and front shoulder muscles) to lift your arms above your shoulder and, in turn, creates stability with your shoulder joints.

Shoulder Press Machine

Since the shoulder press machine was designed to do a particular exercise, it had the mechanisms to guide you to do it in proper form and technique. That’s why the shoulder press machine is really great with beginners. It was specifically designed to isolate your deltoid, triceps, trapezius, and pecs; your shoulder, and back muscles. This is great for experienced exercisers who want to target particular muscles in their body. The secret to getting effective routines is practicing with perfect form and technique.

Smith Machine

The Smith machine is much just like your shoulder press machine but the difference is in their mechanisms on how you work your shoulder. The Smith machine exercises your shoulders by letting you push the barbell over your head while the shoulder press works your shoulders by pulling the counterweights on the weight stacks. The aim and effect are still the same but using a different technique.

Free Weights

Using free weights for shoulder press still yields the same result as using the machine but is less effective. Free weights depend on the capability, accuracy, and experience of the exerciser to execute the routine in proper form. Also, using free weights in shoulder press activates your stabilisers. This is good since more muscles are developed through time, but having to exert effort to move other muscles than the ones you want to focus on take away the efficiency of the workout. Of course, you still can get your shoulders in shape but it would take longer and more effort.

Progressive Overload means adding a considerable amount of equal increments of loading every workout session. This will stimulate your muscles to increase their strength and continuously promote muscle growth. Now, when the increment of weight you’re adding becomes too exhaustive especially when you’re transitioning from beginner to advanced lifter, use micro loading. This is done by adding only minute weights every time you finish a set until you reach your target load for the week. By doing this, you’ll continue to develop your strength and muscle gains.

Wear the Right Shoes

This might be a surprise to you that your sneakers can get in the way of your strength and muscle building. But it’s true, it is important to wear the right footwear in doing your workouts. Wearing the wrong one can decrease your stability, balance, power production, and increase your risk of injury. You should use footwear that could give you as much traction and would provide you a secure and stable base to generate power and balance. Wear shoes that have flat, solid soles and avoid the padded ones.

Rest and Recover Between Workouts

This is the most overlooked aspect of bodybuilding. Sure, everyone pays attention to the correct form and technique, regular workout sessions, and dietary guidelines, but not so many puts effort to take a break and let the body recover. Countless studies have shown that rest is a vital part of the human anatomy. It gives us the benefit of recuperating from all kinds of stresses we put our bodies to. Most of us don’t realise that our time away from the gym is our body’s chance to rebuild and repair and this is the process that enables us to become stronger and bigger. So take a rest and don’t be too impatient.