I understand the first part, where you're holding the weights in front of your shoulders, with your palms turned toward your torso.
You start the lift straight up from that position, which hits your front and middle deltoids.
If you simply continue raising the weights (I think you could call this a dumbbell continental press), you'll also get your triceps, with some trapezius involvement.
But you don't: You rotate your arms out to the sides, while continuing to press the weights up overhead.
Bodybuilders will say that, by moving your arms out like that, you involve "all three deltoid heads," but I don't see how the rear delts get involved, except perhaps as stabilizers.
After all, your arms aren't really working against gravity there, not any more than they would if they stayed in front of your torso.
The final part of the lift might emphasize middle delts over front delts, but it's hard to imagine there's a huge difference in actual muscular development.
In other words: I could see why lifting the weights in front of your torso, with your palms toward your torso, would be a slightly useful variation on the traditional DB shoulder press.
I know that the traditional DB shoulder press is a perfectly fine exercise for the shoulders, upper traps, and triceps.
What I don't get is why starting in one position and then rotating to the other offers any advantage over doing the two exercises individually.
Maybe you can use heavier weights than you could in the continental press. Maybe there's some functional benefit. Overall, though, it just seems like ESD--Extra Stuff to Do.
Funny enough, Lou, I use ESD all the time. Finally came to the realization that when faced with an easy way to do something and a hard way, I was better off taking the harder route. No escalators in this mug's soul.
I like the idea of a Continental Press and may try it. Does it make sense to do the concentric of the DB Shoulder Press pronated and the eccentric supinated (the "Zottman Shoulder Press") or will that earn me the wrath of every C.S.C.S. within 50 miles?
Speaking of which, I was reading a fitness mag some time ago with an article on the Zottman Curl. They advocated doing the ZCs on a cable station.
That's a good question, about changing your grip on the descent on the shoulder press.
I'd think you'd be stronger with the pronated (palms-out) grip, so if you used that for the lift, then turned your palms around and lowered the DBs on a slightly different path, I could see a slightly different training effect.
Me, I wouldn't try it. Slow negatives on presses just make my shoulder joints feel like they're coming apart. I can do them without a problem on pullups, but not on vertical pushes.
That's why one of my favorite exercises is the dumbbell side-lateral throw--I let go of the DB at the top of a lateral raise, then catch it on the way down, and down attempt to do a traditional slow negative. It's kind of a cool total-body exercise, but you sure can't do it in a crowded gym.
Originally posted by Lou Schuler:
That's why one of my favorite exercises is the dumbbell side-lateral throw--I let go of the DB at the top of a lateral raise, then catch it on the way down, and down attempt to do a traditional slow negative. It's kind of a cool total-body exercise, but you sure can't do it in a crowded gym.
I started doing the "arnolds" a year ago, but I had to quit because of an incessant popping that developed in my shoulder. I took about 4 months off from shoulder presses, and can do shoulder presses without any popping now. I don't think I will ever do them again.
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I'm not even going to touch that.
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