Difficulty: Hard
Impact Level: Normal
Target Body Parts: upper back, lower back, shoulders
Difficulty: Hard
Impact Level: Normal
Target Body Parts: upper back, lower back, shoulders
With a dumbbell in each hand, hinge forwards at the hips so the angle of your spine is roughly 10-20 degrees above horizontal. Slightly bend your knees to reduce tension in your hamstrings and lower back. Look slighly forwards and down at the floor to keep your neck in alignment with the rest of your back. Keep a straight, angled spine, and engage your core by lifting your belly button up into your spine. With a slight bend in your elbows, lift the dumbbells out to each side at the same time. The aim is to get them up to shoulder height, squeezing your shoulder blades together. Control the weight back down. Avoid rounding your lower back or moving your upper body up and down to generate momentum.
Try a lighter pair of dumbbells if available, or bend your arms more at the elbows to change the length of the lever. Check out our Dumbbell Shoulder Riase and Dumbbell Front Raise exercises as good ways to build strength before trying this exercise.
To increase the difficulty of this exercise, you can increase the weight of your dumbbells in small steps. Or you can try some of our similar but more challenging exercises like Dumbbell Renegade Row and Push-up, and Dumbbell Push-up with Rotation
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