Exercise
Landmine Kneeling One Arm Shoulder Press
How to Perform - Landmine Kneeling One Arm Shoulder Press
- Set up a landmine attachment with an appropriate weight, then kneel with your right knee and left foot forward, positioning yourself perpendicular to the bar.
- Grasp the end of the bar with your right hand using a neutral grip, and position your elbow at shoulder height with your palm facing inward.
- Brace your core and maintain a tall spine with shoulders pulled back, ensuring your weight is evenly distributed between your knee and foot.
- Inhale deeply and create tension throughout your body, keeping your non-working arm slightly extended to the side for balance.
- Press the bar upward by extending your arm overhead while exhaling, following a slight arcing path that's natural to the landmine's pivot point.
- At the top position, your arm should be almost fully extended with your bicep near your ear, but avoid locking out your elbow completely.
- Pause briefly at the top while maintaining core stability and ensuring your torso remains upright without leaning to compensate.
- Lower the weight under control while inhaling, returning to the starting position with your elbow at shoulder height before beginning the next repetition.
Important information
- Keep your core engaged throughout the entire movement to prevent arching your lower back, especially as fatigue sets in.
- Make sure your working shoulder stays packed down and away from your ear to maintain proper shoulder mechanics.
- Adjust your kneeling stance width for optimal stability; a wider base often provides better support for heavier weights.
- If you feel pressure in your lower back, reduce the weight or check that you're not hyperextending your spine at the top of the movement.
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The Landmine Kneeling One Arm Shoulder Press stands as a brilliant intermediate-level movement that targets your front deltoids and triceps with remarkable precision. This exercise has gained popularity among serious lifters who want to develop functional shoulder strength while minimizing the risk of injury that sometimes comes with traditional overhead pressing.
When you execute this press from a kneeling position, you're automatically forced to engage your core stabilizers, creating a full-body tension that amplifies the benefits beyond just shoulder development. The beauty of the landmine setup lies in its arced pressing path, which follows a more natural shoulder movement pattern than strict vertical presses. This makes it particularly valuable for those with shoulder mobility issues or those recovering from previous injuries.
Favored in both bodybuilding and HIIT protocols, this exercise offers versatility that few shoulder movements can match. Bodybuilders appreciate how it isolates the front deltoid while still allowing heavy loading for hypertrophy, creating that coveted shoulder cap development. Meanwhile, HIIT enthusiasts value how quickly it can elevate heart rate when performed with moderate weight and higher repetitions.
From a strength perspective, the unilateral nature of this exercise exposes and corrects imbalances between your left and right sides. This translates to improved performance in other pressing movements like bench press and military press. The kneeling position also removes the lower body from the equation, ensuring you can't cheat the movement by using leg drive.
What makes this exercise truly stand out is how it combines shoulder-friendly mechanics with serious loading potential. As you progress, you'll notice not just aesthetic improvements in shoulder development, but also enhanced stabilization throughout your upper body, better posture, and increased pressing power that carries over to numerous other exercises and daily activities.
FAQ - Landmine Kneeling One Arm Shoulder Press
The exercise primarily targets the front deltoids (anterior shoulders) and triceps. Additionally, it engages your core stabilizers, serratus anterior, and upper chest as secondary muscles while the kneeling position forces greater trunk stability.
Yes, it's generally shoulder-friendly because the arced pressing path follows a more natural movement pattern than strict vertical presses. The landmine setup reduces impingement risk and places less stress on the shoulder joint, making it suitable for many people with mobility limitations.
The most common mistakes include rounding your lower back, rotating your hips instead of keeping them square, rushing through the movement, and not hinging properly at the hips. Focus on maintaining a neutral spine, moving with control, and keeping your standing knee slightly soft rather than locked.
To make it easier, reduce the weight or switch to a half-kneeling position (one knee up). To increase difficulty, add more weight, slow down the eccentric (lowering) phase to 3-4 seconds, or progress to a tall kneeling position with knees close together to challenge core stability further.
For optimal results, incorporate this exercise 1-2 times weekly as part of your push or arm-specific training days. Since it's an isolation movement, it works best when programmed after compound exercises, using 3-4 sets of 8-15 repetitions depending on your specific goals.
