Barbell · intermediate · upper arms
Barbell landmine press
Also called Single arm landmine press, Landmine shoulder press, Corner press, One-arm landmine press.
The landmine press anchors one end of a barbell on the floor and presses the other end up and away from your shoulder with one hand. Your delts do the work, with the triceps finishing and the chest contributing more the flatter the path gets. Because the anchor puts the bar on an arc rather than a straight vertical line, you press closer to the plane your shoulder blade actually sits in.
How to do it
- Step oneSecure one end of a barbell into a landmine attachment or wedge it into a corner.
- Step twoStand facing the barbell and grasp the free end with one hand at shoulder height.
- Step threeStagger your stance for balance and keep your core braced.
- Step fourPress the barbell upward and forward in an arcing motion until your arm is fully extended.
- Step fiveSlowly lower the barbell back to the starting position and repeat, then switch arms.
What usually goes wrong
Each starts with what you would notice.
You lean back to get the last part of each rep.
WhyThe weight is past what your shoulder can press from that position, so your torso is tipping back to shorten the distance.
FixStay tall with your ribs down and finish the rep where your arm finishes. Leaning back moves the work off the shoulder and onto the position of your spine, which is not what you loaded the bar for.
You twist toward the bar as you press.
WhyYou are pressing with one arm, so your body will happily rotate to help. Once the hips and shoulders come out of square, the arm is doing less than the number suggests.
FixSet the feet staggered, point both hips at the bar and keep them pointing there for the whole set. Rotation is the tell that the weight went up before your shoulder was ready for it.
It feels like a front raise and you never feel the shoulder work.
WhyYou are pushing the bar horizontally away from you rather than following the arc the anchor gives it.
FixPress up and away, letting your hand rise as it travels forward. The bar is on a fixed path because one end is pinned. Fighting that path is the same as fighting the exercise.
Your elbow drifts out wide as you press.
WhyThe arm has come away from your body and the shoulder is now working from its least supported angle.
FixKeep the elbow closer to the ribs than square to them. The whole appeal of this press is the path it puts your arm on, and a flared elbow gives that back.
Landmine press or standing overhead press
The difference is the path and the number of arms. A barbell overhead press goes straight up with both hands and can be loaded far heavier. A landmine press goes up and forward on an arc set by the anchor, one arm at a time.
The arc is the interesting part. Your shoulder blade does not sit flat across your back, it rests somewhere around 30 to 45 degrees forward of that, so raising your arm on a diagonal is closer to the line the joint is built around than a strictly vertical press is.
One arm at a time also means neither side can cover for the other, and it means your midsection has to stop you rotating toward the bar. That is a real difference from a two-handed press, whatever it does or does not do for your shoulders.
Shoulder-friendly is an outcome nobody has tested
This movement is sold almost entirely on being shoulder-friendly, and we could not find a single study supporting that. The anatomy argument is real: the arc does track closer to the plane your shoulder blade sits in than a vertical press does. But real anatomy making something plausible is not the same as anyone measuring it, and every article calling this the shoulder-safe press is stating an outcome nobody has tested.
None of that means you should not use it. If pressing straight overhead is uncomfortable and pressing on this angle is not, that is worth acting on. What it is not is a treatment.
Heavy two-handed pressing still has to happen somewhere else. One arm at a time caps the load, which is the trade you make for the path and the anti-rotation work.
What it is for
The single arm landmine press is a barbell exercise targeting the shoulders, with secondary emphasis on the triceps and chest. The angled pressing path of the landmine reduces shoulder joint stress while building unilateral pressing strength.
Questions people ask
- What muscles does the landmine press work?
- The delts do the pressing, the triceps finish it, and your midsection stops you twisting toward the bar. The chest contributes more the more horizontal the path is, which is why a half-kneeling version feels different from a standing one.
- Is the landmine press easier on your shoulders?
- Nobody has measured it. What is true is that your shoulder blade sits roughly 30 to 45 degrees forward of flat, and the landmine arc travels closer to that line than a strictly vertical press does. That makes the idea reasonable, not proven. If something hurts and keeps hurting, that is a question for a physiotherapist.
- Should you do landmine presses standing or half-kneeling?
- Standing gives you a more upward path and lets your legs contribute. Half-kneeling flattens the path out, which brings the chest in further and takes your legs out of it. Neither is the correct one, they just press slightly different things.
- Why do I twist when I landmine press?
- Because you are pressing with one arm and your body will rotate to help if you let it. Stagger your feet, keep both hips pointing at the bar, and if you still rotate, the weight is ahead of your shoulder.
- Can the landmine press replace the overhead press?
- Not for load. Two hands on a bar going straight up will always let you press more than one hand on an arc. It can replace it for someone who cannot press comfortably overhead, and it adds something an overhead press does not, which is having to resist rotation.
- Do you need a landmine attachment?
- No. One end of a barbell in the corner of a room does the same job, though a sleeve is kinder to your walls and the bar. What matters is that the end is pinned so the bar travels on an arc.