Dumbbell · beginner · upper arms
Dumbbell kneeling hammer curl to hammer shoulder press
Also called Kneeling hammer curl to hammer press, Half kneeling hammer curl and shoulder press, Half kneeling hammer curl to press.
This listing and the kneeling hammer curl to hammer press are one exercise recorded twice. Both clips show the same half-kneeling position, the same neutral grip held from the hanging start to the finish overhead, and the same path. One is filmed a little closer and runs about 3 seconds shorter. The rep is a hammer curl up to the shoulders followed by an overhead press, and the entry under the shorter name covers how those two halves run together. What follows here is the position they are run in.
How to do it
- Step oneKneel on both knees with a dumbbell in each hand using a neutral grip, arms extended at your sides.
- Step twoCurl the dumbbells up to shoulder height in a hammer curl motion.
- Step threePress the dumbbells overhead until your arms are fully extended.
- Step fourLower the dumbbells back to shoulder height, then lower to the starting position.
What usually goes wrong
Each starts with what you would notice.
Your front knee ends up well ahead of your front foot, or well behind it.
WhyThe stance was set by wherever you happened to kneel down rather than by where the foot needed to be. A stance that is too long and one that is too short both leave you correcting your balance while you press.
FixBefore the first rep, look at your front shin. It should stand roughly upright over the foot. Move the foot to fix it, not the knee on the floor.
You are facing slightly to one side by the end of the set.
WhyThe position is only square while you hold it square, and above the knee there is nothing in contact with the floor to keep your shoulders where they started.
FixChoose something in front of you at eye level and keep your chest facing it. If you have turned by rep 6, reset between reps rather than after the set.
The same leg has been in front for every set of this you have ever done.
WhyThe position puts one hip forward and one behind, so it is not the same on both sides even though the dumbbells are.
FixSwap the front leg between sets, or halfway through one. There is nothing to relearn. It is the same rep from the other stance.
What it is for
The kneeling hammer curl to hammer shoulder press is a compound arm and shoulder exercise that eliminates lower body momentum by removing the option to stand. It targets the biceps through the curl and the shoulders through the press, with core engagement required throughout.
Questions people ask
- Is this the same as the kneeling hammer curl to hammer press?
- Yes. Two entries exist because the catalog named the exercise twice, once with the word shoulder in the title and once without. The two demonstrations are recordings of one exercise. Nothing you do differs between them.
- Which knee should be down?
- Either, and the part that matters is that it should not always be the same one. No study has compared the two and no professional body prescribes a side. The demonstration keeps one leg forward throughout because it is showing a rep, not a session.
- What does half kneeling change compared with standing?
- It removes the option of helping with your legs and it narrows what you are balancing on. That is a description of the position rather than a measured training effect: nobody has compared half kneeling with standing for muscle activity or for the weight people can handle, so anything you read about it building a stronger core is an assertion, not a finding.
- Should the dumbbell be on the same side as the down knee?
- That question belongs to the single-arm versions, since this one has a dumbbell in each hand. Where it does apply, both arrangements are in normal use and neither has been tested against the other.
- What muscles does it work?
- The curl belongs to the elbow flexors and the press to the shoulders, with the triceps finishing it. The legs hold the position and drive nothing. The other listing sets the split out in full.