Exercise library

How to do the Seated Cable Shoulder Press

A beginner compound exercise using cable, working the shoulders.

Primary musclesShoulders
Secondary musclesTriceps
EquipmentCable
LevelBeginner
TypeCompound
ForcePush

Steps

  1. Adjust the weight to an appropriate amount and be seated, grasping the handles. Your upper arms should be about 90 degrees to the body, with your head and chest up. The elbows should also be bent to about 90 degrees. This will be your starting position.
  2. Begin by extending through the elbow, pressing the handles together above your head.
  3. After pausing at the top, return the handles to the starting position. Ensure that you maintain tension on the cables.
  4. You can also execute this movement with your back off the pad and alternate hands.

Tracking it in OneRep

Add the seated cable shoulder press to a routine and your previous weight and reps sit beside every set, so the decision to add load is made by what is already on the screen rather than by memory. Exercise history and volume trends are one tap away, and logging works offline for the gyms where signal does not reach.

Because OneRep tracks food on the same timeline, a stall on this lift can be read against what you were actually eating that month — which is the difference between a programming problem and an eating one. More on that in tracking progressive overload without a spreadsheet.

Where the instructions come from

The steps above come from free-exercise-db, a public-domain exercise dataset. They are general guidance, not coaching for your body: if a movement hurts, stop and get someone qualified to look at it.