The Dumbbell Shoulder Press exercise is a great way to build upper body strength and is a perfect addition to your dumbell weight workout.

As with any dumbell or free weight exercise, it is really important to understand the movement that you should me making and avoid bending in other ways or over stretching your joints and muscles. It is important during the shoulder press to keep your arms in a vertically aligned position and not to let your arms rock backwards (which is tempting) as this will cause real damage to your back and shoulders.

Make sure you start with a sensible weight – there is no point in starting with a heavy weight and then injuring yourself. This point is made in the below instructional video (he uses 25lb dumbbells) and is a fundamental of free weight workouts.