Iron Cross

Shoulders · Dumbbell · ×2 dumbbells

You hold two: the weight you log is ONE dumbbell's, and volume counts both.

How to do it

Standing with a dumbbell in each hand at your sides and the elbow nearly straight. Raise both arms **out to the sides** into a cross at shoulder height and hold there before lowering very slowly. The work is not so much the lift as the hold: the side delt carries the weight at its furthest point from the body, the hardest position there is for it. **Very little weight already hurts.** The classic mistake is going above shoulder height chasing range; the work is right at horizontal.

Variants

The drawing shows one way of doing it, and the technique above describes that one. Almost every exercise has variants — standing or seated, the grip, the bench angle — and is still the same exercise: if you do it another way, write it in the exercise note and you will have it every time you train it.

Also works: Chest, Glutes, Legs, Back

See all 907 exercises