Gemma Atkinson is a busy woman. When she’s not parenting her two children, six-year-old Mia and two-year old Thiago, she’s busy hosting on Hits Radio or managing her health and beauty brand Gem & Tonic. So, when it comes to working out, choosing exercises that maximise both efficiency and results is essential.

To build shoulder muscle, there’s one move she swears by: the seated shoulder press. In a video she recently posted on Instagram, she demonstrated the move and wrote: ‘Like I said, shoulders like boulders. Last set needs some F bombs to get me through. Always!’ Speaking of the importance of keeping your legs still in order to strictly isolate your shoulder muscles to prevent “cheating”, she added: ‘P.S. Elliot my PT will be screaming down the phone for me to keep my legs still.’

The seated shoulder press is a no-brainer for time-poor women looking to build muscle in minimal time as it’s a compound movement, meaning it trains several major shoulder and upper-body muscles simultaneously while allowing you to use relatively heavy loads safely with minimal setup time or effort required. In practical terms, a few challenging sets of seated shoulder presses can provide the stimulus equivalent to doing several isolation exercises separately, such as front raises and lat raises.

Personal trainer and Men’s Health UK fitness writer Kate Neudecker says that performing the move seated makes it especially effective: ‘Sitting down reduces the demand on balance, stability and bracing, so you can put more effort into the muscles you’re actually trying to train. That often means you can lift with more control, use a heavier load, and create more mechanical tension through the shoulders and triceps, which is one of the key drivers of muscle growth. There can also be a tendency to bounce at the knees to increase momentum on the standing shoulder press; the seated press eliminates this.’

She adds that it targets the ‘deltoids, especially the front and side deltoids while also working the triceps as they extend the elbows. Depending on the bench angle, the upper chest can contribute too, while the upper traps and shoulders’ stabilising muscles help control the movement.’ Here’s how to do with proper form, plus how many reps and sets to do, and how to progress.

How to do the seated shoulder press

1. Sit, with your shoulders against the bench, chest proud, head facing forward with a dumbbell in each hand. Bend the elbows at 90 degrees with the dumbbells at ear level and palms facing forward.
2. Now straighten your arms and press the dumbbells towards the ceiling, then return to the start. Repeat.

How to work it into your workout

Neudecker advises: ‘Always tailor reps and sets to your own abilities and needs but for muscle growth, a good starting point is 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps using a load that leaves around 1-3 reps in reserve on most sets. Evidence indicates that a large range of reps and sets contribute to muscle growth but for good technique and results, that should be sufficient. Place it early in an upper body workout if shoulder strength or size is a priority, so that you can use max muscle power.’

When it comes to progressing, Neudecker says ‘You can add weight, add reps, increase sets or improve your control and range of motion over time to contribute to progressive overload. Because balance and coordination are less of a limiting factor, it can be easier to apply progressive overload directly to the shoulders.’

One of our most frequently asked questions here at Women’s Health? How to build muscle and burn fat at the same time. So, we asked superstar trainer Oyinda Okunowo exactly how to do it. In this 4-week plan – created exclusively for Women’s Health COLLECTIVE members – you’ll get the workouts and nutrition guidance needed to help you on your way to better body composition. Tap the link below to unlock 14 days of free access to Oyinda’s plan and start training today.

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As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism.

After earning a first-class degree in journalism and NCTJ accreditation, she secured her first role at Look Magazine, where she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!

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Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red. Today, she oversees all fitness content across Women’s Health online and in print, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, which showcases the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise.

She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how. Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.