By Nadia Popescu, Strength & Conditioning Writer · Updated 9 October 2026
The Cuban press is a light dumbbell or barbell exercise that chains three movements into one rep: an upright row to shoulder height, an external rotation that swings your forearms up to vertical, and an overhead press. It trains the rotator cuff, rear and side delts and the muscles that control your shoulder blades, which is why lifters use it as a warm-up or prehab drill before pressing. You use very little weight, usually 2kg to 8kg dumbbells, because the rotation is the hardest part and the small cuff muscles tire long before your delts do.
It looks simple on paper. In practice most people rush the rotation or let their elbows sag, and that's where the value of the exercise disappears. Here's how to do it properly.
Grab a pair of light dumbbells (or an empty bar) and stand tall with your feet hip-width apart. Hold the weights in front of your thighs with an overhand grip, palms facing you.
The one cue to remember
Freeze your upper arms during the rotation. Your elbows stay at shoulder height and only the forearms move, like a door swinging on a hinge. If your elbows drift down or forward as you rotate, the weight is too heavy.
Some coaches split the rep differently on the way down, lowering straight from the goalpost into the start position, but the version above keeps the rotator cuff working eccentrically on the return, which is the bit most people skip.
The Cuban press doesn't really belong to one muscle. Each phase hands the load to a different group, and the rotation is the reason to do it at all.
Rotator cuff. The infraspinatus and teres minor rotate your arm outwards, while the supraspinatus helps hold your arm up at 90 degrees. A 30-person EMG study of five common external rotation exercises found that standing external rotation at 90 degrees of abduction, the same arm position as the Cuban press, produced the greatest activation of the supraspinatus, front and side delts, upper trapezius and serratus anterior of all the variations tested (Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, 2015).
Deltoids. Side delts lift the arm in the upright row, front delts and triceps drive the press, and the rear delts assist the rotation. It's worth being honest here: the same study found the rear delts and middle traps worked hardest in side-lying external rotation, not the 90-degree standing version. If rear-delt size is your main goal, face pulls and the moves in our rear delt exercises guide will do more.
Traps and serratus anterior. Your upper traps help with the row, while the lower traps and serratus anterior rotate and tilt your shoulder blade so your arm can get overhead cleanly.
There's one nuance that matters for programming. A separate study measured the infraspinatus during isometric external rotation at four arm heights and found its activity fell as the arm rose, from 92% of maximum at 0 degrees to 68% at 90 degrees, while serratus anterior activity climbed (Journal of Physical Therapy Science, 2016). The Cuban press still works the infraspinatus hard, just not as hard as a cable or band external rotation with your elbow tucked at your side.
The main benefit is shoulder control in a position you rarely train. Pressing, rowing and pull-downs all build big muscles around the shoulder, but very little in a typical programme asks the external rotators to work through range with your arm raised. The Cuban press does, with a load light enough that you can focus on the movement.
It also makes a good warm-up. Two easy sets before bench or overhead pressing take your shoulder through elevation, rotation and overhead reach, which is a better primer than arm circles. And because it only needs a pair of light dumbbells and a couple of square metres, you can do it at home, in a hotel room or between sets at the gym.
What it won't do is bulletproof your shoulders. Strong, well-controlled rotator cuff muscles are a sensible thing to build, but no trial has shown that the Cuban press prevents injury, and we're not going to pretend otherwise. If you've got pain at rest, pain at night, weakness when lifting your arm or pain that hasn't improved after a couple of weeks, the NHS advice on shoulder pain is to see a GP or physiotherapist rather than train through it.
Lighter than your ego wants. Your rotator cuff muscles are small, and the external rotation in the middle of the rep caps the load for the whole lift.
| Experience | Dumbbells (each) | Barbell |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 2kg to 4kg | Broomstick or 5kg to 10kg technique bar |
| Intermediate | 4kg to 6kg | 10kg EZ bar or 15kg bar |
| Advanced | 6kg to 8kg | Empty 20kg bar |
Most people overestimate here. A standard 20kg Olympic bar is too much for a lot of fairly strong lifters to rotate cleanly, so don't treat it as the starting point just because it's the "empty" bar. If you train at home, a pair of adjustable dumbbells that go down to 2kg or 2.5kg increments makes the jump between weights far less brutal.
Going too heavy. This is the big one. Heavier weights turn the rotation into a swing or a lean back, and your bigger muscles take over from the rotator cuff you're trying to train. If you can't hold the goalpost position for a second before pressing, drop the weight.
Shrugging. Hiking your shoulders up towards your ears during the upright row shifts the work to your upper traps and crowds the front of the shoulder. Keep your shoulders down and lead the row with your elbows, not your hands.
Losing the 90-degree elbow. If your elbow bend opens up past 90 degrees, or your upper arm drops below parallel during the rotation, you're no longer rotating at the shoulder. You're just curling the weight up. Lock the elbow angle and keep your upper arms level with the floor until the forearms are vertical.
Rowing too high. Pulling the elbows well above shoulder height in the upright row is uncomfortable for many people and adds nothing. Shoulder height or slightly below is the target. Our upright row guide covers grip width and elbow height in more detail if this part feels pinchy.
Rushing the rotation. The rotation is the point of the exercise, so give it two seconds up and two seconds down. Flicking through it with momentum wastes the rep.
Pressing forward. Let the weights finish over or slightly behind your head. Pressing out in front of your face pulls your shoulder blades out of position and turns the last phase into a front-delt raise.
Seated Cuban press. Sit on a bench with your back supported. This stops you leaning back or using your legs, so it's the strictest version and a good place to start.
Dumbbell Cuban press. The default for most people, and the one described above. Each arm moves independently, so a weaker side can't hide, and you can start as light as 2kg.
Cuban rotation (no press). Do the upright row and the external rotation, then reverse it without pressing. It isolates the cuff work and suits anyone who can't press overhead comfortably yet. You can also start from the goalpost position with your elbows resting on a high bench or incline pad, which takes the row out entirely.
Band Cuban press. Stand on a light resistance band and hold an end in each hand. The tension builds as you rise, so the press feels harder than the rotation, which is the opposite of dumbbells. A light loop from a set of resistance bands works well, and it's handy for warm-ups when you don't want to fetch weights.
Barbell Cuban press. Use an empty bar or a light EZ bar with a grip slightly wider than shoulder width. It's harder to fake, but your hands are locked in place, so stick with dumbbells if the fixed grip bothers your shoulders.
The Cuban press works best as a supporting exercise, not a main lift.
Add weight only once you can do 3 sets of 12 with a clean, two-second rotation on every rep, and go up by the smallest jump you have (1kg or 2kg). It pairs well with band pull-aparts and face pulls, which cover the rear delts and mid-back that the Cuban press leaves underworked. For a full routine built around it, see our shoulder exercises guide or browse more plans in workouts.
The Cuban press works the rotator cuff (especially the infraspinatus, teres minor and supraspinatus), all three heads of the deltoid, the upper and lower trapezius and the serratus anterior. The upright row portion hits the side delts and traps, the rotation trains the external rotators, and the press finishes with the front delts and triceps. It's a shoulder-control exercise first and a muscle builder second.
Very light. Most people do best with dumbbells between 2kg and 8kg each, and plenty of strong lifters still use 5kg or less. If you want to use a barbell, start with an empty bar, and if a 20kg bar is too much for clean rotations (it often is), drop to a light EZ bar or a pair of dumbbells. The external rotation is the weak link, so the weight you can rotate with control sets the load for the whole lift.
It's a useful way to strengthen the external rotators through a full range, and many coaches use it in warm-ups for pressing and overhead work. What it isn't is a guarantee against injury. The research on external rotation exercises shows they activate the rotator cuff well, but no study shows the Cuban press itself prevents shoulder injuries. If you already have shoulder pain, get it assessed before adding loaded rotation work.
Dumbbells suit most people better. They let each arm find its own path, they let you start at 2kg or 3kg, and a weaker side can't hide behind the stronger one. A barbell is fine if you're comfortable with it and an empty bar feels light, but it locks your hands at a fixed width, which some shoulders don't like in the upright row portion.
Two to three sets of 8 to 12 slow reps works well, two or three times a week. As a warm-up before bench, overhead pressing or pull-ups, one or two easy sets of 8 to 10 is plenty. Keep the reps slow and stop the set when the rotation starts to look rushed or your elbows drop.
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