Smith Machine Shoulder Press: How to Do It, Bench Setup and Grip Width

The Smith machine shoulder press is a seated overhead press with the bar locked to rails. You lose the balance challenge of a barbell or dumbbells, and in return you can push the front delts hard and safely, because you can rack the bar at any point by rotating your wrists. For anyone training alone at home, that safety net is worth a lot on a lift that usually ends with a bar wobbling above your face.

Setup is everything here. On a free bar you'd find your own path; on a Smith machine the rails set it, so your job is to place the bench where the rails' path suits your shoulders.

How to do it

1. Position the bench. Slide an adjustable bench under the bar and set the back upright or one notch back. Move it so the bar lowers just in front of your nose, not onto your forehead and not behind your head.
2. Set the hooks. The bar should rest a few centimetres above where your arms are fully bent when seated, so you can unrack it without half a rep.
3. Grip. Hands just outside shoulder width, thumbs wrapped round the bar. Your forearms should be close to vertical when the bar is at the bottom.
4. Brace. Feet flat, glutes and upper back against the pad, ribs pulled down so your lower back doesn't arch away from the bench.
5. Unrack and lower. Rotate your wrists to free the hooks, then lower the bar under control for about two seconds until it reaches chin or upper chest height.
6. Press. Drive the bar straight up to just short of locking out, keep your head still and let the rails do the steering. Rack the bar by rotating your wrists back once the set's done.

Muscles worked

• Front (anterior) delts. The main movers, and the reason to do this exercise.
• Side (lateral) delts. They help, especially in the top half, though lateral raises hit them far more directly.
• Triceps. They finish the lockout and often limit how much you can press.
• Upper chest. It joins in at the bottom, more so if the bench drifts below about 75 degrees.

The machine and the bench take over most of the stabilising. In a Norwegian EMG study comparing barbell and dumbbell presses, the seated versions produced roughly 25% less rear delt activity than standing versions, and the most unstable option, standing dumbbells, had the highest deltoid activity overall despite the lowest 1RM. A seated Smith press sits at the opposite, most stable end of that scale.

Grip width and why it matters

Grip changes where the work goes. A 2025 study of 11 trained men pressing seated with narrow, medium and wide grips found that narrower grips increased both the load lifted and the range of motion at the shoulder and elbow, while wider grips reduced the elbow's share of the work and increased the outward force on the bar. Neither is wrong. If your elbows ache, widen your grip a little; if your shoulders complain at the bottom, try narrowing it and reducing the depth.

Common mistakes

Pressing behind the neck. The rails make it tempting, because the bar will happily travel there, but it puts the shoulder in an awkward, loaded position with no room to correct. Keep the bar in front of your face.

Bench too reclined. Once the back drops much below 75 degrees you're doing an incline press. That's a good exercise, just not this one; see our incline bench press guide for that.

Arching off the pad. Big lower back arches let you shift work onto the chest and stress the lumbar spine. Keep ribs down and glutes on the seat.

Bouncing at the bottom. A fixed bar makes it easy to drop fast and rebound. Control the last few centimetres and you'll work the delts rather than the joint.

Comparing your numbers with a free press. The Smith bar may weigh less than 20kg and the rails remove balance as a limit, so your Smith press will run heavier than your overhead press. Treat them as separate lifts.

Smith vs barbell vs dumbbells

Which should you do? For pure delt growth, any of them works. Strength tends to be specific: in a 2025 trial comparing Smith machine and free weight training, each group gained most strength on the version it trained, while muscle growth was similar. So if you want a bigger standing barbell press, train the standing barbell press. If you train alone and want to push sets close to failure without risk, the Smith machine is the better tool. A mix of the Smith press for heavy work and dumbbell shoulder presses for stability covers both.

Variations

• Standing Smith press. Stand with the bar starting at upper chest height. You'll work the trunk a bit more, though the rails still do the balancing.
• Single-arm Smith press. Kneel side-on and press one side of the bar with one hand. Good for evening out a weaker side.
• Pair it with an Arnold press. A bar can't rotate, so follow heavy Smith sets with seated dumbbell Arnold presses if you want rotation through the range.
• Paused Smith press. Hold the bar for two seconds at chin height before pressing. It removes the bounce and makes 10kg less feel just as hard.

If you're setting up a home gym around this lift, our Marcy MD9010 Smith machine review and best Smith machine UK guide cover machines with the adjustable bench you'll need.

Recommended reads

• Smith machine squat: how to do it
• Smith machine bench press guide
• Overhead press technique
• The best Smith machines in the UK
• Workout and technique guides