The ‘Gladiator Press’ Will Expose Weaknesses in Your Core and Shoulder Strength – Here's How to Test Yourself

If your shoulder workouts have become repetitive, the Gladiator press offers a way to challenge your core and shoulders at the same time.

Performed from a side plank, the movement combines overhead pressing with anti-rotational work, making it a useful addition for lifters looking to improve shoulder control and highlight weaknesses.

Multiple Muscles Worked

The Gladiator press recruits muscles throughout the body. It primarily challenges the core, with a particular emphasis on the obliques, while also recruiting the transverse abdominis and other deep core stabilisers.

At the shoulder, it strengthens the deltoids while challenging the rotator cuff muscles and serratus anterior to keep the joint stable throughout the press. Beyond that, your glutes, legs and arms all work to maintain the side plank position while you perform each overhead press.

Challenges Stability

The Gladiator press also challenges your stability, with each rep pulling you out of position. Resisting that movement forces your core to work anti-rotationally to help you maintain a stable torso. That strength can carry over to compound lifts like the deadlift, squat, overhead press and bench press, where resisting unwanted movement is key to producing and transferring force efficiently.

Unilateral Strength

A key feature of the Gladiator press is that it develops unilateral strength, meaning you train one side of the body at a time. This can help to address left-to-right strength imbalances, as any weakness on one side quickly becomes apparent. Improving unilateral strength may also carry over to activities such as running and other sports, where each side of the body needs to produce force independently.

Using a light to moderate weight:

• Lie on your side and set up in a side plank, supporting yourself on one forearm or a straight arm.
• Hold a kettlebell or dumbbell in your top hand and rack it at shoulder height.
• Brace your core and squeeze your glutes to keep your body in a straight line from head to heels.
• Press the weight directly upwards until your elbow is fully extended.
• Pause briefly, keeping your hips lifted and your torso stable.
• Lower the weight back to your shoulder under control.
• Complete all reps before switching sides.

Aim for 5-10 reps each side, and 2-3 sets. If the move is too advanced, you can regress the exercise onto your knees to reduce the difficulty. You can also build up your side plank duration without adding a weight first.

If there’s one thing Kori Sampson knows, it’s how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio.

Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.