Written by Kiel DiGiovanni | Co-founder
Fact checked by Kirsten Yovino, CPT Brookbush Institute
FACT CHECKED
If you don’t participate in CrossFit, then there’s a chance you’ve never heard of the Devil Press. This full-body exercise demands your undivided attention and effort to pull off. We’re not sure who came up with the Devil Press, but it might be the Devil himself as the movement combines some of the most hated exercises (burpees, deadlift, presses) into one fluid motion. In this post, we cover; what is a Devil Press, how to do it, muscles worked, and variations.
Welcome to hell…
WHAT IS THE DEVIL’S PRESS?
The Devil Press is a compound exercise that resembles a burpee without the jump but with dumbbells. This is a CrossFit-styled movement that is included in several workouts and competitions. You will use two dumbbells of equal weight while performing the Devil Press. If you’ve ever done a burpee, then you can imagine the effort it takes to complete a Devil Press. Think of a burpee, deadlift, snatch love-child, and you’ll come up with the Devil Press. This movement broke onto the fitness scene in CrossFit WODs a few years ago and doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.
HOW TO DO THE DEVIL PRESS:
- Choose two dumbbells with the same weight.
- Place the dumbbells on the ground in front of you so that the handles are set up lengthwise.
- Bend forward and reach down to grab the dumbbells with a neutral grip.
- Kick your legs back, lower your chest to the ground between the dumbbells.
- Push up, jump to your feet while still holding the dumbbells, then immediately swing the dumbbells above your head.
- Finish the movement with your arms locked out over head with knees, hips, shoulders, and arms fully extended.
- Reverse the movement to lower the dumbbells back to the floor.
- Repeat for desired reps.
DEVIL PRESS REGRESSION MOVEMENTS
A lot is going on with the Devil Press, so we wanted to break it down into phases. This way, you can work on various movements within the exercise before putting them all together to get the final exercise.
1. Up Downs
An up-down is a modified burpee. It simply removes the push up and jump from the burpee. It's a good way to practice dropping down to the ground then kicking the legs back before driving the hips forward using the hip flexors to bring your feet back towards your hands. And while easier than the full burpee, it is still an effective and tiring full body exercise.
Up Downs Exercise Demo on Youtube
2. Burpee Without Jump
Once you feel comfortable executing the up-down, the next step is to add the lowering of your chest, thighs, and hips to the floor just after kicking your legs back.
Burpee Without Jump Exercise Demo on Youtube
3. Dumbbell Sumo Deadlift
After mastering the burpee-like movement, you’ll want to work on sumo deadlift movement. First, get into a wide stance over the dumbbells, then reach down to grab the dumbbells with a neutral grip while you drop your hips back. Starting in this sumo deadlift position, practice a few reps where you lift the dumbbells off the ground by extending the knees and hips until you’re standing upright.
Dumbbell Sumo Deadlift Exercise Demo on Youtube
4. Burpee With Sumo Deadlift
You’re now at the point where you’ll add two movements together to form one fluid motion. First, drop down to do a burpee, then finish with a sumo deadlift. Focus on keeping your chest up and shoulders back as you drive your hips forward during the sumo deadlift; this will come in handy when it’s time to put all the parts together to perform the Devil Press.
Burpee With Sumo Deadlift Exercise Demo on Youtube
5. Single Dumbbell Snatch
The following motion you need to practice is the dumbbell snatch. Start with using one dumbbell at a time to hone in on the movement cues. Next, get into your sumo stance with a dumbbell inside your right foot. Then, bend at the knees and hips to reach down to grab the dumbbell. From there, quickly extend at the knees, then hips as you lift the weight up, shrug your shoulder to lift the weight up over your head.
Single Dumbbell Snatch Exercise Demo on Youtube
6. Double Dumbbell Snatch
Once you’ve got the single dumbbell snatch down pat, then it’s time to practice with two dumbbells simultaneously. The critical point to remember is to use the momentum from the knee and hip extension to help lift the weight up. Also, keep the dumbbells close to your body as they travel up your body; this isn’t a kettlebell swing.
Double Dumbbell Snatch Exercise Demo on Youtube
Put It All Together:
- Execute the drop down
- Lower body to floor while you kick your legs back
- Push up as you bring your legs towards the outside of the dumbbells
- Lift up on the dumbbells as you extend your knees and hips, then shrug your shoulders to flip the weight up over your head
TIPS & TRICKS FOR DEVIL PRESSES
Follow these tips and cues so that you can perform a Devil Press flawlessly to avoid incorrect movement and potential injury.
- Use Hip Explosiveness: The Devil Press uses a hip-hinging movement when deadlifting the weight off the floor. The key to doing the Devil Press properly is to refrain from pressing the weight. The momentum created by explosively extending at the hips is the primary mover to getting the dumbbells up and over your head. The upper body does play a role in lifting the weight once it passes your waist, but the primary function is to help control the weight as you bring it up.
- Don’t Round Back: Keep a neutral spine throughout the movement. When performing powerful dynamic exercises like the Devil Press, form is everything. Rounding the back can result from using weights that are too heavy, weak hamstrings, fatigue, or just bad form. This could put excess stress and tension on the erector spinae, resulting in back pain or injury. Remember to keep a straight spine while your body is in alignment as you lift the dumbbells and explode upwards.
- Keep Weights Close To Body: Moving the load a far distance from the floor to standing over head position with your arms locked out takes a lot of energy. To make this movement more efficient and effective, keeping the weights close to the body is paramount, just as you would in Olympic lifting like the snatch. The further the weight moves away from your body; the more effort and energy are needed. So don’t swing the dumbbells out away from your body when doing the Devil Press.
BENEFITS OF DEVIL PRESS
The Devil Press is an excellent compound exercise that works muscles from head to toe.
Let’s have a look at some of the benefits that this challenging exercise has to offer:
- Lose Fat: The Devils Press is an excellent exercise you can employ to lose fat fast. This exercise works muscles throughout the body, which requires your heart to pump vast amounts of oxygen-rich blood. You’re basically doing a full burpee minus the jump but with extra weight. Moving the dumbbells such a far distance demands the lower body and upper body muscles to work in unison which will torch calories and help you lose fat. You’ll usually find the Devil Press as part of a circuit workout where many intensity exercises are performed in a short amount of time. Therefore, the Devil Press is an exercise that can lead to EPOC (Excess Post Oxygen Consumption), where your body continues to burn calories even after the workout is finished to get your body back to baseline functioning.
- Cardiovascular Boost: We know that burpees get the blood flowing and that you’re likely to get winded not long after starting them. Now, add weight; this is a Devil Press. You’re sure to test your cardiovascular capacity with this one, as it makes one of the tougher bodyweight exercises even harder. So, if you were looking for a way to make your HIIT workout more intense, Devil Presses are your answer.
- Build Lean Muscle: With this exercise, you can build muscle rather than just tone it. Adding the dumbbells to this movement challenges your muscles as you have to snatch added weight from the floor to over head position in one fluid motion. Not to mention the deep push-up and partial sumo squat encompassed by this exercise. You have to engage both large and small muscles to pull this one-off.
- Improve Coordination: A lot is going on in the Devil Press; your body has to move as one cohesive unit to execute it properly. Therefore, you need full-body control while multiple muscles are activated simultaneously to complete the Devil Press. This is why some people may find it beneficial by following the regression we detailed above. This exercise merges the requirements of strength, explosiveness, technique, and coordination.
- Increase Mobility: The major joints throughout your body, including the ankles, knees, hips, elbows, and shoulders, are all engaged while moving through a wide range of motion. Working all these joints will help to keep your body limber but strong.
DEVIL PRESS MUSCLES WORKED
The Devil Press works muscles in both the upper and lower body. This would be a lengthy post to cover all the muscles individually, so we grouped them below.
LOWER BODY:
The lower body muscles are primary movers that make the Devil Press possible.
- Gluteus Maximus: This is the largest muscle in the body that makes up the shape of your butt. The primary function of the gluteus maximus is hip extension. So, this is the muscle that contributes the most power and explosiveness that propels the dumbbells upwards as you drive your hips forward.
- Quads: The quads are the group of four muscles on the front of your thigh consisting of the vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, vastus intermedius, and the rectus femoris. These muscles are the primary movers in knee extension. When doing the Devil Press, they go to work when you kick your legs out behind you and bring them back, plus they are engaged when you extend your knees during the deadlift portion of the exercise. The rectus femoris is the only quad muscle that crosses both the hip and knee joints, so it also plays a part in hip flexion.
- Hamstrings: The hamstrings are located on the back of the upper leg opposite the quads. This muscle group includes the semitendinosus, semimembranosus, and biceps femoris. These muscles originate at the lower pelvis then insert at the tibia and fibula except for the biceps femoris, which starts at the femur. The main function of the hamstrings is a hip extension and knee flexion. The hamstrings are activated during the deadlifting phase in the Devil Press.
- Calves: The calf muscles on the back of the lower leg include the gastrocnemius and the soleus. The gastrocnemius is the visible diamond-shaped muscle, while the soleus muscle is flat sitting beneath. The primary function of the calves is to help lift the heel, making it possible to walk and run. In the case of the Devil Press, the calves are engaged as your feet land behind you then push off when doing the burpee-like bottom portion of the exercise.
UPPER BODY:
- Core: The core is composed of multiple muscles, including the abdominals, obliques and erector spinae, and more. These muscles help to keep your body aligned and stable throughout the exercise.
- Chest: The chest is made of the pectoralis major/minor and the serratus anterior. These muscles play a significant role in the movement of the limbs, especially when it comes to pushing motions. The chest is hard at work from the starting position with your hands on the dumbbells to when you lower your body into a deficit push up then press up off the floor.
- Back: The back has 40 muscles with 20 on each side but let’s just focus on the muscles that the Devil Press activates. The main back muscles that are worked during the movement are the spinal erectors that run alongside the spine help to straighten or extend the back. So, as you pop up from a sumo deadlift position, these muscles help bring your body upright. The other back muscles involved in the Devil Press are the lats and the traps. These muscles help pull the weight upwards as you transition from the deadlift into the snatch.
- Shoulders: The shoulders are made of three deltoid muscles; anterior, posterior, and lateral. The primary function of the deltoids is to move the arms in multiple directions. For example, with the Devil Press, the front anterior deltoid on the front of the shoulder is engaged as you bring your arm up and over your head, then the anterior or rear deltoid helps stabilize the weight as you lock out the arms.
- Triceps: This three-headed muscle on the back of the upper arm is comprised of the medial, lateral, and long head. The primary function of the triceps is the extension of the arm at the elbow. The triceps are activated as you perform the pressing movement of the burpee as well as the top part of the movement when the dumbbells are pressed up over head.
DEVIL’S PRESS VARIATIONS
These variations of the Devil Press can make the exercise a bit easier or harder.
1. Single Dumbbell Devil Press
This is an easier variation of the Devil Press as you can focus on lifting one dumbbell at a time. By doing this unilateral exercise, you’ll be able to tell if one side of your body is stronger or weaker than the other then make the necessary improvements. Your stabilizing muscles will also be a little more active in this variation to keep your body balanced and aligned, as one side of the body holds a heavier weight than the other.
The differences in this variation are:
- One hand will be on the floor, and the other is on the dumbbell handle when doing the burpee.
- Switching the dumbbell to the other hand at the shoulders when you’re lowering the weight back to the floor.
Single Dumbbell Devil Press Exercise Demo on Youtube
2. Kettlebell Devil Press
This is a more challenging variation of the Devil Press. We only recommend moving on to this version if you’re comfortable using kettlebells and have experience doing cleans with them as your wrists will rotate, and the bell will flip over to one side of your hand as you move into the top half of the movement. Besides that, this variation requires more wrist and grip strength plus a greater ROM as you lower your body to the floor then press up, which will stretch your pecs out more.
The main difference between the Kettlebell Devil Press is:
- The bells will flip behind your hands as your move them past your shoulders to an over head position.
- Due to the height of the kettlebell handles and the dimensions of the kettlebell itself, the range of motion of the push up will be increased and balance of your arms will be a little harder.
Kettlebell Devil Press Exercise Demo on Youtube
HOW TO PROGRAM DEVIL PRESSES INTO YOUR WORKOUT
The Devil Press is best served as a component in a short full-body HIIT workout or circuit. We added this exercise in the below HIIT AMRAP workout that’s guaranteed to get the heart pumping and sweat dripping. Or you can search online for a WOD that includes the Devil Press; there are plenty.
You will do as many reps as possible in the time frame given for each exercise. Rest 2 minutes between each round. Complete 3 rounds:
- Jumping Jacks: 1 minute
- Devil Press: 30 seconds
- Air Squats: 30 seconds
- Burpees: 30 seconds
- Mountain Climbers: 1 minute
FINAL THOUGHT
The Devil Press is an effective full-body exercise that can help you burn tons of calories in a short amount of time, plus you can add lean muscle to your frame. Not only that, they can improve aspects of other big compound lifts, including deadlifts or even Olympic lifts such as snatches. So, give this exercise a shot to step up your game.
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Kiel DiGiovanni
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