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The javelin press looks like a classic strongman move—but it'll challenge your core more than you might expect, too.

The half-kneeling javelin press is a simple, challenging, and a fun alternative to any standard shoulder-blasting presses you’re already incorporating into your workouts, according to Men’s Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. As long as you resist the urge to heave a barbell across the gym, you’ll do okay throwing this exercise into your shoulder routine.

The javelin press may not help you to become a better track and field athlete, but hoisting a barbell overhead with one hand does gives off an old-time sideshow strongman vibe. While the move shows off shoulder strength, it targets a host of muscle groups not normally associated with shoulder work.

For starters, this variation requires wrist and grip strength to stabilize the oversized bar, while at the same time the instability caused by the length barbell also hits the core.

Set yourself in a half-kneeling stance while holding a straight barbell or EZ-curl bar with the same hand as your front foot. Because of the instability caused by the barbell’s long levers, you’ll have to be much more cognizant of your wrist positioning, as the goal is to keep the bar parallel with the ground while pressing. Otherwise, the bar may teeter and you’ll possibly wind up crashing one end on the ground.

As you can tell, fighting the barbell’s instability is a recurring theme when it comes to the javelin press. In this case, the final challenge is maintaining control during the eccentric (lowering) phase of the press, which is going to require greater control from your wrists to your core to fight against the bar’s momentum, which may cause the barbell to rotate awkwardly.

Again, the goal is to press the reps, keeping the bar parallel with the ground. Slow and controlled works best. Try starting with three sets of 10 to 12 reps.