Dumbbell · beginner · shoulders
Dumbbell lateral raises
Also called Side raise, Side lateral raise, Dumbbell side raise, DB lateral raise, Side laterals.
The lateral raise lifts a dumbbell out to the side with an almost straight arm, and the middle head of the deltoid is what moves it. Reviews of the shoulder research put this movement at the top for the middle head, ahead of any press. Your traps assist, because about a third of raising an arm comes from the shoulder blade rotating rather than the arm moving.
How to do it
- Step oneStand upright holding a dumbbell in each hand at your sides with a neutral grip.
- Step twoKeep a slight bend in your elbows and your core engaged.
- Step threeRaise both dumbbells out to the sides in a wide arc until your arms are parallel to the floor.
- Step fourPause briefly at the top and squeeze your medial delts.
- Step fiveSlowly lower the dumbbells back to the starting position.
What usually goes wrong
Each starts with what you would notice.
Your neck and the tops of your shoulders are what burn, and your shoulders finish near your ears.
WhyThe shoulder is riding up to get the dumbbell to the top. The shoulder blade is meant to rotate, and it will, but the whole shoulder lifting is a different thing and it means the trap has taken over.
FixUse a weight you can raise with the collarbones staying level. Think of pushing the dumbbell away from you sideways rather than up.
You rock backward and forward, and the dumbbells jump off the bottom.
WhyMomentum from your body is starting the rep, so the shoulder only has to catch the weight partway up.
FixStart each rep from a dead stop with the dumbbells still against your thighs. If they will not move without a bounce, they are too heavy.
The rep feels easy, but it also feels like nothing much is happening at your shoulder.
WhyThe elbows are bent a long way, which shortens the arm. A shorter arm is an easier lever, so the same dumbbell asks less of the shoulder.
FixKeep the elbow just softly unlocked and hold that angle for the whole rep. If you have to bend it more to finish, you have the wrong weight.
You keep raising past shoulder height because it feels like more work.
WhyIt is more work, but not for the muscle you came for. Past roughly shoulder height, the traps carry a growing share.
FixStop when the upper arm is level with the floor, hold for a beat, and lower it under control. The lowering half is the part most people rush.
Lateral raise or shoulder press
They are not alternatives. A press is a multi-joint movement led by the front of the shoulder, and it is where the load goes. A lateral raise is a single-joint movement that puts the middle head on its own, and reviews of the shoulder research rank it at the top for that head, above any press.
That means pressing alone leaves the middle head under-worked, and raising alone leaves you with nothing you can load. A shoulder trained on both is the point.
The rear head is worked by neither. That one comes from rows and other pulling, which is worth knowing before you assume a press-and-raise day covers the shoulder.
Which way should the thumbs point
Three versions get argued about: thumbs pointing up, thumbs level with the floor, and thumbs tipped down like pouring a jug.
The usual advice is to never tip the thumbs down, and the reason given is sound. Turning the arm inward as you raise it brings the top of the arm bone closer to the bony roof above it, and measurements show the space in there gets smaller in that position than with the thumbs turned up.
The complication is that the muscle evidence points the other way. When reviewers pooled the studies, the version of the raise that produced the most middle-delt activity was the one with the arm turned inward. So one body of work favors it for the muscle and another disfavors it for the joint position, and anyone giving you a flat answer is picking a side.
The neutral grip, thumbs roughly level, sits between them, and it is the version shown here. If a particular hand position makes your shoulder pinch, that is your answer for your shoulder, regardless of what either literature says.
Shoulder width is mostly your collarbones
This movement is nearly always sold as the way to build shoulder width. Set that aside. How wide your shoulders are is mostly your collarbones and your frame, and no exercise changes those. A muscle can grow on the frame you have, which is a smaller and truer claim.
It is also not a load lift, and trying to make it one is where most people go wrong. The arm is long, the weight is at the end of it, and the shoulder is working at a terrible mechanical disadvantage on purpose. That is the exercise. A dumbbell you have to swing up is not a heavier lateral raise, it is a different movement done badly.
What it does do is give the middle head of the shoulder direct work that pressing does not provide. That is a narrow job, and it does it better than anything else with a dumbbell.
What it is for
Dumbbell lateral raises are the primary isolation exercise targeting the medial deltoid. By raising the arms out to the side, it directly develops shoulder width and contributes to the characteristic rounded shoulder appearance.
Questions people ask
- What muscles do lateral raises work?
- The middle head of the deltoid does the work. The traps assist, since the shoulder blade has to rotate for the arm to come up at all. The front and rear heads of the shoulder contribute very little, which is why this does not replace pressing or rowing.
- How high should you raise the dumbbells?
- To about shoulder height, with the upper arm level with the floor. Going higher does not add much for the middle head and hands a growing share of the work to your traps.
- Why do I feel lateral raises in my traps?
- Usually because the whole shoulder is lifting toward your ear to get the dumbbell up, which happens when the weight is more than the shoulder can raise on its own. Some trap involvement is unavoidable, since the shoulder blade rotates on every rep. Shoulders climbing to your ears is the version to fix.
- Should you tip your thumbs down on lateral raises?
- The evidence pulls both ways. Turning the arm inward narrows the space between the top of the arm bone and the bone above it, which is the usual argument against. But pooled muscle studies found that same inward-turned version produced the most middle-delt activity. A neutral hand, thumbs roughly level, sits between the two, and a position that makes your shoulder pinch is one to stop using whatever the studies say.
- What weight should you use for lateral raises?
- One you can lift from a dead stop, without your body rocking, with the elbow held at a fixed soft bend, and stop level with your shoulder. Most people find that is a far smaller dumbbell than they expected. The exercise puts the shoulder at a deliberate disadvantage, so a small number here is normal.
- Should lateral raises be done seated or standing?
- Seated makes it harder to rock your body into the rep, which is the most common way the movement gets away from people. Standing is fine if you can keep still. The test is the same either way: does the dumbbell start moving before your torso does.