Wiki/Exercises/Dumbbell Lateral Raise

Dumbbell Lateral Raise

shouldersdumbbell
Anatomical illustration of the deltoid muscle of the shoulder
Anatomical illustration of the deltoid muscle of the shoulder. Illustration by DrJanaOfficial, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Primary muscle

shoulders

Equipment

dumbbell

How to perform

Stand with a light dumbbell in each hand at your sides, with a slight bend in the elbows. Raise the dumbbells out to your sides until they reach shoulder height. Lead with your elbows rather than your hands, and keep your shoulders down. Lower slowly, resisting the whole way. The side delts respond to control, not load. Almost everyone uses too much weight here. Common mistakes: swinging the weight with the hips, shrugging the traps, and raising above shoulder height where the traps take over.

Worth watching

The Best And Worst Shoulder Exercises by Jeff Nippard, on YouTube. It covers this movement as part of a wider look at the muscle rather than as a lesson in it. Embedded with no tracking cookies until you press play.