How to Do Lateral Raises Without Messing Up Your Shoulders

EXERCISES DON’T GET much simpler than the lateral raise. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing you need to know for the best possible results when it comes time to build up your shoulders. There are ways that you can screw the move up. If you’ve ever walked past someone on the free weight floor as they flap a set of dumbbells like a set of wings, you’ll have seen the worst case scenario.

To perform the lateral raise optimally, you’ll need more focus on form than just moving your arms up and down. Proper positioning and posture are essential to ensure that your efforts will result in shoulder muscle gains.

Follow these cues from Men’s Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. and senior editor Brett Williams NASM so you can avoid making the beginner mistakes that could wind up derailing your upper body workouts—or maybe even worse, make you look like you have no idea what you’re doing in the gym.

How to Do the Lateral Raise

• Start holding a pair of light dumbbells at your sides in a neutral position. Stand with a slight bend in your knees, squeezing your shoulder blades, abs, and glutes to create tension. Keep your shoulder blades rolled down and back, rather than shrugging upwards ahead of your reps.
•  Shift the dumbbells slightly in front of your torso. This will help to ensure you’re moving in the scapular plane.
• Without rocking forward, lift the dumbbells upwards. As you raise the weights, rotate the dumbbell slightly up to shift your shoulders into external rotation.
• Raise until the weights are just below shoulder height (if standing with your arms extended straight out from your torso is a 90 degree position, raise up to 89 degrees). Pause briefly at the top position.
• Lower the weight back down to the starting position under control.

Take these high-level tips from Samuel to dive deeper into the cues you’ll need to master the exercise.

Don’t Swing!

Eb says: It’s very common, especially if you’re using a heavy weight, to shift your torso forward just a little bit, rocking at the waist to get the weight started. In some cases, that’s an advanced technique being used by a bodybuilder, and it has value. But in most cases, you’re simply taking away from the lift. You’re using momentum to get the weight started, and missing out on a chance to challenge your shoulders to start the motion instead. You’re also going to struggle to control the weight when you lift it upwards.

Avoid doing this by erasing the rock; squeeze your glutes and keep your abs tight and work to keep your torso steady as you lift the weight. Another key to avoiding this rock: Don’t start with the dumbbells touching. Start with your arms close to perpendicular to the ground.

Scapular Plane

Eb says: This is a lateral raise, but that doesn’t mean your arms should be fully at your sides. In fact, for the health of your shoulders, they shouldn’t be completely at your sides.

Instead, you want to work the lateral raise in what’s called the “scapular plane.” That’s about 20 to 30 degrees in front of your torso, so your arms are at a slight angle when you’re raising the weight. You’ll still get plenty of work for the lateral heads of your shoulders, but you’re working at an angle that makes stuff far easier on your rotator cuff tendons.

Thumbs Up

Eb says: This one’s also all about rotator cuff tendon health (and thus the long-term health of your shoulders). As your arms get close to parallel with the ground, think about turning your thumbs slightly upwards to the ceiling. This doesn’t need to be a lot, but by shifting them upwards just a little, you’re biasing your shoulders into external rotation. That’s a nice, safe position that, once again, opens space for your rotator cuff tendons to move.

You’ll see some lifters advise to do lateral raises and point your thumbs down at the top of each rep, sometimes known as “empty can” lateral raises. They’re doing this to attack their rear delts, and to some extent it works—but the risks simply aren’t worth the benefits here. You’re closing down the space between your shoulder bone and your clavicle and opening the door for shoulder impingement issues. Find a safer rear delt exercise and skip the empty cans.

Don’t Lift Too High

Eb says: Another common mistake on the lateral raise: You’ll see people lift too high. They continue the lateral raise motion until their elbows are well above shoulder level. Don’t do this. Stop your elbows just a degree short of parallel with your shoulders. Once you go past parallel with your shoulders, you’re starting to take the emphasis off your shoulders and stressing your traps.

It’s fine to train your traps, but this isn’t a trapezius exercise; the lateral raise is meant to help you isolate and focus on the lateral head of your deltoid. Letting your traps take over removes tension from your shoulders, making the lift easier.

Benefits of the Lateral Raise

The lateral raise gives you a simple movement to train your shoulders—more specifically, the lateral head of your delts. You don’t need to use heavy weights to be effective here, and there’s a fairly low threshold to take on the exercise.

Muscles Worked By the Lateral Raise

The focus of the lateral raise is right there in the name: the lateral head of the delts. Your goal is to keep your form tight so other muscles, like your traps, don’t take over the movement.

Common Lateral Raise Mistakes

Yes, the lateral raise is a simple exercise—but it’s an easy one to mess up. That starts with weight selection. You’re aiming to isolate the lateral head of the delt as much as possible, and if you pick up more weight than you can handle, your form will start to flag and other muscles will help to compensate. Even worse, you could hurt your shoulders, which are delicate joints. Don’t allow your ego to throw off your gains here and stick on the low end of the weight rack.

Another common mistake is using too much movement. You want as little body English as possible here, so don’t allow yourself to swing the weights or rock your torso forward into the next rep. Move deliberately for better results.

How to Add the Lateral Raise to Your Workouts

Add the lateral raise to the end of your upper body workouts. Just remember that your shoulders get a lot of secondary work if your routine includes a good amount of pressing, so keep the weight light. Start with 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps.

Want to master even more moves? Check out our entire Form Check series.