How To Do A Lateral Raise

A lateral raise is an upper-body move that uses dumbbells to help strengthen your shoulder muscles.  Shoulder strength is an important part of a well-rounded fitness program.

Not only do strong shoulders look amazing, but they are extremely important for everyday life. Think of how many things you lift up or push overhead.

Shoulder strength is part of functional training for a living. Learning how to do lateral raises will get you on track for stronger, sculpted shoulders.

Good Form

It is crucial that you learn how to do lateral raises properly to avoid neck pain. Good form equals good results. Allow yourself to be a beginner and start with lighter weights with a good range of motion and work up to using heavier dumbbells.   

Keep your shoulders away from your ears and avoid scrunching your neck and using your trapezius muscles instead of your shoulders. This will help you to avoid a pinched nerve or a sore neck. Maintain good posture. Relax your upper back and keep your shoulder blades pulled down. 

Make sure to use a slow and controlled range of motion. Avoid swinging the dumbbells and using momentum, but instead be intentional and slow with the movement.

Incorporate the lateral raise into your fitness routine or check out our workout: 7 Moves to Sculpt Your Back and Shoulders.

How To Do Lateral Raises

Here are the steps to performing a lateral raise:

1. Begin in a standing athletic position, feet a few inches apart and arms alongside body holding dumbbells.
2. Keeping a slight bend in the elbow, lift your arms up to shoulder height. Your thumbs point slightly down, it should look like you are pouring out two jugs of water.  
3. As you lower the weights, think about squeezing an orange under your armpits to engage the medial deltoids and avoid scrunching your neck.  

What Muscles Do Lateral Raises Work?

The lateral raise is a powerful move that strengthens and sculpts your shoulder muscles! More specifically, when doing a dumbbell lateral raise, you are targeting the top of the shoulder known as the medial deltoid. 

To explain, you have three parts of the shoulder: 

1. The anterior deltoids are your front shoulder muscles that help you move your arm forward. 
2. Your rear deltoids are the back of the shoulder and used in many pulling motions. 
3. And the medial deltoids, which you are working in the dumbbell lateral raise, help you lift overhead. 

Benefits of Lateral Raise

There are many reasons you should incorporate lateral raises into your workouts. Here are just a few:

Strengthens Shoulders

A lateral raise is a great upper body move! This exercise will strengthen your shoulder muscles focusing specifically on the medial deltoid, which is the part of the shoulder that can give it that beautiful shape and the freedom to lift your arms overhead for everyday activities. 

Think about something as practical as reaching for something up high in a cabinet or hoisting a heavy box up on top of a shelf. 

Strengthens Core

A lateral raise focuses on your shoulders but for proper lifting technique, you need to pull your abs in and tighten your overall core in order to stand tall and steady.

Improves Mental Focus

In order to perform a truly good lateral raise, you need to focus on pulling the core in, lifting the arms without raising the shoulders, and keeping your body stable. 

There is a lot to think about for best performance and this helps you keep your mental focus sharp.

How Many Calories Does a Lateral Raise Burn?

People often ask how many calories they are burning in their workouts. Most strength sessions will generally burn about 100 calories for every 10 -15 minutes if you are working at a higher intensity. 

Bottom line – the harder you work, the more calories you burn. If you are challenging your muscles to fatigue and taking shorter breaks between reps and sets, you will get your heart rate up and burn more calories. 

The more muscle you have on your body, the more calories you burn throughout the day since muscle is a more metabolic tissue than body fat. 

Lateral Raise Variations

If you like the lateral raise and the results you get from it, here are a few more shoulder exercises you might want to try:

• How To Do Shoulder Overhead Press
• How To Do Shoulder Front Raise
• How To Do Chest Fly