Nothing says you mean serious gym business more than rocking a pair of boulder-lookin’ shoulders. While compound lifts are crucial for building strength and burning calories, isolation moves like the lateral raise are what sculpt those capped delts.
Lateral raises specifically target the lateral (side) delts—one of the three heads of your shoulder muscle. They're key for a well-rounded shoulder aesthetic and improved stability and mobility.
In this post, we’ll discuss:
- What is the lateral raise?
- Muscles worked
- How to do the lateral raise
- Benefits of lateral raises and common mistakes
- 7 best lateral raise variations
- Frequently asked lateral raise questions and answers
- Programming the lateral raise
What is the Lateral Raise?
The lateral raise is a shoulder isolation exercise designed to grow your deltoids, particularly the side delts. By raising your arms out to the side, you zero in on a muscle group that doesn’t get enough love from pressing movements alone.
Whether you're using dumbbells, kettlebells, cables, or machines, lateral raises are accessible and incredibly effective.
What Muscles Does the Lateral Raise Exercise Work?
The lateral raise primarily works the lateral deltoids, but since we’ve included variations that hit each shoulder head, all three muscles of the deltoid muscle group are included here.
1. Lateral Deltoids: These are the prime movers during a lateral raise. They help you abduct the arm (lift it away from your body) and give your shoulders that round, capped look.
2. Anterior Deltoids: These front shoulder muscles also activate during the movement, though less than the lateral head.
3. Posterior Deltoids: While traditional lateral raises don’t target the rear delts much, some variations do, helping round out shoulder development.
Benefits of Lateral Raises
As if beautifully rounded shoulders weren't enough, there are also several other great benefits to working the lateral raise into your routine.
1. Contributes to rounded, muscular bolder shoulders.
Working your side shoulders is incremental in creating a V-taper look. Think about it: Your definition starts at your shoulders, so the wider they are, the more defined your V-look will seem.
In addition, the larger, wider, and rounder your shoulders get, the better the rest of your physique will look.
2. Improves shoulder strength, flexibility, and joint stability.
Similar to what we just discussed about the side shoulder muscles playing a big role in achieving your aesthetic physique, they are also crucial for overall shoulder health. They help prevent shoulder muscle imbalances, and by doing so, help to stabilize the shoulder joint.
3. Improves performance of compound movements.
Most pushing and pulling movements can’t be performed without activating the shoulder muscles. But if there is a muscle imbalance in your shoulders, which can happen with your lateral delts as they aren’t targeted in many main compound lifts, it results in muscle compensations and weakness.
And if your shoulders become imbalanced in any way, you’re going to notice that your major compound exercises, such as bench presses and barbell bent-over rows, will seem a lot more challenging (and not in a good way).
Dumbbell Lateral Raise: Correct Form
- Hold a dumbbell in each hand, arms at your sides, palms facing your legs.
- Slightly bend your knees and hips, keeping a straight torso.
- With a slight bend in your elbows, lift the dumbbells out to your sides until your arms reach shoulder height.
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Pause briefly at the top, then slowly lower the weights with control.
Common Lateral Raise Mistakes
Mistake 1: Going Too Heavy – Using heavy weights causes you to use momentum or involve other muscles, defeating the purpose. Start light (8–12 reps) and only go heavier if you can maintain control.
Mistake 2: Using Momentum – Swinging the weights or bouncing your knees shifts effort away from your delts. Keep the movement slow and deliberate.
Mistake 3: Involving Your Traps – If your shoulders shrug during the lift, your traps are taking over. Lower the weight and focus on pushing the dumbbells out, not up.
Mistake 4: Poor Neck Position – Keep your head neutral and gaze forward. Avoid looking down, which strains your neck.
Mistake 5: Speeding Through Reps – Lateral raises are best done slowly to increase time under tension.
The 7 Best Lateral Raise Variations
There is no shortage of variations when it comes to the lateral raise. Whether you’re using dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, or gym equipment, there’s a version here best suited to help you meet your shoulder-building goals.
1. Bent Over Lateral Raise:
Also referred to as the rear lateral raise, your rear deltoids rather than your lateral shoulder muscles are targeted in this exercise. Again, it’s important to not go overly heavy with your weights, or you’ll turn it into a back exercise. Don't get us wrong - barbell back exercises are great. Just not when you're trying to target your shoulder.
How to do the Bent Over Lateral Raise:
- Grabbing your dumbbells, hinge at the hips, and bend your torso until your chest parallels the floor. Your arms begin the move extended, with the dumbbells hanging toward the floor.
- Slowly raise your dumbbells out to the sides with your elbows slightly bent. Continue raising until your arms are parallel to the floor, in line with your shoulders.
- Lower back down, and repeat.
2. Dead Stop Lateral Raise:
The main difference with this variation is you sit on a bench, rather than stand, while focusing on not allowing your shoulders to fully relax as your dumbbells lower down.
How to do the Dead Stop Lateral Raise:
- Grab your dumbbells with an overhand grip, and sit on a bench, with your arms straight by your sides. Begin with the elbow slightly bent, sitting up tall, with an upright trunk.
- Before beginning the exercise, create tension in your delts, so they contract the entire time.
- Slowly raise the dumbbells up and out toward your sides. When your upper arms parallel the floor, stop, and begin lowering back down.
- Don’t allow your shoulders to fully relax as you reach the bottom of the move, pausing only briefly before bringing the weights back up again.
3. Cable Lateral Raise:
Drop the dumbbells and instead try the cable version for some added variation. You can use both arms for this exercise, but performing it unilaterally is a great way to increase the exercise’s difficulty and identify any side delt muscle imbalances.
How to do the Cable Lateral Raise:
- Select your weight. Standing next to a cable pulley machine, begin with your feet shoulder-width apart. Rotate your shoulders back, bending your knees slightly, while keeping your trunk upright.
- Reaching across your body, grab the pulley handle with your outside arm.
- Keeping a slight bend in your elbow, raise your arm up and out to the side, until it’s in line with your shoulder. Pause at the top of the move before slowly lowering back down.
4. Kettlebell Lateral Raise:
For this exercise, you’ll follow the same form as a standard lateral raise, swapping out your dumbbells for kettlebells instead.
Stand up to hit your side delts, and lean forward to target your rear shoulder. This is another move that you'll want to use relatively light weights. Interested in more kettlebell training? Check out our kettlebell shoulder workouts.
How to do the Kettlebell Lateral Raise:
- Grab your kettlebells, standing tall with an upright torso, and your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, raise the kettlebells to your shoulders with a neutral grip (your palms should face each other).
- Lower your kettlebells down, and repeat.
5. Landmine Lateral Raise:
We love utilizing all types of equipment for a well-rounded program (as well as bodyweight only shoulder exercises), and using a barbell for the lateral raise is no exception.
How to do the Landmine Lateral Raise:
- Stand tall, torso upright, and your feet shoulder-width apart. Place the barbell slightly in front of you. Grasp the barbell with one hand, in front of you, using an overhand grip. Your arm should be straight down by your side to begin the move.
- Keeping a slight bend in your elbow, begin raising your arm upward. As your arm lifts the barbell, move it up and out toward your side, until it’s in line with your shoulders. Your elbow will be more bent in this exercise than in other variations, causing your hand to be more in front of your shoulder at the top of the move.
- Slowly lower down, and repeat.
6. Three Way Lateral Raise:
We’ve talked a lot about the lateral and rear delts, but this move switches the attention to the lateral head and front shoulder instead. The three-way raise puts the shoulder joint’s full range of motion to work, as you lift the dumbbells to the side, to the front, and then up above your head.
It is great for pushing your muscular endurance. Go light on your weights for this one.
How to do the Three Way Lateral Raise:
- Start with your feet hip-width apart, standing tall with an upright trunk. With a dumbbell in each hand, extend your arms by your sides.
- Raise the dumbbells up and out to your sides to shoulder height.
- From here, bring the dumbbells toward the front of your body until they meet in the center of your chest, still at shoulder height.
- Keeping your arms straight, raise the dumbbells overhead, and then lower your dumbbells straight down to they meet in the center of your chest. From here, bring them back out toward your sides, and then slowly lower them down, back to your starting position.
7. Lateral Raise Machine:
Throwing machine work into a routine is great for variation and an excellent option for bumping up your weights. Don't forget to finish your work with some shoulder mobility exercises.
How to do the Lateral Raise Machine:
- Sitting at the lateral raise machine, keep your trunk upright and your back straight against the pad.
- Grab the handles of the machine, elbows bent, starting with a neutral grip. Your outer arms will push against the machine's padding.
- Push your elbows out to the side, so your palms now face downward. Pause briefly at the top of the move before returning your arms to the starting position.
FAQs:
Let's take a look at some common questions and answers regarding the lateral raise, so you're best equipped to master this move.
1. Are lateral raises good for building muscle?
The lateral raise hits your side shoulder, which doesn’t get as much love as your anterior and posterior delts. Not only is it good for ensuring you have well-rounded and muscular-looking shoulders, but it’s also essential for preventing muscle imbalances in your upper arm.
If you’re only working your front and back shoulder muscles, you're going to run into problems. Perform lateral raises and you'll gain muscle mass while strengthening crucial stabilizing muscles. As part of the muscle-building process, be sure to give yourself rest time as well to support muscle recovery.
2. Why are lateral raises so hard?
Lateral raises are an isolation exercise designed to target a muscle that doesn’t get much attention with most compound movements. You might notice that it’s not as strong as your front and back delts, which makes the exercise seem infinitely harder. Keep working on it, and you’ll begin to notice progress. Just make sure to use a lighter weight.
3. How heavy should a lateral raise be?
Light dumbbells should be your go-to for the lateral raise. This is not an exercise to go ultra heavy on. If you do, you’ll take some of the work out of your side delts, placing it onto your traps. Save trap work for your trap exercises - they don't need extra attention in this move.
Also, if you go too heavy, you may notice you start to use your lower body some to help gain momentum for the lift. This is not going to benefit your side delts, so drop the ego and your weights for this one.
PROGRAMMING THE LATERAL RAISE
When finding room for the lateral raise in your workout split, add them on to whichever day hits the shoulders, whether you are doing a chest and shoulders workout, a push-pull split, or an upper-lower split.
This is an isolation exercise, meaning you should save it for later in your routine. Always perform your larger, compound exercises first, then follow with the isolation moves like the lateral raise. Target 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps for hypertrophy, and if your current program is focusing more on muscular endurance, drop your weights extra light, targeting 2 to 3 sets of 15 to 20 reps.
Remember, proper form is essential for the lateral raise. Go slow, keep the work in your shoulders, and pair the lateral raise with shoulder moves like the overhead press. Follow our guidance, and you’ll be well on your way to bolder shoulders.
Related: The Ultimate Dumbbell Shoulder Workout
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Sam Coleman
Author