Form - Lateral Raises - JeffStrunk.com

Standing laterals emphasize the lateral or outside portion of the shoulder and to a certain extent your trapezius muscle.

Stand with the dumbbells in front of you and in close to your legs. Your stance should be roughly shoulder width apart. With this exercise you want to maintain a slight bend in your elbows, this will be more forgiving on your elbow joints. You will notice that I am leaning forward a little. This allows me to lift a little heavier weight and work with my body's natural bio-mechanics. You will see at the top of each repetition I am standing straight up. After I have established my starting point I raise the dumbbells up while maintaining a bend in my elbows. The whole key to this exercise is to keep your forearms level with the ground at the top of the movement. A tip that will help you is to think of leading with your elbows.

Think of your elbows pulling the weight up. In other words your elbows come up before your wrist and dumbbells. This is an over analogy that will ensure you maintain proper form. Another point I want to mention is at the top of the movement try to keep your elbows in line with your shoulders. By doing this you will really feel the outside portion of your shoulders being worked. Focus on wide arcs while doing this exercise to maximize a full range of motion. If my forearms raise up and come back towards my shoulders tension will transfer to the front of my shoulder and I will miss targeting the overload into the outside or lateral portion of my shoulders. At the top of the exercise don't be too concerned with turning the dumbbells down. Some people think of it as pouring pitchers, but this will place unnecessary stress on your wrist. You will see I open my arms at the top of the movement just past a ninety degree angle. Hold at the top for a count of one and repeat reps. Comments at http://www.jeffstrunk.com

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