 Hey everybody, I'm Lance Goyke and for some people the shoulder is the sketchiest joint in the body. It might seem like no matter what you do, your shoulders never feel good. They range from okay to garbage. It's a complicated joint for sure, but broad shoulders are one of the key features of an impressive physique, so we still need to train them. In this video, I'm going to give you a comprehensive breakdown of lateral raises, the best way we know to train the shoulders. We'll discuss the anatomy of the shoulder, how to execute the lateral raise, how to mess it up, and all the ways you can modify it. I'll be sure to leave you with what I believe to be the best exercises for training shoulders and as a bonus, we'll talk about proper ways to force a few reps at the end of a set. Let's get at it. A brief overview of the shoulder joint, shoulder movement, and shoulder muscles will help you understand how to best perform lateral raises. The shoulder is comprised of three bones. The clavicle, or collarbone, the scapula, or shoulder blade, and the humerus, or the arm bone. The shoulder is likened to a golf ball on a tee. The humerus, the ball, sits inside the glenoid of the scapula, the tee. Normal shoulder function requires this ball on tee spinning, but it also requires rotation of the shoulder blade. As the hand lifts up, the scapula upwardly rotates. This requires activation of the trapezius and serratus anterior muscles. Approximately one-third of shoulder abduction or flexion is attributed to this scapular movement. Without this, shoulder impingement and injury are likely to occur. The rotator cuff is comprised of four muscles. The supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis. The two most superiorly positioned muscles, the supraspinatus and infraspinatus, are the most likely to be injured. When the arm bone rises up, the rotator cuff is pushed into the acromion process of the scapula. We classify this bony projection based on its shape. Type 1 is flat and safe. Type 2 has a mild curve and is most common. Type 3 has a sharp hook and is most problematic, while type 4 is convex and safe. This shoulder impingement results in friction that can tear these rotator cuff muscles, especially with a type 3 acromion. Contrary to their name, lateral raises do not work the lats. The deltoid muscle gives mass to the shoulder. It's comprised of three sections, anterior or front, middle or lateral, and posterior or rear. The anterior deltoid brings the arm up and forward. It assists the chest during a bench press and looks a lot like the upper pectoralis major. The middle deltoid brings the arm purely up and out to the side. This is our main target during lateral raises. And the rear deltoid brings the arm up and backward. The force factor of the weights in a lateral raise can confuse the body. It's obvious to the lifter that we are targeting the deltoids, but the upper trapezius muscle is highly involved for two reasons. First, the upper trap helps upwardly rotate the shoulder blade. Kind of not directly. And second, the upper trap helps elevate the shoulder blade. Both of these can create momentum that helps perform the lateral raise, but at a cost. Excess upper trap activity during the lateral raise stiffens the neck. It's best to keep tension on the deltoid instead. To perform the lateral raise, stand tall holding two dumbbells. Keeping the arms straight, slowly lift both weights out and up to shoulder level. Pause briefly and lower slowly under control. Lateral raises can be modified in any of the following ways. Hand orientation, plane of movement, range of motion, set up position, load, implement, and symmetry. Hand orientation changes the degree of internal or external rotation at the shoulder. Turning the thumb down internally rotates the shoulder, placing more emphasis on the middle deltoid. This is desirable, but not without consequences. When the thumb points down while the arm raises up, the humerus in the shoulder joint rises up, pushing the rotator cuff muscles into the acromion process we described earlier. This is called a shoulder impingement and can contribute to rotator cuff tears. In general, you shouldn't point the thumb down during lateral raises. The risk is not worth the reward. Lateral raises are traditionally done in the frontal plane, meaning both arms stay in line with the torso. The frontal plane, however, is not a neutral position for the shoulder. The scapular plane keeps the arm in line with the shoulder blade and provides the most freedom of movement in the joint. This reduces wear and tear on the rotator cuff, but shifts muscle emphasis from the middle deltoid to the front deltoid. Initiating the movement, bringing the weights from the sides of the body to 15 degrees away from the body, is done by the supraspinatus rotator cuff muscle alone. Developing large shoulders does not require this 15 degrees of movement. If lateral raises are performed at roughly 105 degrees of abduction, mechanical load placed on the deltoid increases. This extra movement, however, also pushes the rotator cuff toward the acromion and can create an impingement. The weights we train with create a torque around the joint we're training. When doing lateral raises with dumbbells, the lift gets really easy when the weight is close to the body. This is because the moment arm of the weight and therefore the torque required to oppose it is small. There are three ways we can challenge the muscle through a longer range of motion. First, we could use a machine designed to train this particular muscle group. Second, we could change how the external force is applied, like using a cable or a band, instead of a weight and gravity. Third, we could change the orientation of the body during the lift. Most lifts that promote muscle gain are done bilaterally, where we're moving both sides at the same time. Unilateral movements can also be used to demolish the muscles, but they offer the added benefit of shoulder freedom. Slight twisting, turning, and bending at the torso promote proper shoulder and shoulder blade alignment. Okay, we've outlined that there are seemingly infinite ways to switch up the lateral raise, but some are better than others. Instead of showing you every possible variation, here are the three best ones. Best free weight option, chest supported one arm lateral raise. We will combine our variations to compose the most useful exercise for building the middle deltoids with only free weights. Set an incline bench to 80 degrees. Grab a light dumbbell and place the chest on the bench with the head just above the bench. Keeping the arms straight and palm facing down, raise the dumbbell through the scapular plane roughly 30 degrees in front of the torso. Pause briefly once the arm hits parallel with the ground and lower the weight back down under control. The incline bench here supports the body, replicating the stability you'd get from a machine. The incline bench also allows a slight forward torso lean, which intensifies the load placed on the deltoid through a longer range of motion. Moving through the scapular plane helps our shoulders stay healthy and allows us to keep the palm facing down to still hit the middle deltoid rather than the front deltoid. Best cable option, side lean, low cable, one arm lateral raise. Set the cable as low as it will go and select a light weight. Grab the cable with the working arm and then grab the machine with the free arm and lean the body 15 degrees away from the machine. Keeping the arms straight and palm facing down, raise the dumbbell through the scapular plane roughly 30 degrees in front of the torso. Pause briefly once the arm hits parallel with the ground and lower the weight back down under control. The deltoid has poor leverage at the top of a lateral raise. This is because the muscle fibers are too short to generate appreciable force. This lean away cable variation puts more load on the deltoid when it's strongest, that is at the bottom of the movement, and removes the challenge when it's weakest at the top. Best full gym option, bent elbow lateral raise machine. All machines will do fine here, but finding one that places the pad at the elbow reduces the forearm and upper arm involvement, better isolating the deltoid. Now that we know the best variations, let's talk about how people mess them up. It takes discipline to perform lateral raises correctly. It's important to keep tension on the deltoid even when it gets tired. This maximizes the growth response while minimizing the risk of injury. Shrugging during the lateral raise removes tension from the deltoid while promoting neck stiffness. It is best to be avoided. Shrugging will commonly occur in one of two places. When starting the lateral raise in an effort to build momentum or when finishing the lateral raise in an effort to feel a stronger contraction at the top. Back arching during the lateral raise shifts the tension from the middle deltoid to the front deltoid. Arching the back also promotes back and neck stiffness while reinforcing bad movement patterns. It's best to be avoided. Rushing through the lateral raise means less tension is placed on the muscle aimed to pause briefly at the top of each rep to kill momentum. Momentum and bent elbows are often used to lift weights that are too heavy. If you can't do the lift without momentum or you need to keep the elbow bent, lower the weight. It's worth noting that the lateral raise is not an exercise where we routinely use heavier weights. This is for two reasons. First, most of the torque comes from the moment arm so slight changes in load have a large impact. And two, this deltoid isolation exercise is generally performed near the end of a workout when the muscles are already fatigued. Next, we'll talk about how to change your technique at the end of a set to force out a few more reps and really challenge the muscle. When the deltoid is fatigued to nearly its limit, slow and perfect technique might be unattainable. The muscle, however, might not be fully fatigued. Forcing out fractions of a rep can provide an extra growth stimulus. To force extra reps and therefore more fatigue into the deltoid, you can start the movement with the legs to assist the raising of the weights. Once the weight reaches the top, attempt to stop it briefly and lower it slowly. This uses momentum to assist the difficult part of the rep, the raising, while forcing pure technique on the easier part, the lowering. You can also instantly lower the torque required to lift the weights by bending the elbows. This can change where the emphasis on the muscle is placed, so be sure to target the middle deltoid. All right, that's it. There's everything you need to know about lateral raises. To recap, lateral raises are the best isolation exercise we have for the middle deltoid, but we can modify them to be safer and more useful. We outlined how to perform them, mistakes to avoid, and ways to safely force out a few more reps at the end of a set. That's going to be it for me. If you learned something, hit the like button and subscribe to be notified when I release new videos. If you need something else to watch, maybe it's a good time to go back to the basics. Check out my video on the four must-dos for muscle gain. There's a lot of training information out there, and there are many ways to be successful, but there are a few things you cannot avoid doing. I think you'll like that one.