Seated Lateral Raises
Primary Muscle Group: Deltoids
Secondary Muscle Group: Traps
Equipment Needed: Dumbbells, Weights Bench
The Benefits of Seated Lateral Raises
Seated Lateral Raises are a great isolation exercise that effectively targets the medial head of the shoulder.
As well as stronger, larger shoulders, the benefits of the lateral raise extend to increased shoulder mobility. If you brace correctly throughout the lift, your core also benefits, and muscles in the upper back, arms and neck will also feel the strain after a few sets.
Seated Dumbbell Lateral Raises is best used as a finisher in a shoulder workout preferably after a heavy pressing exercise.
You get better result by using light weight so you can focus on perfect form and technique.
If you are looking for other exercises that are the best for building muscle or wanting to lose body fat then you should check our Free Workout Plan or our Workout Plans With Coaching for professionally designed workout plans that have been proven to get results.
The Risks of doing Seated Lateral Raises
To avoid injury, it’s important to warm up your rotator cuffs before performing standing dumbbell lateral raises. If you injure your rotator cuff, you could be out for a few weeks or even months!
How To Do Seated Lateral Raises
1. Grab a pair of dumbbells and sit up straight with your feet around shoulder width apart on the edge of a flat bench.
2. Hold the dumbbells down at your sides with your palms facing in. Hold the dumbbells out at around 4 inches from your body. This is the starting position for the exercise.
3. Keeping your body still, eyes facing forward, with a slight bend in your arms, slowly raise the dumbbells up to around shoulder height.
4. Pause, and then slowly lower the dumbbells back to the starting position in a controlled movement.
5. Repeat for desired reps.
For Perfect Technique
The seated dumbbell lateral raise is one of those exercises that so many people do incorrectly. First, this is an isolation exercise, so you should be focusing on stretch and muscle contraction, not using heavy weights.
You need to keep your rep timing slow and controlled. Avoid using momentum to swing heavy weights up because this is not going to get you the best results from the dumbbell lateral raise.
Its also very important that your elbows stay above your wrists. If your wrists come up too far, the focus comes off your side delts and onto your front delts. A good trick to ensure this does not happen is to tilt the dumbbells down as if you were pouring a jug of water as you raise them up. This makes it very hard to raise the wrists higher than the elbows.
And finally, keep the side delts under stress for the whole set by not allowing the dumbbells to touch your body or "hang" at the bottom of the movement.
Variations
Once you have mastered the Seated Dumbbell Lateral Raises exercise you can try alternative exercises that target similar muscle groups such as;
How To Do Upright Rows
1. The barbell upright row is one of the best exercises for building the shoulders and upper traps. To start, load up a barbell with the weight you want to use and stand facing it with your feet at around shoulder width apart.
2. Grasp the barbell with an overhand grip (palms facing down), and hands slightly closer than shoulder width apart.
3. Pick the bar up, bending at the knees and keeping your back straight.
4. Keeping your back straight and eyes facing forwards, lift the bar straight up while keeping it as close to your body as possible (you should pull the bar up to around chest height - nearly touching your chin).
5. Pause, and then slowly lower the bar back to the starting position.
6. Repeat for desired reps.
How To Do Machine Rear Delt Fly
1. Adjust the seat on the Rear Delt Machine so that your chest is against the padding and the handles are at shoulder level. Tighten your core throughout the movement.
2. Holding on to the handles in front of you, engage your rear delt muscles (back of the shoulder). Pull the weight, focusing all of the tension in your shoulder muscles.
3. Pause when the handles are at your sides then slowly return to the starting position. Do not allow the plate to touch the weight stack.