
Fitness: do these lateral raise variations for strong shoulders

Summary
The lateral raise is one of the most important exercises to add muscle to your shoulders. Here are four variations that will help you gain strength and cut out injuriesSome exercises will never go out of fashion. They are proven, easy to learn, and effective. Lateral raises fall into that category. Mainly a shoulder exercise where the weights are raised using the arms from a regular stance out to the sides, it works the lateral deltoids—muscles that start at the peak of the shoulder and run down in a trail to the biceps. Raises can be done on push or pull days, depending on how it fits your split.
Like every other foundational exercise, the lateral raise too has variations that will help you learn more about your body; little tweaks to the basic exercise to make it more comfortable and, at times, even more effective. These are four variations of the lateral raise.
Charles Glass lateral raises: Let’s go straight to the godfather of bodybuilding first. Charles Glass has many suggestions on how to do exercises, and most of them are hits. His way of doing lateral raises is a slight change in how one holds the dumbbells. He says keeping them in front of the body, on the thighs, with the palms facing the thighs as they hold the weights is the right way to do a raise.
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This is a variation form the regular grip where one starts with the dumbbells at the side of the body with a neutral stance natural grip. Glass believes a different grip throughout the raise allows the scapula to be relaxed while doing the raise, something which a lot of people tend to do with a conventional approach.
If you want more from Glass, I wrote about his five best training techniques in a Loungearticle titled 5 Great Workout Tips From The Godfather Of Bodybuilding.
Behind-the-body cable lateral raises: This one is my favourite variation for two reasons. The first being that it is a one-handed variation, so you’re working one side of the body at a time. The other benefit is that it allows a longer stretch for the muscle as the hand travels behind the body to a starting position which is more central, than to the sides. It is also done using cables so there is a constant tension on the muscle.
Jeremy Ethier has popularised this one, and his explanation is simple. He wants you to feel more resistance at the start of the exercise while beginning the raise rather than at the top of the exercise when the weight is raised. His YouTube video shows everything you need to know—the placement of the body in accordance with the cables, the height of the cable on the machine and the exact movement.
Wall press lateral raises: Think of taking wall support while doing barbell bicep curls, because this follows the same principle. In the bicep curl one would stand with the back to the wall, to kill the momentum that is sometimes needed to curl the weight in, hence stopping the body’s natural cheating mechanism.
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In the lateral raise variation, one must press one side of the body to the wall, so that side is unable to give you any help while raising the weight with the other hand. “You’ll essentially be flush against the wall on your unweighted side. You will still feel tension against the left side, which comes from a need to stabilize as you move the weight—that’s normal," says a Barbend.com article titled. 10 Lateral Raise Variations For Big & Broad Shoulders.
Y raises: This variation also doubles up as a pre-habilitative injury prevention exercise. I do these for warm-ups on back and shoulder day and it is a great way to untie a lot of knots in the upper back and shoulder region. You need a bench for this and raise it up to 15 or 30 degrees, depending on your fitness levels and strength. The smaller the angle, the easier the exercise.
Then get on the bench with your chest against the padding. The knees can be on the lower part of the bench where the seat is. Retract the traps, let the abs remain on the bench, keep your neck neutral and raise your arms slightly up and at an angle, where it looks like the letter Y.
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You could start with a long resistance band or a stick to get the hang of the raise before moving to light weights. You might wonder why you can’t place your feet on the floor, and that is because it would allow the lower back to aid your movement. You don’t want that.
Pulasta Dhar is a football commentator, podcaster and writer.
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