At Kraken Barbell, we are all about helping you train with confidence and get stronger. Today we will be talking about one of the most commonly poorly performed movements in the gym: The Lateral Raise.
Lateral raises are key for building strong, wide, and stable Shoulders. Specifically, they target the lateral head of the deltoids. But, like many isolation movements, they’re easy to get wrong—and small errors can limit your progress or even lead to preventable injuries.
Common Mistakes in the Lateral Raise:
- Shrugging the weight: Overusing and actively shortening the trapezius muscles. This reduces the amount of work the lateral deltoids can do and changes the exercise into a trap muscle movement.
- Using too much weight: The deltoids are a small muscle group that fatigue easy and can be quickly over taken by stronger muscles. Keep the weight on the lighter side and focus on a mind muscle connection and controlled movement.
- Excessive forward lean: This tends to lead to the trapezius muscles becoming the primary mover because the angle of the torso puts them in the strongest position to lift the weight.
- Turning it into a front raise: Excessive elbow flexion can often lead to lifters lifting the weight in front of them turning the movement into a front raise and it no longer working your lateral deltoids.
5 Pro Tips for Lateral Raise Success:
- Control the eccentric: Avoid using momentum—slow, controlled reps with increased time under tension build more muscle.
- Small forward lean: Maintain just a slight bend at your hips. This helps improve stability and puts the lateral deltoids into a strong position to perform the movement.
- Slight internal rotation: AKA – Pouring the jug. Combined with a small forward lean a slight internal rotation of the arms helps to put the lateral deltoid into a stronger position to perform.
- Deltoids don’t need much weight: The deltoids are a relatively small muscle group. Because of this their glycogen stores deplete quickly and they can’t lift big heavy weights. Do a lighter weight and focus on controlling the eccentric portion of the movement.
- Seated variation: A seated variation of the lift helps to provide stability during the movement. This is especially helpful for those that may be new to the gym and should be focusing on form and proper movement or those with stability issues.
Mastering these details will help you grow strong and stable shoulders while keeping your joints healthy.
In this video, I break down common mistakes and provide 5 actionable tips to improve your lateral raises:
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Mauricio Veliz
This blog post is an educational, well-structured examination of one of the worst-performed exercises in the gym: the lateral raise. One of the biggest strengths of this post is the way it explains common mistakes and provides useful tips for improving form. The inclusion of a video is particularly helpful, adding to the learning experience with a visual example to back up the written content. I found the “5 Pro Tips for Lateral Raise Success” section particularly useful, with the tip regarding controlled movement and not using excessive weight being particularly useful—something that many gym-goers could do with being reminded of. Another strong section of the post is the call to action near the end. By asking readers to book a training session or seek online coaching, the piece becomes more interactive and actionable rather than merely informational. It is effective at urging readers to act on the next step in their training optimization.
One area for improvement is the formatting and flow of text. While the information itself is useful, there are places where the reader may appreciate clearer subheadings or bullet points separating main points in a cleaner manner. There are also some grammatical errors on a minor level, which could be cleaned up to allow for a smoother and more professional tone. A quick proof or pass-through of a grammar-checking program would be great for readability.
In general, this is a solid and helpful article that does a good job of instructing readers on lateral raise form. With minor improvements in structure and grammar, it could be even more effective.