Alternating Deltoid Raise

How to do it

1. Stand with a dumbbell in each hand at your sides, palms facing your thighs.
2. Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart and your stomach braced.
3. Set a small bend at the elbows and hold it.
4. Raise one arm out to the side until the hand is level with the shoulder.
5. Lower it under control as you begin raising the other.
6. Continue alternating, keeping the torso still.

Common mistakes

• Rocking side to side with the rhythm. One side is always loaded more than the other, and the resting dumbbell makes a lean easy to fall into.
• Shrugging as the arm rises. Once the shoulder lifts toward the ear the upper trapezius has taken over.
• Going above shoulder height. Past level the shoulder blade has to rotate for the arm to keep travelling, and it has stopped being a lateral raise.
• Overlapping the two arms. One comes down before the other goes up; overlapping turns it into a two-arm raise done unevenly.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Lateral DeltoidShoulders