Lying Single-Arm Dumbbell Rear Lateral Raise

How to do it

1. Lie on your side on a flat bench or the floor, propped on your lower forearm.
2. Hold a dumbbell in the top hand with the arm hanging down across your body.
3. Set a small bend at the elbow and hold it.
4. Raise the arm out and up until it is roughly level with your body.
5. Lead with the elbow rather than the hand.
6. Lower under control across the body, then finish the side before swapping.

Common mistakes

• Rolling the torso back as the arm rises. Rolling adds range the shoulder did not travel and is the most available cheat lying on your side.
• Pulling the elbow back toward the hip. Out and up is the path; back is a row.
• Going heavy. Lying on your side removes every way of helping and the rear deltoid is small, so the dumbbell is light.
• Confusing it with the face-down version. Lying on your side loads the arm through a different part of the arc, and both are worth doing — but the weights do not transfer.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Posterior DeltoidShoulders

Secondary

• Rhomboids
• Middle TrapeziusTraps