Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and hold a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing your body. Keep your back straight and your core engaged, then raise your arms out to the sides until they are parallel to the floor with a slight bend in your elbows.
Pause briefly at the top, then lower the dumbbells back to the start with control. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
How to set up
Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart and hold a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing your body.
Keep your back straight and engage your core.
Let your elbows keep a slight bend as you raise your arms out to the sides until they are parallel to the floor, then lower them slowly back down.
How to raise the arms
Raise the dumbbells until your upper arms are parallel to the floor, with a slight bend in the elbows. Keep both arms on the same path and stop at the same height on each rep.
Pause briefly at the top, then lower the arms back to the start under control. A clean rep looks steady from start to finish.
What you should feel
You should feel the side delts doing the lift, with the traps staying quiet. If the shoulders start to creep up, you are no longer loading the part that should be working.
The rep should move in a clean arc until the arms are parallel to the floor. Keep the elbows only slightly bent and stop the raise before it turns into a shrug.
The top should feel like a brief hold on the side of the shoulder, then a controlled return to the start. If the neck takes over, the load has shifted away from the delts.
Common form errors
The easiest mistake is letting the shoulders creep up as the set goes on.
A clean rep stays even from side to side. If one arm reaches higher than the other, or the top position gets shorter rep by rep, the range is slipping.
Watch the lowering phase too. If the dumbbells drop fast, the descent stops looking controlled on video.
How to compare it with other shoulder moves
This is the side-delt version of shoulder work: the arms move out to the sides until they are parallel to the floor, not up in a press path.
Compared with an Arnold press or strict shoulder press, it is the cleaner choice when you want the load on the Side Deltoids and a clear top position at shoulder height. Compared with a front raise, the line of work is to the side, not in front of you.
If the shoulders creep up, the traps are taking over. In phone video, check that both arms reach the same height and that the lowering phase stays controlled.
How Corect scores the rep
Corect can analyse a phone video and score the form, but the point is simple: each rep should look like the one before it. If the shoulders creep up, one arm finishes higher, or the lowering phase turns into a drop, the side delts are losing the work to the traps.
Lateral Raise: the movement, step by step
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and hold a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing your body.
- Keep your back straight and engage your core.
- Raise your arms out to the sides until they are parallel to the floor, keeping a slight bend in your elbows.
- Pause for a moment at the top, then slowly lower your arms back down to the starting position.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
Common questions
How should you set up for a lateral raise?
Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart and hold a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing your body. Keep your back straight and engage your core.
How high should you raise the dumbbells?
Raise the arms out to the sides until your upper arms are parallel to the floor, with a slight bend in the elbows. Stop at the same height on each rep.
What should the lateral raise feel like?
You should feel the side delts doing the lift, with the traps staying quiet. If the shoulders start to creep up, the load has shifted away from the delts.
What are common form errors?
Common mistakes include letting the shoulders creep up, letting one arm reach higher than the other, and dropping the dumbbells too fast on the way down.
The hardest part of fixing any of this is that you cannot see yourself mid-rep. Corect reads your form from a phone video and shows you what actually happened on each rep of your lateral raise — depth, bar path, where the breakdown starts. Try it free.
