With the muscles of the shoulders (deltoid muscles) being made up of three heads, the best way to work eating properly is to isolate each individual muscle with a special exercise. Dumbbell lateral raises such an exercise designed specifically for the development of the side deltoids.
Here is how they are performed…
- Stand with your feet around shoulder width apart or narrower; a dumbbell in each hand, palms turned inwards.
- Facing forward, bend the arms at the elbow slightly, to help take the strain from the elbow and inner shoulder joint.
- Keeping a slight bend in the elbow, raise the dumbbells out to the sides and up to shoulder level.
- During the movement gave a slight forward tilt to the dumbbells, so once at the top, the rear end of the dumbbell is slightly higher than the front end.
- Lower slowly, resisting all the way down.
Tips:
- The reason why the dumbbells are tilted forward (with the rear end higher at the top of the movement) is to help keep the weight on the side deltoids and not the anterior deltoids.
- Keep your posture straight and do not use your back muscles to swing the weights up, as this takes away from the deltoids effort. If you have to do this, you are lifting too heavy.