Lateral raises - very, very, very commonly done wrong, and if done correctly you are not going to be using a lot of weight.
What you've got to remember with lateral raises is pivot points and pivot points with load. The weight needs to go up from the side of your body out to the side. If your hands creep forward in front of your chest line, you'll start to activate your front delts, because your pivot point then becomes the rotation of your arm and not the lateral movement of your arm so the load is then pulling forwards, trying to pull your arm round, while if your arm is out to the side the load is then on your medial delt as it tries to lift the arm up and around.
The other thing with lateral raises is you can get a lot of trap activation; people tend to shrug up when they do them. Keep open, keep your shoulders wide and push those hands far away from the body as you go through the range. Like I said, it doesn't need a lot of weight.
Now many of you will have heard of twisting your hand at the top of the movement - it's a simplified version. What you're actually trying to do is rotate your upper arm (humerous), so the easiest way to think about that is twisting your hand but it's more about lifting your elbow and that will fully contract the medial delt.
Just to give you an example, if done correctly, you'll see most people struggle to go above 30-40lb. On a good day with a bit of knee activation I can hit 60's, maybe even 70's and I've got very strong shoulders, it's probably my strongest body part. So don't be expecting big weights, but if done right they will make your shoulders wide as hell.
Key Points
- Stand up straight, chest up, shoulders back with a dumbbell in each hand.
- Up through the range, start to twist, so when your elbows at the top they're cocked upwards.
- Don't let the dumbbells come forward over your chest line and the twist should start about mid way up, so all one movement.
When going heavy I will not so much swing but I'll dip my knees at the top of the movement to allow full contraction at the top, but always control the negative. However heavy you go, however much you throw that thing up, make sure those negatives are controlled and keep everything in line.
In time you should be able to develop the ability to actually pull from your shoulder. At first it will be difficult and you won't be able to focus on it so much but as you get into the movement and you start to feel the connection then you'll find you'll literally be able to contract your medial delt and it won't be a case of lifting the dumbbells up with your hands as it will be a case of your shoulder pulling your arm up. It takes a while to get there and to get that sort of control but when you do, this exercise will hit your delts like no tomorrow.
