Best way to do side [delt] raises

[617ricky]

I always did side raises with my arms totally straight extended down, holding the dumbbells next to my quads, and then raising them up.. But I notice alot of people do them with their arms bent at a 90 degree angle, and then raising them.. I was always under the impression that that was better for working the rear delts, when you arch your back forward..

But is there a difference as to what you're working by having your arms either totally straight, or bent at the elbow?

 

[SacToSD]

But is there a difference as to what you're working by having your arms either totally straight, or bent at the elbow?

Not sure about what you're working, but I do them the way you're talking about and wondering the same thing. I've seen lots of bb videos on youboob where they keep their elbows bent. The people I've talked to/trained with told me to do them with straight arms. I'll be watching this thread... maybe phil will pop up or someone else.

 

[IRON37]

best way I know how to describe it is that your delts follow your elbow, not the wrists. Straight armed or bent either way its workin the delt. Just angle it right and youre good

 

[jrs]

useless exercise, IMO

once i started focusing on heavy presses and lots of upper back work, my shoulders grew to look like softballs. same with anybody i've trained.

 

[617ricky]

Everybody's totally different I guess the way they respond.. I recently stopped doing presses in favor of side raises, after reading about all the Hernon trainees saying they get way better results with them.. They were saying that presses don't do much since shoulders already get hit hard enough w/ other exercises like bench presses, especially if you do inclines.. And seeing as I don't like shoulder presses I figured I'd give it a shot.. I still do upright rows tho

 

[Knight9]

its prob more like a 120-135 degree angle...and you come up with a slight bend forward and as you are raising your arms out and up you pretend you are pouring out gallon jugs of water.
hope this helps if not i can try to go into more detail but to me it makes sense.


i dont know what the previous poster meant about upper back work developing his medial heads?


take a look at my avi....it works lol

 

[engbulldog]

the way i do them is a little weird but they work for me!! i sit on a flat bench w/ my legs flat on the bench and a slight bend at the elbow and bring my arms tjust below parallel and hold for 2 sec and back down it takes all the cheating out of the movement and i get a nasty pump!!!

 

[Thor]

^^^^ WHAT THEY SAID^^^^

The last 2 responses are correct IMO, I have been doing them like this for years and it has really helped my delts, but I see all kinds of crazy ways that people do them, I asked one guy "What the hell excercise is that, chicken wing laterals" lol then I showed him how I do them and he was like " Oh yea, i feel that working the delts much more than my way" elbows are NOT straight but are also not bent much.

 

[RONJON]

well personally i bend arms just slightly..really try to concentrate on the feel and the squeeze at the top. And go slightly out in front with my arms so they are not really "straight" out to the sides

...^bump for more opinions on the best method and tips tho

 

[aeliop]

Try This

1. Try to duplicate the movement and position you're arms are in while doing the machine version of the excercise.
2. At the end of the movement pretend you are pouring a pitcher of water with you're wrist and hands thumbs pointing down.

 

[MSTR Painter]

Just do Triple-sets..10 to the front,the side and rear..You hit them from every angle at one time and and Damn the pump hurts..Try it
Just my opinion though

 

[tkav1980]

grab onto a pole, lean out, and flex the delt until the arm comes up. what a lateral raise is doing is taking the medial delt through its natural range of motion, the muscles job is to raise the elbow out to the side. thats all your doing here. what aeliop said is perfect use the same form and range of motion that a machine would allow for. that machine only moves in one plane. so should your shoulder. use a weight you can really rep out the first day and shove a ton of blood in there, this way youll be able to feel that muscle and get an idea of how you need to do this exercise. after the form is right its time to crush it with the weight.

 

[michelin]

the way i do them is a little weird but they work for me!! i sit on a flat bench w/ my legs flat on the bench and a slight bend at the elbow and bring my arms tjust below parallel and hold for 2 sec and back down it takes all the cheating out of the movement and i get a nasty pump!!!

I do them seated too bro but 1 arm at a time and never let the arm come all the way down. It keeps the tension and makes the medial delt burn like hell.
I find that you cant use a very heavy weight but I dont think you need to as the actually muscle were trying to isolate gets fried pretty quickly with correct form.

 

[xxsuprman22xx]

its prob more like a 120-135 degree angle...and you come up with a slight bend forward and as you are raising your arms out and up you pretend you are pouring out gallon jugs of water.

best i've ever heard this excercise described

 

[Designbuilt]

What everyone is saying about pretending to pour two gallons of milk is correct as far as the pronated grip on the dumbells.

What you should do is try it right now, with no weight just to imagine the lateral delts being worked. Just pretend to hold two dumbells in front of you,

I place my left foot forward for balance, and slightly bend the knees.
Lean slightly forwad, keeping the elbows slightly bent, bring them straight up on the sides until they are about as high as your chin, then back down,
too high may cause injury, as you come up, squeeze and feel the lateral head being worked, then slowly back down and repeat in a smooth, fluid motion.