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Exercise library · Shoulders

Lying lateral raise

Lateral raise for the shoulders with dumbbells.

How to do it

1 of 3

Lie on your side, dumbbell by your thigh

  1. Starting position

    Lie on your side with your legs slightly bent, support your head and hold a dumbbell by your upper thigh with an almost straight arm.

  2. The movement

    Raise your top arm in an arc until it points almost straight up, then lower the dumbbell slowly toward your thigh.

Most common mistake

Don't roll your body backward, keep your hips and shoulders stacked as your arm moves.

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Muscle group
Shoulders
Equipment
Dumbbells
Where
Home or gym
Logged as
Weight × reps

Muscles worked

The lying lateral raise trains your side delts, helped by the supraspinatus, one of the rotator cuff muscles. Lying on your side, the lever is longest when your arm rests along your body and shortest when it points at the ceiling, so the lift is hardest at the start and easiest at the end, the opposite of a standing lateral raise. Your body lies still, so there is no momentum to borrow, which makes the exercise very strict and calls for light dumbbells.

Common mistakes

  • Using a dumbbell that is too heavy. With the hardest point right at the start, most people manage far less here than in a standing lateral raise. Start with the lightest dumbbell and see how many controlled reps you get.
  • Taking your arm all the way to vertical. Pointing straight up, your arm carries the weight down through the joint and the muscle rests. Turn just before, while you still feel the dumbbell pulling.
  • Letting your arm drift in front of your body. The lift then becomes more of a front raise. Keep your arm in line with your body, or slightly in front, throughout the arc.

Variations and alternatives

  • The dumbbell lateral raise is hardest at the top and complements the lying version, so the whole movement gets resistance.
  • The cable lateral raise gives more even resistance and a weight that is easy to adjust.
  • The machine lateral raise trains both sides at once on a fixed path, good when you want to work close to failure.

Sets and reps

Do 12 to 20 reps per arm over two or three sets. It pairs well with standing lateral raises, for example two sets of each back to back, since they load different parts of the movement. How many sets you need is discussed in the guide to sets and reps.

The dumbbell can be very light, and starting with one or two kilos is no failure. Add reps first and change dumbbell once you hit the top of your range in each set, in line with progressive overload. To make the same weight harder, lift the dumbbell a hand's width off your thigh and hold it there for a second, where the resistance peaks.

Swap for

Taken, or missing the equipment? The same movement with something else.

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