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7 Lateral Raise Alternatives & Variations At Home

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Why do bodybuilders want to do lateral raises at the beach?

To make waves with their shoulder gains!

Hi- my name is Steve Theunissen.

I suck at gym Dad jokes.

I do, however, know a thing or two about lateral raises… and more importantly lateral raise alternatives.

Over my 35 years as a personal trainer, I have found the dumbbell lateral raise to be the most difficult to perfect and easy to abuse exercise of them all.

I’ve seen dozens of clients mess up their rotator cuffs by doing them wrong.

But if you want rounded, thick shoulders, you’ve got to work each of the three deltoid heads. Of the three, it is the side (aka medial, or lateral) head that will add the most width to your shoulders.

Most people think the best exercise to achieve that result is the side lateral raise.

However, thanks to the sloppy form of tons of clients I had to experiment with alternatives… that still build muscle effectively… but are far safer.

In this article, I’ll lay out my favorite lateral raise alternatives that allow you to control the movement to effectively work your medial deltoid head.


The Problem with the Dumbbell Lateral Raise

The lateral raise is most commonly done with dumbbells. Unfortunately, though, the dumbbell side lateral raise is one of the most badly executed exercises you’ll see in the gym. 

People tend to use weights that are far too heavy for the small medial deltoid head. As a result, they end up swinging the weight, throwing their hips into the movement and failing to resist the downward pull of gravity on the descent.

The lift shouldn’t be aided by momentum. It’s cheating, and egos don’t build muscle… work does.

All of those things will, at best, neutralize the effort that you’re putting into the exercise. At worst, they’ll throw your back out or give you some other muscular injury. That could put you out of action for weeks. 

Fortunately, you have other options. 

Before we move on to the best dumbbell lateral raise alternatives, let’s look at how to do the exercise properly:

Proper Dumbbell Lateral Raise Form:

  1. Stand up straight with your feet shoulder-width apart and a pair of dumbbells held at your sides (not in front of your body). Use a light weight that will allow you to control the descent. Your arms should be straight. Pull your shoulder back and pinch the shoulder blades together.
  2. Pivoting from the shoulder brings your arms up and out to the side until they are parallel to the floor ( no higher).
  3. Lower slowly, resisting the pull of gravity.
  4. Stop at the end of the rep so that you do not allow momentum to carry you into the next rep.
Lateral Raise Alternative Muscles Used

How I Selected The Dumbbell Lateral Raise Alternatives

In researching this article, I checked out some other websites that list side lateral alternatives. I wasn’t surprised to find a mish-mash of exercises that target not just the medial deltoid head, but also the posterior and anterior heads.

But I was a little taken aback to find exercises thrown in that don’t even work the shoulders at all.

You won’t find any of that sloppiness when you read a Strong Home Gym alternative exercise article.

In selecting the exercises that we include, we ensure that they target the same muscle group (and in this case, the same muscle head) and that they move through the same plane and range of motion.

So, before we can launch into our alternative exercises, we need to understand how the medial deltoid head works and what its function is. 

Medial Deltoid Head Anatomy

The deltoid muscle is different from other multi-headed muscle groups in the body.

It is an extremely complex muscle group with dozens of muscles surrounding it as you can see below…

Muscles around the shoulder

But more importantly, it’s more complex than the triceps or quads because the three heads that make up the deltoid muscle each have different points of origin.

Shoulder Muscles Simplified (5 muscles)

That means that you have to do different exercises to work each of these heads. 

You don’t have to do that with a muscle like the triceps, which has the same origin and insertion points for each muscle head.

Research proves that different exercises greatly affect the activation of the different parts of the shoulder.

Think of pulling a rope that is fixed to a single anchor point. Even though the rope is made of three different strands, they all pull together. Now imagine that the three strands of the rope are fixed to different anchor points.

When you pull the rope you will only engage the strand that is directly opposite to your direction of pull. 

It’s the same with the deltoids. To work the medial deltoid head you need to move it in a direction that corresponds to the muscle fiber direction.

These fibers originate on the outer edge of the acromion process on the scapula and insert on the deltoid tuberosity at the base of the humerus, or upper arm bone. 

When the medial deltoid contracts, or shortens, it brings the muscle insertion upward toward the origin. The movement that is created is known as ‘lateral abduction of the humerus’. In layman’s terms this is raising the arms to the sides. 

So, raising the arms to the sides is the ideal anatomical motion of the lateral deltoid, with the arm moving laterally from the side of the body up to a point where the arm is almost perpendicular to the torso.

It should not go higher than that.

By that point, the lateral deltoid is fully contracted.


Equipment Needed for the Lateral Raise Alternatives (and Variations)


7 Dumbbell Lateral Raise Variations That Help Prevent Cheating!

Lateral Raise Alternative  (Cable and Variations) -  Infographic part 1

1. Unilateral Cable Lateral Raise

Equipment needed for exercise:

  • Cable pulley machine

How to do exercise:

  1. Set the pulley on a cable pulley machine at ankle height. Stand side on to the machine and grab the handle in your outside hand. 
  2. From a starting position with your hand resting alongside your thigh and keeping their arm straight, pivot from the shoulder to bring the arm up to a perpendicular position (no higher).
  3. Lower the weight under control back to the starting position (do not let  it drift into the centerline of the body). 
  4. Repeat for the required number of reps. 

Exercise muscles worked:

  • Medial deltoid
  • Trapezius
  • Anterior deltoid

2. Band Lateral Raise

Equipment needed for exercise:

How to do exercise:

  1. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and a resistance secured under your left midfoot. Grab the end of the band with your right hand and hold it alongside your outer thigh. Adjust so that the band is taut in this starting position.
  2. Keeping the arm straight, pivot from the shoulder to bring the arm up to a perpendicular position (no higher).
  3. Lower the weight under control back to the starting position (do not let adrift into the centerline of the body). 
  4. Repeat for the required number of reps. 

Exercise muscles worked:

  • Medial deltoid
  • Trapezius
  • Anterior deltoid

Note: Check out our push exercises article for more shoulder-targeting exercise ideas.


3. Machine Side Lateral Raise 

Equipment needed for exercise:

  • Side lateral machine

How to do exercise:

  1. Sit on a side lateral machine, facing forward. Position the seat so that your shoulder joint is in line with the machine’s pivot point. Place your elbows under the pads.
  2. Keeping your spine neutral and your back up against the back pad, press up through the elbows to bring the pads up to a perpendicular position.
  3. Lower under control and repeat.

Exercise muscles worked:

  • Medial deltoid
  • Trapezius
  • Anterior deltoid

Considering ditching your gym membership and buying an all-in-one home gym? Check our analysis of the 11 best all-in-one home gyms on the current market. 


4. Lateral Raise Hold

Equipment needed for exercise:

SMRFT Nüobell 80LB Adjustable Dumbbells

SMRFT Nüobell 80LB Classic
Read our best adjustable dumbbell guide here

These are the dumbbells we recommend for ‘most people’.

We have spent over 50 hours of research and compared over 100 dumbbells. Adjustable dumbbells make sense for most home gyms as they save space.

The Nüobell dumbbells go all the way to 80lbs per hand. This means they are much more versatile than most 50lbs adjustable dumbbells. You can use these for heavy shrugs, squats and bench press etc.

The main reason they are the top pick is because of their shape. They actually feel like real dumbbells and are not awkward to lift like some others.

How to do exercise:

  1. Stand up straight with your feet shoulder width apart and a pair of dumbbells held at your sides (not in front of your body). Use a light weight that will allow you to control the descent. Your arms should be straight. Pull your shoulder back and pinch the shoulder blades together.
  2. Pivoting from the shoulder, bring your arms up and out to the side until they are parallel to the floor ( no higher).
  3. Hold for three seconds in this top position. This will help to eliminate momentum on the descent. 
  4. Lower under control 
  5. Stop at the end of the rep so that you do not allow momentum to carry you into the next rep. 

Exercise muscles worked:

  • Medial deltoid
  • Trapezius
  • Anterior deltoid

Note: if you enjoy using dumbbells to target your shoulders, check out our rear delt dumbbell exercises as well.


Lateral Raise Alternative  (Cable and Variations) - Infographic part 2

5. Landmine Lateral Raise

Equipment needed for exercise:

  • Landmine device (you can even use a cut in a tennis ball)
  • Olympic Barbell

Rogue Ohio Cerakote Bar

Rogue Ohio Bar Cerakote
Read our best Olympic barbell guide here

This is the bar that we recommend for ‘most people’.

We have spent over 120 hours of research and tested over 100 barbells.

It is affordable but comes with some high specs. The Rogue Work Hardening and 190k PSI tensile strength mean the bar will last a lifetime in a home gym.

It is a multi-purpose bar with a 28.5mm diameter shaft and composite bushings in the sleeves. This means it’s balanced for heavy slow bench presses but you can also perform snatches and fast overhead lifts.

How to do exercise:

  1. Load a barbell into a landmine attachment. I recommend using just the weight of a loaded barbell to start with.
  2. Grab the end of the barbell in your right hand and stand side-on to the landmine anchor point. In the starting position your hand shoulder is in front of your groin.
  3. Without bending at the elbow, pivot at the shoulder to bring your arm out in an arc until your hand is at shoulder level.
  4. Lower under control and repeat.

Exercise muscles worked:

  • Medial deltoid
  • Trapezius
  • Anterior deltoid

6. Wall Press Lateral Raise

By pressing your other hand into the wall, you are minimizing the ability to cheat by using momentum. It also promotes greater tension in both deltoids. 

Equipment needed for exercise:

How to do exercise:

  1. Stand side on to a wall with your inside hand pressing into it. Hold a dumbbell into the other hand alongside your thigh. 
  2. Pivoting from the shoulder brings your arms up and out to the side until they are parallel to the floor ( no higher).
  3. Lower slowly, resisting the pull of gravity.
  4. Stop at the end of the rep so that you do not allow momentum to carry you into the next rep. 

Exercise muscles worked:

  • Medial deltoid
  • Trapezius
  • Anterior deltoid

7. Y Raise

Equipment needed for exercise:

How to do exercise:

  1. Set the weight bench to a 45-degree angle and lie face down on it with a pair of dumbbells in your hands. Hang your arms down over the edge of the bench.
  2. Keeping your arms straight, bring them out on an angler to form a ‘Y’ shape in the top position. 
  3. Lower under control and repeat. 

Exercise muscles worked:

  • Medial deltoid
  • Trapezius
  • Anterior deltoid

REP AB-3000 Bench

REP AB-3000 Weight Bench
Read our best weight bench guide here

This is the weight bench we recommend for ‘most people’.

We compared over 70 benches against 12 criteria. This is our highest-ranked flat, incline & decline (FID) bench.

Some adjustable benches can be a bit wobbly when on the incline. But the AB-3000 is very sturdy.

With a height 18mm it’s comparable to benches that cost twice as much.


Lateral Raise Alternatives: The Bottom Line

When it comes to targeting the medial deltoid head, your choices are very limited. That’s because the job of this part of the deltoid is simply to raise the arm to the side. 

With such a limited role, only exercises that laterally abduct the shoulders are included in the list. In this article, I’ve provided you with seven variations of the standard dumbbell side lateral raise that help to eliminate momentum and produce a purer movement. 

When you’ve tried these exercises out and decided on your favorites, add them to your shoulder workout to cover the medical delt portion, Use a range of reps from a high of 30 down to a low of 10 (any lower than that and you will struggle to control the weight).

Check out our shoulder exercises if you’re looking for a complete shoulder program to work all three deltoid heads.

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Steve is a certified personal trainer, current home gym owner, former gym owner, and copywriter. He joined his first gym at age 15 and, five years later, he was managing his own studio. In 1987, he became the first personal fitness trainer in New Zealand.

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