It can be tough to really get a good feel for the side delts working when doing lateral raises.
There is a strong tendency for you to engage the traps and shrug your shoulders up to perform the exercise.
The key thing to remember with laterals is that the goal is not to just move the weight...it's to FEEL the side delts doing the work.
To accomplish that, instead of gripping on the dumbbell handles, you'll grip over the ENDS of the dumbbells. You'll need small hex dumbbells for this - I'm using a pair of 10's.
Because of how this exercise works, you don't need much weight.
Stand the dumbbells on end on the floor then grip over top of the ends with the handles coming in between your third and fourth fingers. Your thumbs will be pushing against the butt ends of the dumbbells (because they'll be pushing up from the bottom during the raise).
You'll be holding the dumbbells vertically at the bottom.
Now, before you start the raise, do a wrist extension with the dumbbells. This tilts the ends of the dumbbells up and to the sides.
This changes the mechanics of the exercise at the shoulder joint.
Instead of PULLING the dumbbells up (as you would with a regular lateral raise), which can create a tendency to use the traps to heave the weight up, this turns it into almost a "PUSH."
That's what you'll want to visualize as you're doing the lateral raise...don't pull the dumbbells up... PUSH the non-gripped ends of the dumbbells up and around like you're scooping out the inside of a big bowl with them.
Biomechanically, this tends to keep the shoulder blades down (scapular depression), which activates the LOWER traps, which keeps the UPPER traps from bringing the shoulder blades up to assist with the movement.
Here's a side view of how I'm holding the dumbbells.
Again, this is not a heavy movement...it's all about leverage and changing the mechanics of the exercise to better isolate the lateral delts.
Even a pair of 10's is going to challenge you when use leverage like this!
Need more side delt work? Another excellent lateral raise variation is the Barbell Lateral Raise.
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