The lateral raise can be a tough exercise to really feel working strongly.
This is especially because of the temptation to use too heavy a weight and add in too much body movement to get that weight moving.
That's where this variation comes into play.
I call it a Tick Tock Lateral Raise because of the clock-like nature of the movement. Instead of doing both arms at the same time (as you normally would), or even one arm at a time (which is still prone to cheating), you're going to do OPPOSING movements.
In other words, while you're raising one arm, you'll be lowering the other.
This opposing action completely prevents any sort of body hitching or cheating because if you try to hitch one dumbbell up, it screws up the other side.
When you're trying this for the first time, start light.
Begin with both arms down.
Now do a lateral raise with your left arm. Come up until your upper arm is almost horizontal, while you maintain a small bend in your elbow (15-20 degrees or so).
Now as you lower the left one down, begin the raise with the right arm at the same rate of speed.
Continue raising until your right upper arm is almost horizontal.
You'll see in the picture, the bend in the elbow means the forearm and dumbbell are higher than shoulder height...the key is to look at the position and location of the UPPER arm. Now come down with the right and up with the left.
Do this in CONTINUOUS fashion...no pause at the top or the bottom. This will ensure constant tension on the lateral delts and ZERO body movement.
And as weird as it looks (the video shows it the best), it will light up your side delts very effectively by taking all the extra movement out of the exercise.
Another excellent lateral raise variation is the Barbell Lateral Raise.
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