maratoolAlternating Deltoid Raise
How to do the alternating deltoid raise
- In a standing position, hold a pair of dumbbells at your side.
- Keeping your elbows slightly bent, raise the weights directly in front of you to shoulder height, avoiding any swinging or cheating.
- Return the weights to your side.
- On the next repetition, raise the weights laterally, raising them out to your side to about shoulder height.
- Return the weights to the starting position and continue alternating to the front and side.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the deltoids, which raise and rotate the upper arm at the shoulder joint.
Every exercise for:Shoulders
How this movement works
One joint moves, and it moves the load away from the body. With nothing recruited to assist, the target muscle reaches its own limit rather than the limit of the weakest link in a chain — which makes this useful for adding volume after the heavy compound work, not for opening a session.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
Dumbbells let each side work on its own, surfacing a strength difference between limbs that a barbell would quietly cover for, and leaving the wrist free to rotate through the movement.
Every exercise using:Dumbbell
These train the shoulders too, using equipment this one does not:
- Alternating Kettlebell Presskettlebell
- Anti-Gravity Pressbarbell
- Back Flyes - With Bandsband
- Backward Medicine Ball Throwmedicine ball
- Ball Wall Circlesexercise ball
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 141 shoulders exercises in this database, 74 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.