maratoolDumbbell Raise
How to do the dumbbell raise
- Grab a dumbbell in each arm and stand up straight with your arms extended by your sides with a slight bend at the elbows and your back straight. This will be your starting position. Tip: The dumbbell should be next to your thighs with the palm of your hands facing back.
- Use your side shoulders to lift the dumbbells as you exhale. The dumbbells should be to the side of the body as you move them up. Continue to lift it until the dumbbells are nearly in line with your chin. Tip: Your elbows should drive the motion. As you lift the dumbbell, your elbow should always be higher than your forearm. Also, keep your torso stationary and pause for a second at the top of the movement.
- Lower the dumbbells back down slowly to the starting position. Inhale as you perform this portion of the movement.
- Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the deltoids, which raise and rotate the upper arm at the shoulder joint.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the biceps add force at the elbow.
How this movement works
The load travels toward you and several joints bend to bring it there. The arms finish work the back starts, so grip and elbow flexors sit in the path of every repetition: when people stall on a compound pull, it is more often the hands giving out than the primary muscle running out of force.
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:
- External Rotation with Bandband
- External Rotation with Cablecable
- Handstand Push-Upsbody only
- Jerk Balancebarbell
- Kettlebell Arnold Presskettlebell
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.