maratoolOne-Arm Side Laterals
How to do the one-arm side laterals
- Pick a dumbbell and place it in one of your hands. Your non lifting hand should be used to grab something steady such as an incline bench press. Lean towards your lifting arm and away from the hand that is gripping the incline bench as this will allow you to keep your balance.
- Stand with a straight torso and have the dumbbell by your side at arm's length with the palm of the hand facing you. This will be your starting position.
- While maintaining the torso stationary (no swinging), lift the dumbbell to your side with a slight bend on the elbow and your hand slightly tilted forward as if pouring water in a glass. Continue to go up until you arm is parallel to the floor. Exhale as you execute this movement and pause for a second at the top.
- Lower the dumbbell back down slowly to the starting position as you inhale.
- Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
- Switch arms and repeat the exercise.
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:
- Push Press - Behind the Neckbarbell
- Return Push from Stancemedicine ball
- Reverse Machine Flyesmachine
- Seated Cable Shoulder Presscable
- Seated Front Deltoidbody only
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.