maratoolSeated Rear Lateral Cable Raise
How to do the seated rear lateral cable raise
- Sit on the edge of a bench with your feet on the floor in front of you.
- Rest your chest on your thighs with your back straight, grasp the cable pulleys with opposite hands.
- Raise your upper arms to shoulder height. Pause at the top for a moment.
- Lower your arms to the starting position in a controlled motion.
- Repeat.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the deltoids, which raise and rotate the upper arm at the shoulder joint.
Even with a single joint doing the moving, the muscle is not working alone — the mid-back retracts the shoulder blades so the shoulder has something solid to work from; the traps anchor the shoulder blade against the load.
Every exercise for:ShouldersMiddle backTraps
How this movement works
One joint changes angle and the resistance travels toward you along a single arc. Nothing is positioned to help, so tension stays where you aimed it and the usable load drops sharply against a multi-joint pull for the same muscle. Protect the range of motion; buying weight by shortening the arc defeats the point.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
A cable holds tension for the whole range, including the point where a free weight would go slack. Moving the pulley changes the angle the resistance arrives from without changing the movement.
Every exercise using:Cable
These train the shoulders too, using equipment this one does not:
- Seated Side Lateral Raisedumbbell
- Shoulder Press - With Bandsband
- Single-Arm Linear Jammerbarbell
- Smith Machine One-Arm Upright Rowmachine
- Smith Machine Rear Deltoid Rowsmith machine
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.
Illustration: Everkinetic — CC BY-SA 4.0 — license. Modified versions are shared under the same license. Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.