maratoolStanding Low-Pulley Deltoid Raise
How to do the standing low-pulley deltoid raise
- Start by standing to the right side of a low pulley row. Use your left hand to come across the body and grab a single handle attached to the low pulley with a pronated grip (palms facing down). Rest your arm in front of you. Your right hand should grab the machine for better support and balance.
- Make sure that your back is erect and your feet are shoulder width apart from each other. This is the starting position.
- Begin to use the left hand and come across your body out until it is elevated to shoulder height while exhaling.
- Feel the contraction at the top for a second and begin to slowly lower the handle back down to the original starting position while inhaling.
- 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.
Even with a single joint doing the moving, the muscle is not working alone — the forearms hold the grip, which is often what gives out first.
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
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:
- Standing Military Pressbarbell
- Standing Palm-In One-Arm Dumbbell Pressdumbbell
- Standing Two-Arm Overhead Throwmedicine ball
- Two-Arm Kettlebell Cleankettlebell
- Back Flyes - With Bandsband
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.