Lateral Raises With Cables

Lateral raises are a highly effective exercise for the deltoids. The exercise is traditionally performed using dumbbells, but you can do a variation with cables. The advantage of using cables is keeping constant tension on your muscles the entire range of motion. Constant tension means there is no pause in the tension in your muscles, making the exercise more challenging. You can perform several variations of the lateral raise depending on which part of the deltoids you want to focus on. Do one to two variations per shoulder workout.

  1. Standing Lateral Raise

    • The most basic of the lateral raise exercises is the standing version, which mainly works your anterior deltoids, lateral deltoids and the supraspinatus muscle of your rotator cuff. Begin by standing in between two cable pulleys and setting them to a low position close to the height of your knees. Grip the right cable handle with your left hand and the left handle with your right hand. Stand in the middle of the pulleys and hold the handles in front of your thighs, keeping your arms slightly bent. Raise your arms out and away from your sides, with the handles going in a crisscross motion. Once your arms are parallel to the ground, stop and return them down to the initial point.

    Standing Lateral-Raise Variations

    • To place more emphasis on your upper trapezius, the muscles located by the sides of your neck, raise your arms past the parallel point when doing the standing cable lateral raise. You only need to raise you arms a little higher than parallel to the ground to better engage your upper traps. Another variation you can do is the unilateral standing cable lateral raise. This version of the exercise allows you to work on a single side at a time, which is recommended if one side of your body, specifically one side of your deltoids, is weaker than the other.

    Bent-Over Lateral Raise

    • An additional variation you can execute is the bent-over cable lateral raise. This variation mainly targets your lateral and posterior deltoids, along with the infraspinatus and teres minor muscles of your rotator cuff. To do this exercise, get in the same standing position as the standing cable lateral raise, bend your knees just so slightly and lean forward so your back is parallel to the ground. Then, raise your arms away from your sides just like you did in the standing version of the exercise. You can go past the parallel-to-the-ground arm position if you want to better involve the middle and lower trapezius muscles of your back.

    Sets and Reps

    • Never use heavy weights or jerk the cable handles upward when doing the cable lateral raise to help prevent shoulder injury. Rather, use a moderate resistance with which you can do 10 to 15 reps. Perform three sets per lateral raise exercise and do up to two variations per shoulder workout. Each repetition should last between 3 and 5 seconds. For example, take 2 seconds on the way up, take a 1-second pause at the top and then take 2 seconds on the way down.