Keeping your lower back in its natural arch, bend your hips back until your shoulders are just in front of them. Stretching seems to help abit .. I can the exercise use dumbbell, tubing or pulleys for resistance. I still have the feet at hip width the part, the core is activated, abducting the shoulder joint to the side, and coming back down. A 44-year-old member asked: how come i have extreme shoulder pain only during workout? You’re likely making at LEAST one of these five cardinal mistakes with this commonly butchered movement. In the case of leg raises, if you have pain in your abs, lower back, hip flexors, quads or obliques, back off a little. At the top of the movement, it looks like the person is trying to form the letter T. This full extension puts a heckuva lot of pressure on the elbow joints. By breaking up the kinetic chain and disassociating the synergistic function of the upper quadrant, comprised of the four shoulder joints, shoulder blade and thoracic spine, there is a likely chance of placing undue stress over the front side of the true shoulder (gleno-humeral) joint, aka common chronic front sided shoulder pain. When going lighter (as recommended) what’s an appropriate volume / frequency? The options are endless if you program with the right mindset. A common practice, especially in the old-school traditionalist bodybuilding community is to pin the shoulder blades against the back side of the thoracic cage and keep them isolated while the shoulder raise is completed . No one does that because they instinctively know that the lateral or "middle" head of the delts wouldn't be optimally stimulated, and that's what you're trying to target with dumbbell lateral raises. Laterals performed this way usually cause the exerciser too much shoulder pain to continue doing it. A lot of my rotator cuff clients complain about rotator cuff pain with the lateral raise exercise. -Dr. John Rusin, Position yourself for success on your setup. Your shoulders are popping from lateral raises due to one or a combination of the following reasons: Scapula instability; Lack of warmups; Bad posture; rounded shoulders; Overuse, not enough rest; Genetically suboptimal acromion Works great! You can see these movements in the video above featuring a posterior view of the dumbbell lateral raise. Many people with shoulder dysfunction find a sharp pain when they reach the top part of a lateral raise. Do you have shoulder pain during Lateral Raises? It looks like the exact opposite in the video attached.. typo? “This authentic scapular movement during the lateral raise will consist of slight upward rotation, elevation and protraction of the shoulder blade upon raising the weights, and downward rotation, depression and retraction upon the eccentric descent.”. Simply put, the middle and posterior aspects of the deltoid are highly “slow-twitch” in terms of fiber type, which means they will respond optimally to more reps, more volume and a metabolic pump effect. With the dumbbell being at a long distance away from the shoulder, it ends up putting 10 times the force through the rotator cuff compared to the weight it is. But don’t you need maximal loading to grow and get strong? If you’re experiencing pain during pressing and other direct shoulder training exercises, check out THIS article to intelligently train around the pain. While nearly every loaded movement in the weight room can be improved by tapping into the power of the “irradiation effect” which transmits force and activation throughout the kinetic chain during a movement to enhance stability and dynamic strength, the lateral raise is not your average movement. It doesn’t take long for any new trainee to try it in a routine. That means that little, and even no extra emphasis should be placed on this muscular region. lateral or side lateral—is one of the most common shoulder exercises. The movement of lateral raise is abduction of the shoulder joint (glenohumeral joint). I’ve honestly never done that but it makes a ton of sense and adheres to many of the “rules” that I touched upon in this article! Though many lifters attempt to execute the lateral shoulder raise properly, one of the limiting factors that many unknowingly run into is the proper positional setup for this movement. Dr. John Rusin is an internationally recognized coach, physical therapist, speaker, and writer, whose published over 300 articles in some of the most widely regarded media outlets in the industry like Men’s Fitness, Testosterone Nation, Mountain Dog Diet, Bodybuilding.com, and Muscle and Strength, to name a few. Protraction upon raising and retraction upon lowering? On top of that, if you do the lateral raise properly (no swinging at the bottom where there's no resistance and you can easily speed up), you won't be using a lot of weight, which also decreases the amount of muscle damage. If the only thing that you achieve by cranking out endless sets of dumbbell lateral raises is broken down and achy shoulders, chances are you are training this movement totally wrong. This is especially true in those lifters and athletes with chronic aches and pains at the front and tops of their shoulders. Keeping the same grip now move your arms slowly sideways, left to right over your head. Take the lateral dumbbell raise. Stop squeezing the DBs to death! You can do this by bending your elbows to 90 degrees. It is common to experience a dull aching in the shoulder, with severe pain when raising the arm laterally and into an overhead position. Well, what about the anterior delts? Great advice here, John! He takes pride in offering uniquely customized programming to clients of all walks of life in the exact same detail and passion as the Pros! The most common way is with a dumbbell in each hand, with the palms facing downwards, or partially downwards and partially towards your front. The most common cause of pain on the outside of the elbow is known as Tennis elbow. It is better to gradually approach it by doing "one-leg raises" (with the other leg bent and supporting), making sure your abdominals are braced and the lower back is flat on the floor throughout. https://allamericanroughneck.comhttp://empiremediahouse.com/IfBB Pro Seth Feroce explains the Side Lateral Raise. But when placing an emphasis on mastering movements and achieving a maximal muscular training effect while minimizing joint stress, we must depend on a proper setup to set the stage for proper dynamic execution. -Dr. John Rusin, Train the shoulders for “feel” not inflating your ego with max weights. What you can do is decreasing the lever arm of the lateral raise exercise. No, and here’s why max loading on the shoulders may even leave you injured…. The lateral raise—a.k.a. If your upper arms are moving above parallel, you're going too … -Dr. John Rusin, 12-Week Functional Hypertrophy Training Program, Ancient Answers For Shoulder Health & Longevity, Top 20 Plyometrics For Speed, Power and Performance, Top 30 Battle Rope Exercises For Power, Strength & Endurance. To develop and maintain pain-free shoulders, it’s an absolute necessity to allow your shoulder blades to move authentically during the lateral raise movement. This puts you in position for your side delts to work optimally as you raise your arms. The clicks are a result of a muscle or tendon moving abnormally over a bone. When using a pre-fatigue like the video above, focus on constant tension movements executed in a slow and controlled manor before the lateral raise. Tennis Elbow. Neglected inflammation can result in tendon weakening and … This will open up the hand and reduce the hands ability to grip hard, which is exactly what we want to target the shoulders in this movement more directly. Before you throw away the lateral raise for good deeming it an “inherently dangerous” movement for the shoulders, you better do your homework and clean up your technique, execution and general mindset when training this movement. Occasionally, you'll see someone doing lateral raises with their arms locked out to full extension. To get the very most out of the lateral raise, we must key in on the detailed execution of each aspect of the lift. Find the lightest band in the gym, preferably the bands with the plastic handles at the ends, and complete dynamic lateral raises against the accommodating resistance that will naturally decelerate the movement at the top of the range. However, there are a number of other injuries which result in pain over the outside of the elbow. Teach your shoulder blades to move authentically. So here’s what to do instead, train the shoulders for a nasty pump using smart exercise choices and intelligent pairings like this banded over and back / dumbbell lateral raise superset that increases time under tension and cumulative fatigue, all while minimizing load and increasing training effect. To develop and maintain pain-free shoulders, it’s an absolute necessity to allow your shoulder blades to move authentically during the lateral raise movement. Lateral raises can be performed both standing or seated, but the former recruits more muscles, Neilson explains, making it the preferable option. SEE ALSO: 5 Worst Things to Do When Building Bigger Shoulders. Since we all love bench pressing so damn much, the anterior delts are actually loaded hard and heavy secondary to many pushing based exercises including the bench and push ups. Dr. John’s 12-Week Functional Hypertrophy Training Program is now available to you. To avoid over-stressing the front side of the shoulder, allow your shoulder blades to move freely against the thoracic cage. The only problem with exploding up the weights on the lateral raise is an inherent risk of injury at the top of the range where joint stability is lost and unwanted range of motion is extended. Whatever exercise you're doing, it's never a good idea to lock out a joint. The smaller the muscle group and the more isolated the movement, you’ll need to control, setup and activate with more focus to get the most out of your pain-free training. If you're doing the hanging version, try the incline version. So if you can set your ego aside, use lighter loads and avoid gripping the hell out of the dumbbells during the lateral raise, this will create a more powerful muscular training effect at the delts. The effectiveness of any movement in the gym is dependent on the tempo and rhythm of an exercise, not just moving a weight from point A to point B. Still, the simple, common exercise can cause problems if you don’t follow biomechanical and clinical guidelines when yo perform it. The deltoid are made up of three distinct heads that surround the true shoulder joint also known as the gleno-humeral joint. This article is amazing, I have been dealing with sudden onset deltoid pain for over 8 months and doing this ever so slight variation makes exercising pain free! If you're using ankle weights, take them off. The most fundamental exercise to bring up lagging medial (side) delts is the lateral raise. In this video, Lindsay Bloom is combining 5 pound traditional dumbbells with 3 pound blue rubber bells to load 8 pounds per hand which is exactly where she wants to be for 12 pristinely executed reps. Remember, though we don’t want too much tension through the upper extremity and shoulder during the lateral raise, leaning to generate torque and tension at the shoulder can be very helpful for many other lifts. Check how high you're raising the dumbbells. However, doing any kind of exercise can put you at risk of back pain or injury, especially if you're out of shape or not used to exercising. The sooner you appreciate that the shoulders should NOT be trained with heavy ass weight and ultra high intensity, the healthier your shoulders will become. While this may theoretically place more isolation on the middle aspect of the delt during the lateral raise movement, there’s also a pretty significant downside. That’s a really smart move! Without making this a movement based anatomy lesson in shoulder biomechanics and function, you can easily perfect this movement by thinking “smooth and controlled” in both the raising and lowering portions of this lift. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 30 years experience Orthopedic Surgery. If your hip pops when doing leg lifts, you might have snapping hip syndrome. From this position, ensure that your core is braced and spine is in neutral. Before I talk about what  you can do to relieve lateral raise rotator cuff pain, let me explain why I do the lateral raise exercise with my rotator cuff clients. 5 Soothing Hip Stretches You Can Do Right In Bed, © All Rights Reserved. He claimed that bending the wrists was a far more effective way of performing the exercise. Jumping right into a difficult exercise that your body isn't ready for can cause pain in the muscle you work, as well as all of the muscles that support the movement. Avoid Internal rotationhumerus during shoulder abdductionAs it is increase stress on supra spinatus tendon, Wow! When your upper arms travel past this position, the tension leaves the lateral head of the shoulder and is shifted onto your upper traps instead. Pair the slightly bent-over lateral raise I discussed previously with the bent-over dumbbell rear delt raise in a superset to hammer the lateral, posterior, and intermediary aspects of the deltoids, which are commonly neglected regions of the shoulder complex. Before the initiation of the lateral raise, we must first ensure that our body is positioned with perfect tension throughout. Lifting too much: Probably lifting too heavy and could have an injury that needs to be checked. If your goal is to develop muscular delts, you must first focus on keeping your shoulders healthy for the long run. This condition can be managed conservatively with NSAIDs, glucocorticoid injection and physical therapy. Full range of motion would involve bringing the weights all the way up so that the back of your hands almost touch above your head. Need some more ideas for superset pairings with bands? They allow for smaller incremental increases of load. ==> CLICK HERE for Rotator Cuff Exercise Modification for the Lateral Raise Exercise. THANKS. Lifting Your Upper Arms Above Parallel To The Floor. I’m just curious what the reasons are that make the athletic stance pain free? Lateral elbow pain refers to pain on the outside of the elbow. Hope the description makes sense. Due to the fact that the lateral raise is viewed as a simple isolated shoulder movement, it’s easy to brush off the importance of the position of the rest of the body during this movement. A common practice, especially in the old-school traditionalist bodybuilding community is to pin the shoulder blades against the back side of the thoracic cage and keep them isolated while the shoulder raise is completed. But as you’ve most likely seen, not squeezing is easier said than done. The coaching cue “squeeze hard” during the dumbbell lateral raise can actually take the emphasis away from the middle delts in which we are attempting to isolate with this movement, and placing it into the bigger, stronger muscles of the upper extremity. Dr. David Bailie answered. SHOULDER POPPING DURING LATERAL RAISES. You may do normal shit then have one incidence which irritates it to start the swelling and then normal daily activities are additive. Send thanks to the doctor . Copyright 2020 Dr. John Rusin. Let’s quickly go over the anatomy of your lateral hip to help you better understand how this injury occurs. Let me quickly review the technique of a lateral raise: – Stance is hip width apart with toes pointing straight ahead, – Head is in neutral position or eyes are looking straight ahead, – Abduct the arms from 0 degrees to 85 degrees (just below shoulder height). Not only does the swing prove to be hard on the fulcrum point at the lower back in which the momentum is generated, but it can also increase sub-acromial impingement syndrome, once again eliciting a pain response deep into the front side of the shoulder.