--- title: "Side delt exercises with dumbbells" description: "Lateral raises standing, seated, leaning and on an incline bench, plus upright rows. Technique on video and how to match the load to the variant." locale: en url: "https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/side-delts/dumbbell" count: 13 type: combo muscle: SIDE_DELT equipment: DUMBBELL --- # Side delt exercises with dumbbells A dumbbell is the default tool for the side delt, and the list shows it: almost all of it is lateral raises in one position after another, with the upright row filling in the rest. The reason is simple. This head abducts the arm, and a weight held in a hand hanging at your side is the shortest route to giving that abduction something to work against. The variants do not differ in movement pattern, only in two things: where in the arc the dumbbell starts to weigh anything, and how much help the rest of your body can add. When you choose, look at what you have within reach - open floor, an incline bench, the upright of a power rack - rather than at the name of the exercise. ## How many of these variants do you actually need? Realistically one, maybe a second as a supplement. The list looks long, but the lateral raise standing, seated, one arm, both arms and on a bench is still the same job for the shoulder joint. There is no difference here of the kind that separates a squat from a lunge - it is one movement shown in a lot of different setups. A second pick makes sense when it differs along an axis, not in a detail. The seated raise differs from the standing one in that the legs have no way to add momentum. The leaning version differs in where the resistance shows up. The single-arm version lets you hold onto something and work the sides separately. Two two-handed variants separated only by whether you sit on the bench or stand next to it add nothing new to a plan. The upright row stands apart. It is the only entry on this list where you can use a weight that means anything, because a bent elbow shortens the lever. The price is that the movement stops being isolated: the instructions say plainly to look for the work in the shoulders and upper back, and not to lean too hard on the biceps. ## What does torso position change? Standing gives you the most freedom and the most ways to help yourself. A small dip and drive of the knees or a nudge from the hips is enough to send the dumbbells up on their own, and it usually happens without a conscious decision, somewhere in the last reps. Sitting with your feet flat on the floor closes that door, which is why the weight you work with seated is a more honest number than the same weight on a standing raise. The other two positions go further. Leaning out to the side with one hand on a rack upright moves your arm across the line of your body, so the dumbbell has something to pull against from the very start rather than from halfway up; the cost is that one hand is holding on, so you work one side at a time. Lying chest-down on an incline bench takes away the torso's ability to move at all, and the cues for that one come down to keeping the body supported and letting the arms do the work. Once you hinge at the hips or lie face down, that same arc lands mostly on the rear delt. Hence the entries here labeled for rear delts: the side head still speaks up in them, which is why they show up on this list, but if the back of the shoulder is what you are after, it has its own list in the atlas and starting there makes more sense. ## Common mistakes - **A tilted wrist** - The lateral raise descriptions keep coming back to the same point, which is that the wrist stays in line with the forearm. Once the hand starts to bend and the dumbbell tips front-end down, the forearm takes over part of the work and the shoulder gets less than the number on the weight suggests. - **A swing on every rep** - Exactly one exercise on this list has instructions that call for a controlled swing, and it starts with the torso bent forward. In all the others that same sequence, straightening the torso as the arms come up, is precisely what the cues warn you about. - **The same dumbbell for every variant** - On a standing raise the first inches are close to free, while in the leaning version and on an incline bench the dumbbell has a lever arm from the very start. Carry a weight across from one to the other unchanged and it usually ends in a shorter path or help from the torso. ## Progress the movement 1. **Do the jump as a percentage** - The next pair of dumbbells is usually 2 kg more in each hand. On a press that is a few percent. On a lateral raise done with a six or eight kilo dumbbell it is a quarter to a third of the load. Which is why waiting for the heavier pair is the worst idea right here. 2. **Take your own help away** - The same dumbbell raised standing, seated, and with your chest on an incline bench is three different levels of difficulty, because each position takes away one source of assistance: first the legs, then the torso. 3. **Move where the work begins** - The leaning version, done holding onto a power rack, sets your arm across the line of your body, so the dumbbell has leverage from the first inch. The loaded part of the arc gets longer while the weight stays the same. ## All Side delt exercises with dumbbells - [Lateral Raises Dumbbell](https://hi.fitness/exercises/lateral-raises-dumbbell) - Side delts · Dumbbell - [Dumbbell Seated Lateral Raise](https://hi.fitness/exercises/dumbbell-seated-lateral-raise) - Side delts · Dumbbell - [Upright Row Dumbbell](https://hi.fitness/exercises/upright-row-dumbbell) - Side delts · Dumbbell - [Dumbbell One Arm Lateral Raise](https://hi.fitness/exercises/dumbbell-one-arm-lateral-raise) - Side delts · Dumbbell - [Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raise](https://hi.fitness/exercises/leaning-dumbbell-lateral-raise) - Side delts · Dumbbell - [Incline Lateral Raises Dumbbell](https://hi.fitness/exercises/incline-lateral-raises-dumbbell) - Side delts · Dumbbell - [Dumbbell Incline One Arm Lateral Raise](https://hi.fitness/exercises/dumbbell-incline-one-arm-lateral-raise) - Side delts · Dumbbell - [Dumbbell Lateral to Front Raise](https://hi.fitness/exercises/dumbbell-lateral-to-front-raise) - Side delts · Dumbbell - [Dumbbell Bent Arm Lateral Raise](https://hi.fitness/exercises/dumbbell-bent-arm-lateral-raise) - Side delts · Dumbbell - [Lateral Raises Dumbbell Seated with Swing](https://hi.fitness/exercises/lateral-raises-dumbbell-seated-with-swing) - Side delts · Dumbbell - [Dumbbell Armpit Row](https://hi.fitness/exercises/dumbbell-armpit-row) - Side delts · Dumbbell - [Dumbbell Side Lying One Hand Raise](https://hi.fitness/exercises/dumbbell-side-lying-one-hand-raise) - Side delts · Dumbbell - [Dumbbell Leaning Fly](https://hi.fitness/exercises/dumbbell-leaning-fly) - Side delts · Dumbbell