What Muscles Do Cable Lateral Raises Work?

Cable lateral raises, also called cable workouts, is an exceptional exercise involving cables that target the side deltoid muscles. Regular cable workouts can offer you a muscular and healthy back. If you are serious about developing a strong muscular body, then you need to include this workout in your daily exercise routine.

People looking to build their shoulder muscles can check out this exercise form. In this article, we’ll be providing a complete guide to this workout, different variations of this exercise form, tips and techniques from experts along with frequently asked questions to clear all your doubts about this workout. Let’s quickly jump into the article:

Types of Cable Lateral Raise.

This workout has many variations, including:
• Cable Side Lateral Raise
• Standing version
• Single-arm version

Cable Side Lateral Raise.

It is an exceptional workout that primarily helps in strengthening your shoulder muscles. The exercise can help in isolating the deltoid muscle lateral muscles to develop a big, powerful, and broader shoulders.

All you need to do this workout is a cable. Mostly lateral raise workouts are included with upper-body and strength training routines. These exercises are better when performed after you complete your compound workouts.

To perform a cable side lateral exercise,

• Stand near a weight pulley equipment
• Ensure your body is parallel to the equipment
• Grab the handle of the pulley with your outside arm stretching across the body
• Use the hand close to equipment to grab the machine for added support
• Ensure the outstretched arm that grabs the pulley is in line with your shoulder
• Then release the arm and do this repeatedly

Standing Cable Lateral Raise.

The next variation is a bit difficult than the side lateral raise one. Here you will be using both of your hands for the workout. This workout also requires you to keep your legs stable as you will be using both the hands for pulling the weight.

To perform this workout:

1. While you need a single weight pulley equipment for the cable side lateral raise, here you need two of those machines.
2. To get started, stand in between the two equipment
3. Ensure you are at a comfortable distance between these two machines so that you can pull the weights easily
4. Now use the opposite arms to pull the weigh. It means using the left arm to pull the weight in the right-hand side and use the right arm to pull the weight on the left-hand side.
5. In other words, your hands should be crossed
6. Now pull the weights and slowly extend the arms
7. Repeat it for 8-10 times

Single-arm Version.

This is another variation of the lateral raise workouts that also is mainly targeted towards your shoulder muscles. With this workout, you can easily concentrate on one side separately.

To perform this workout:

• You need a single weight pulley machine for this exercise
• Stand next to the equipment and use the outside hand to reach to the pulley
• Slowly grab the handle and extend your arm
• Ensure you bend the elbow slightly when you are extending your arm
• Slowly release the pulley to the original position
• Repeat it for 8-10 times
• Ensure you adjust the weights accordingly

Cable Lateral Raise Form – Tips & Techniques.

While the cable side raises is one of the best exercises for your shoulders, care should be taken to perform the exercise properly. Below you can find some tips and techniques to help you perform laterals exercises properly.

Single-arm Lateral Raise

If you are having some deltoid contraction issues or want to want to build strength to one arm, then you can use a single-arm version. This not only helps the muscle growth in the arm but also increases the stability and flexibility as well. And any imbalance in the arms will also get rectified in no time.

Avoid Momentum.

One can reap the maximum benefits from this lateral cable raises workout, if the exercise is done in a controlled manner. Fitness experts recommend to know your limits and capabilities and not to push beyond that as will turn dangerous to your health.

At the Top, Hold.

If you are a person looking to experiment with your side lateral raise workout routines or increase the intensity, then you can do one thing. When your arm is stretched to the maximum, hold the position for a minimum of 5-10 seconds.

This will not only ensure the strengthening of your muscles, but will also make your muscles more balanced and flexible than before. Holding the position at the maximum is better than adding more weights

Rotate the Wrist.

To increase the involvement of your lateral deltoid muscles, you can also rotate the wrists while lifting the weights.

Use Straps.

If you have slippery hands, you can even strap your hands to the pulley handle to add more grip to your pull. Wet or oily hands will deter your concentration from the exercise and get your focus turned towards keeping the handle safe in your hands.

Safety.

Another important tip that everyone should have in mind is to keep it safe and secure all the time. Ensure that you always choose the right kind of weight as any misjudgment could prove detrimental. Check out videos about how to do the workout properly.
If you think that you are not doing it correctly or feel uncomfortable, better switch to lighter weights. Remember, no one can be a better judge than yourself when it comes to judging your capabilities.

If you want to experiment, instead of adding more weight, try out other variations like side lateral raise or single-arm lateral raise, etc. If you still feel any discomfort, then better windup your routine for the day, take some rest, and continue from the next day onwards.

Frequently Asked Questions.

What muscles get worked with these kinds of cable shoulder workouts?
The lateral shoulder raise workouts mainly help in providing an exceptional workout for your traps and deltoids.

What Is Unique About This Lateral Arm Raises?

This is an excellent workout that not only strengthens your body but also helps in conditioning it. It is also great for providing good exercise for your neck, upper body, neck, and shoulders. It works wonders for people aged above 50.

What Are The Alternatives To These Lateral Raise Workouts?

There are various alternatives to these lateral raise workouts, including the plank, chin up, bicycle crunches, dumbbell lateral raise, windmill, etc.

Conclusion

If you are looking to create your shoulders strong and powerful like boulders, then check out these excellent workouts for your traps and deltoids. It involves very little movements and is very much simple to work out.

Then, all you need to do is grab the weights and extend your arms to your shoulder level, lower it, and repeat the process. So, this may sound simple, but the workout is hard and requires a lot of stamina to do at least 2-3 sets of 8-10 repetitions.

If you are a beginner, better go with lighter weights, as some may find it difficult to extend your arm even with lesser weights.

I hope the above article has provided you with all the information needed about cable lateral raise workouts. Please provide your comments and suggestions in the feedback section below.