Today we're going to break down the Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise to see exactly how you're

supposed to perform this,

at least if you want to have longevity in the gym and get your Shoulders to grow at

the same time.

My biggest problem with this exercise is going to fly contradictory to what most people will

ever tell you about how to perform the exercise

but I promise you I will justify the reason why I tell you how to do it.

Ok, the one that you'll see and the one that people will tell you to do all the time is

if you want to target the Medial Head of your Shoulders you have to act like you're pouring

pitchers of water.

So at the top of the exercise you should feel as if you're pouring a pitcher of water, ok.

They say that in order to activate your Medial Delt you have to have internal rotation of

your Shoulder

which is accomplished by having your pinkie up higher than your thumb.

Does that produce internal rotation of your Shoulder?

100% Yes it does.

Is that a good thing for you to do? Especially when you're elevating your arm up here?

As a Physical Therapist, Professional Athletes especially Baseball players and anybody that

has to throw overhead,

that is a horrible position for them.

And not just them but it's for you also because over time is this going to get you, right

now in the next workout that you do? NO.

Is it going to get you over time? 99 times out of 100, in fact you don't even have to

use weights if you repetitively do this motion,

internal rotation with elevation of the Shoulder, you're going to get eventual breakdown almost

every single time.

Again the variation of the time it takes to cause the breakdown, is going to change from

person to person.

It might take 20 years on one person, it might take 2 months on somebody else.

It all depends upon the shape of your own anatomy inside your Shoulder but that motion

combination is not a good thing.

Why do they tell you to do that?

Well I'll tell you this, the Medial Delt is not, not even one of it's first 4 functions,

is it to internally rotate the Shoulder.

That's not what it does guys.

It has many other primary functions, not among them is internal rotation of the Shoulder.

So doing this is not really part of the main function of the Medial Delt.

So why are we told to do this?

It's really simple guys, I actually broke out the marker to show you what's going on,

to draw on my own self and get on my Medial Delt.

Now here this is representing the Medial Deltoid, here we have the Front Delt right in through

here,

and we've got our Rear Delt back in through, but in here, I've drawn as best as I could,

the Medial Delt.

When I stand upright and let's assume I have decent posture,.

If I'm here and I'm getting ready to do a Side Lateral Raise, when I raise my Arm up

to the side here,

again right in this frontal plane, look at the position of the Medial Delt.

You can see that it's angled backwards, ok, it's angled back here.

We know from some of our other videos here, putting the Science Back in Strength,

that in order to really work the muscle optimally, you want to have it perpendicular to the line

of force

and we know the line of force is going to work down on our Arm here which is gravity.

And for the Medial Delt to be positioned, you know right perpendicular to gravity here,

we know that when we do this, we're actually getting, not really absorbing that full line

of force.

So if we internally rotate our Shoulder, ok it has nothing to do with wrist positioning

guys,

because I can actually take my Arm and just turn my Wrist but nothing's going on at my

Arm, right here in my Shoulder.

That's internal rotation of the Shoulder joint, that's external rotation, ok.

This is just pronation and supination of the your Forearm.

So we're talking about actually internal rotation, that's why they tell you to turn the pitcher

of water.

If I do that, now when my Arm is down, ok now you can see I've turned the Medial Delt

into a position that's more favorable against gravity.

So now when I come up, now you can see that at the very top, it is taking on the brunt

of the force of gravity coming down.

The problem with this, is again it leads to the impingement issues that I already told

you about.

Over time, again some people it's going to hurt right away, others it's going to take

a lot of, lot of repetitions.

A lot of times guys will use lighter weights when they do their Side Lateral Raises anyway

which could lend itself to a lot of repetitions, ok.

So what we want to do is we want to do the opposite.

We want to externally rotate our Shoulder to clear the head of the Humerus from the

Acromion,

which is the bone inside the Shoulder that winds up compressing against the Supraspinatus

Tendon

which is what gets pinched in there when we have impingement.

Impingement is by far the number one mality when it comes to Shoulders and the injuries

that guys face

when they're in the gym or just competitive Athletes or again even in just the sport of

life,

guys out there who for a living, have to put their arms up over their head a lot,

that position will cause the impingement right there in that Supraspinatus Tendon.

So, we can do something better, if we externally rotate the Shoulders, if we go the opposite

way,

and we say don't worry about pouring the pitchers but turn your hands the other way, externally

rotate the Shoulder.

Ok, not that but that, guess what, we've already cleared the Humerus now

and gotten rid of 99% of the impingement problems that can come from that exercise,

and all you have to do is make a real simple switch in your posture to make sure that we're

still working that muscle against gravity.

And it's as simple as this, lean forward just a little bit, now that I'm leaning forward

a little bit when I externally rotate my Arm here,

you can see that I still have this squarely against the force of gravity here.

So I've got the benefit of thumb up position at the top, as opposed to internal rotation

thumbs down,

and I'm still getting the brunt of the force right there on the Medial Delt.

It makes a lot of sense and it's just a smarter way to do it.

Can you do them the old fashioned way, can you continue to pour your pitchers?

Go for it guys, I don't care what you do. It's all up to you how you want to do it.

I'm telling you from a Physical Therapist standpoint, understanding the anatomy of the

Shoulder,

you're way better off, it's a way smarter move to still get the benefits of the exercise,

to still stimulate the Medial Delt, if you're trying to in this exercise.

But without having to have the concerns of doing the exercise in a position that your

Shoulders just don't flat out like

because of the anatomy of your own Shoulder joint. Whew! How was that.

Guys, I'm telling you there's some things that you have to understand when you approach

your training.

And not understanding them can lead to a world of hurt.

And it's not, all the time something that you're going to feel and pop and it's going

to happen right away.

But if we're in this, we should be in this for the long haul, you should be looking to

train for the long time.

That's what we're about here at ATHLEANX. Putting the Science Back in Strength.

So this is not just a short term Sprint but helping you to get results for lifetime.

Because a lot of guys that wind up starting this, wind up loving this and they continue

to see results.

They want to train for a long time and stay healthy for as long as they possibly can.

Guys, I've mentioned Major League Baseball, we actually have a Joint Formula that Major

Baseball players are taking right now.

Actually some of the best teams in Baseball currently in first place are taking ATHLEAN

MECHAN-X as an NSF Certified product.

It's available at ATHLEANRX.COM.

If you're having or dealing with joint problems because maybe you've done this exercise the

wrong way for a long period of time?

You might be able to start having an opportunity to start fixing what's going on in there

and get back to the game again and start training again the way you want to.

In the meantime if you're looking for a training program that trains your body the right way.

As a Physical Therapist creating the workouts that your body will respond to the best but

also respect the limits that your body has,

guys head to AHLEANX.COM. All of our programs are written that way.

There's a heavy dose of attention paid to your Rotator Cuffs as well as the big show

muscles too.

Guys I'll see you back here in just a couple days.

I hope you found this video helpful, in the meantime let me know.

Leave your comments and thumbs up below and I will make more of the PT bases videos if

you want to see them.