The front raise works your anterior deltoid, or the muscle on the front of your shoulder. It is sometimes called a lateral raise, which is out to the side of your body. Lateral raises work your lateral deltoid, or the portion of the deltoid muscle on the outside of your shoulder. Both portions of your deltoid remain active when pressing overhead. Consult a healthcare practitioner before beginning any exercise program.
Front Raise
The front raise is normally performed with dumbbells or barbells. A barbell allows you to use more weight while dumbbells give you more variety. By holding a barbell down at your waist with your palms facing down and your arms straight, simply raise the barbell until your arms are parallel to the ground, and then lower with control. Do not rock with your torso to generate power -- if you need to do this, you should reduce the weight.
Dumbbell Front Raise
Training with dumbbells gives you a bit more variety. You can change the angle of your hands so that you are either using a pronated, or palms-down grip, or rotate your hands until your palms face in towards your body. You may perform this exercise using either both dumbbells at the same time or one dumbbell at a time. You can also start with your palms facing in and twist the dumbbells on the way up so that your palms face down at the top of the movement. Use the same cautions you would when using a barbell.
Lateral Raise
To perform a lateral raise, hold dumbbells down at your sides with your palms facing in. Raise your arms until they are parallel to the ground, then lower under control. Do not lean forward and rock the weight up, if you must do this, you are training too heavy. Keep your elbows straight or slightly bent during this exercise, but regardless of the angle, your wrists should never be higher than your elbows at the top of the movement.
Variations
Stand in front of a cable weight stack while facing away. Grip the handle with your palm facing down and raise your arm like you were doing a dumbbell front raise. You can position yourself so that you can do a lateral raise in the same manner but while you are at a 90-degree angle to the machine. You can also use a resistance band instead of a cable, which gets harder to do because the resistance increases the further you raise your arm.
References
- "Strength Training Anatomy -- Third Edition"; Frederic Delavier; 2010
- "The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding : The Bible of Bodybuilding, Fully Updated and Revised"; Arnold Schwarzenegger, et al.; 1999
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