Muscles Targeted: The standing dumbbell alternating raises really hit the middle part of the deltoids very well. You have 3 parts to your deltoid muscles which include the frontal deltoids, medial “middle” deltoids and the rear deltoids. Your trapezius muscles also come into play with this exercise. The standing dumbbell alternating raises are more of a shaping movement versus of a mass builder like the barbell shoulder press. Your goal is to really focus on proper exercise technique and feel the deltoid muscles working during the movement. By alternating your arms on each repetition, you are able to really put your focus on each deltoid independently. This is a great exercise to use at the end of your shoulder workout after you have completed several sets of a multi-joint mass building exercise like the dumbbell or barbell shoulder press. You do not need to use a lot of weight with the standing dumbbell alternating raises, so shoot for a little higher repetition range of between 12-15 reps per set.
Exercise Advice: Start this exercise with your feet positioned in a shoulder width stance with a slight bend in your knees. Start with a very light pair of dumbbells and hold one in each hand. Slowly raise one arm up to the top position which will be about eye level. You want to avoid going too far above eye level since this could cause excess stress on your rotator cuff and it begins to work more of your trapezius muscles when you go too high. While you’re raising your arm, you should keep a very slight bend in your elbow. You do not want to keep your elbows locked out and straight during this exercise. From the top position, slowly lower the weight back down to the starting position and repeat with your other arm. The entire range of motion should always be slow and controlled in order to perform the exercise correctly and to place the optimal amount of stress directly on the deltoid muscles.
Things To Avoid: One of the main things you want to avoid with this exercise is swinging the weight with your back. When people use too much weight, they tend to bend at the waist and use their back and momentum to swing the weight up to the top position. Do not do this! If you start swinging the weight, the dumbbells you’re using are way too heavy. Decrease the weight and focus on your form in order to avoid injury. Another common issue is not raising the dumbbell high enough to the top position. The dumbbell should come up to about eye level. If you are raising the dumbbell to chest level, it’s too short of a movement. Raise it a little higher to really stress the deltoids. On the other hand, you do not want to raise the weight too high either. If the dumbbell is going above your head, its way too high and you’re stressing your rotator cuff and trapezius muscles too much. Focus on eye level at the top to make sure your performing the exercise correctly.
Reps and Sets: Since this is more of a shaping movement versus a mass builder, you want to use a lighter weight and higher repetitions in the range of 12-15 reps per set. Shoot for 2-3 sets for this specific exercise and your overall total sets for your entire shoulder workout should be in the range of 6-8 sets for the best results. Since your shoulders are a medium-sized muscle group, you don’t need to blast them with 15-20 sets per workout. This is overkill and you will end up overtraining your shoulders and your gains will stop since your muscles will not have enough time to recover and grow. Remember, hit it hard with intense, short workouts and then get out of the gym to rest, recover and grow. Also, make sure you rest enough in between your sets. Your goal should be to fully recover before starting your next set and the usual rest time is between 2-3 minutes. If you have a stop watch, wear it during your workout to monitor your overall workout time and your rest time in between sets. Your total weight training workout should never go longer than 45 minutes. If you’re doing cardio, make sure you always do cardio after your weight workout (not before weights). The main reason for this is because you want to use your glycogen (carbs) for your intense weight training workout and then after you burn off all your carbs during your weight workout, you can move onto your cardio workout and target your fat stores for the main energy source to burn. If you do cardio before weights, you will burn up all your carbs (glycogen) during cardio and then when you start your weight lifting workout, you will be out of energy since all of your carbs have already been burned up. So, remember to always do weights first and then do cardio at the end.
Other Exercises To Use: The standing dumbbell alternating raises are a great exercise to use at the end of your shoulder workout as a shaping movement. A couple other great exercises to include are the Seated Barbell Military Press and the Standing Front Dumbbell Deltoid Raises. Your goal should be to include several different exercises that hit all 3 heads of the deltoid muscles. This includes the front, middle and rear parts of the deltoids. On your first mass building exercise, like the seated dumbbell press, you should focus on heavier weight and lower reps (6-8 reps per set) to build maximum muscle. Then use lighter weight, higher rep shaping movements like the standing dumbbell alternating raises at the end of your workout to really burn out your shoulders. Focus on working your shoulders only once per week for maximum results. Since you will also be working your shoulders as a secondary muscle on your chest workout day, you will stimulating your deltoids several times during the week. Only one main shoulder workout per week will be enough to pack on muscle mass and really develop impressive deltoids!
