women's health - DUMBBELL BENT ARM SIDE RAISE

STRENGTHENS

SHOULDERS (DELTOIDS), TRAPS

STARTING POSITION

Stand, holding dumbbells, with your feet together and your arms bent at your sides so that your elbows create a 90-degree angle. This means that the dumbbells are directly in front of your elbows (A).

MOVEMENT

Keeping your shoulders pressed down toward your hips, maintain a constant angle at your elbows and raise your arms out to the sides and up (B). HARD

Pause at the top with your arms parallel to the floor. Do this exercise in front of a mirror to make sure the dumbbells are positioned so that you cannot see your elbows.

Keeping your elbow angle the same, lower your arms back to the start (A). EASY

Why It’s Perfect for You

By performing this movement with your arms bent, you are better able to work against gravity to create roundness and definition in your shoulders.

Strength training is all about working against gravity. When your arms are in the straight position, they create a longer lever. This means that it is harder to get from point A to point B at any given weight. So a straight arm would require using lighter weights and therefore may not overload the deltoids sufficiently.