Band Lateral Raise Guide: Muscles Worked, How-To, Benefits, and Variations

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If you want to build half-moon-shaped delts at home, or on the go, then you need to get well acquainted with band lateral raises, and resistance bands in general… the ultimate budget and minimalist training tool. But make no mistake, if you know how to use them effectively, you can achieve gains a notch below other training methods like cables, and weights, (we will explain this drawback of bands later on). 

If you need an alternative way to stimulate growth in your shoulders and improve your v-taper, then this guide will be a helpful resource for you. Keep reading to learn about lateral delts anatomy, how to accurately perform band raises, benefits you can expect, and the best variations, alternative, and optimal sets and reps.

How To Do Band Lateral Raises 

When it comes to exercise technique, the more experienced you are, the more you can modify an exercise to your liking. But for people just starting out, it’s better to get the basics down, to ensure you’re training a muscle properly, using a full range of motion, and keeping yourself pain and injury free. 

You can find detailed instructions with a video tutorial below. 

Steps 

1. Grab both ends of your resistance band and step on the center of it. Hold the ends of the band (where you grip it) together without stretching it, to make sure the bands are of equal length on both sides. Note: The closer your feet are to each other, the less resistance there will be and vice versa. You may need to do a few practice reps to find your optimal foot placement.
2. With your hands next to your outer thighs, stand up straight, bend your elbows slightly, breathe in, and brace your core.
3. Now raise both arms up laterally to your body, then stop when your hands are roughly shoulder level, or slightly higher. Keep your hands higher than your elbows. Breathe out during this phase of the rep. You should feel your outer delts contracting.
4. Slowly drop your arms to your sides but not all the way (a few inches away from your outer thighs), so that the band doesn’t lose its stretch. Breathe in, brace your core, and repeat.

Here’s a basic tutorial for anyone starting out. 

Tips

• Beginner exercisers will benefit most from starting with the lightest resistance band first. Focus on feeling the lateral delts work, and optimizing your form to avoid feeling pain in your shoulders.
• If you feel pain in your shoulders, rotate your forearms so that your thumbs are pointing up to the ceiling.
• If the resistance is too challenging when standing on the band with both feet, take one foot off the band. But still make sure both sides are even.

This Exercise:

• Target Muscle Group: Deltoid lateral
• Secondary Muscles: Deltoid anterior, serratus anterior, trapezius
• Type: Hypertrophy
• Mechanics: Isolation
• Equipment: Resistance band
• Difficulty: Intermediate

Muscles Worked

While primarily an exercise used to add muscle to your outer shoulder muscles, you’ll find that other muscles are involved in band lateral raises too. You can learn about their anatomy, and functional purpose in the following section.

Deltoid lateral

When viewed from the front, your lateral or outer deltoid muscles, along with the rear delts are what help to create the half moon shape on the upper arm, right above the triceps. If you want impressive upper arms, developing this head is non negotiable. 

Your side delts lift the arms up to either side of your body between 15-100 degrees, which is why lateral raises are most effective for targeting this head. 

Deltoid anterior 

Many exercisers find that the best way to perform lateral raises is to lift the dumbbells out but also slightly forward too. This engages the front delts, and it’s a good way to nail both heads at the same time. Although, of course, you want to focus more on the side delts. 

Serratus anterior 

The boxer’s muscle as they call it… your serratus anterior is actually a fan-shaped chest muscle (most of us never knew that) located in the rib area. Serratus anterior protracts the scapula, like when you throw a punch, and it works with the traps to lift objects overhead. 

Upper, middle, and lower trapezius

You may hear to “relax the traps” as to not involve them in lateral raises. But it’s almost impossible to not involve them to some extent. After all, they do help to move the scapula and arms up (upper traps), back (mid traps), and down (lower traps).

Benefits of Band Lateral Raises

Band and other lateral raise variations allow you to give special, detailed attention to your outer delts. Here’s why you need them. 

Want rounder delts? 

Yeah, we thought so…

While pressing movements are also good for building your shoulders, prioritized, progressive lateral raises are going to help you create that wow factor, and 3D look (especially if you focus on your rear delts too). The side deltoids are also what helps to create your best V-taper, and make your waist appear smaller. 

Related: How to Build a V-Taper – Training Guide and Nutrition Tips

Don’t have weights? No problem

Dumbbells can be expensive, and if you don’t train at a gym, you need alternatives. While we do have some out of the box bodyweight only band lateral raise variations for you later in this guide, bands are the most practical. They’re also more affordable, and portable. So you never have an excuse as to why you can train delts with limited equipment. 

But even if you train at a gym, you may be too exhausted from heavy presses and other movements to include a few sets of focused side lateral raises. You can also do them at home using your bands when you have free time. 

Drawbacks of Band Lateral Raises

There are a few potential negatives to consider when including band lateral raises in your workouts. However, none should deter you from doing them because they do have their place. 

Bands lack consistent resistance

A problem absent in free weights, cables, and machines, bands do not provide the same challenge throughout the entirety of a repetition. The aformentioned tools are superior if you train at a gym, but having access to them is not always possible. And that’s okay! All tools can be valuable, and you can always use heavier bands. Plus, the more advanced you are, the more you can make bands work in your training program. 

Can’t see the numbers 

If you train at home, then the numbers don’t really matter as much as they do if you train at a gym, and are serious about tracking your poundages. With bands, you have to consider foot placement, hand placement, band quality, band wear and tear over time, etc. But you can note all of these things and make adjustments to maximize your band usage. 

Common Mistakes When Performing Band Lateral Raises

It’s normal that a beginner exerciser trains below their potential. But these guides are designed to help you avoid common mistakes, and get straight to the good stuff. 

Using bands that are too heavy 

It’s very common that exercisers, especially beginners use bands that are above their strength capabilities. If you’re stepping on the band with one foot and you are straining to raise your arms, you need a lighter band. You won’t make progress this way and you’ll mess up your shoulders. 

A lot of times, when people do band lateral raises, they don’t adjust their stance to give them an optimal workout. While we mentioned it before, move your feet closer together, or use one foot to lighten the resistance. If band raises are too easy for you, spread your feet out wider. 

7 Variations and Alternatives of Band Lateral Raises

Here are some different, yet similar exercise variations that mimic band lateral raises. They all work, and will give you more rounded delts. However, we love to use a variety of movements to prevent boredom, and stimulate the same muscles with a different technique, which should maximize your muscular potential. 

Single arm band lateral raise 

Some exercisers prefer single arm lateral raises because it allows them to focus their attention on one delt at a time. While you can just alternate raising your arms while standing on the band with both feet, you can do cross body lateral raises. To do it, you’ll step on the band with either foot, and then use the opposite side arm to perform the exercise. There are several different ways to do it. 

Dumbbell lateral raise 

Dumbbell lateral raises will always be a classic variation. But a big supposed form flaw is lowering the arms too far down, and taking tension off the delts. Instead, most experts recommend performing lateral raises in a sweet spot. 

You can also use weight plates, or anything two object of similar weight that you have lying around. 

Steps

1. Hold your dumbbells together in front of your body with your palms facing each other, and keep your elbows slightly bent.
2. Then bend your knees and hips, and lean your upper body slightly forward. Tense your core muscles for stability.
3. Now, raise your arms up and out to the sides until the weight is about head level. Keep your hands higher than your elbows. Slowly lower the weights back down and repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Cable lateral raise

In many ways, cable lateral raises are better than all of the other variations. It’s the combination of a numbered weight stack, constant muscle tension at every range of motion (if done correctly), various handle/attachment options, and freer range of movement than machines.

Step

1. Attach a single-grip handle to the lowest point of the cable pulley system.
2. Stand sideways to the cable pulley and grip the handle with the outside hand.
3. Either hold onto the cable system and lean away from it or take a step away and remain upright. The cable should have tension before you begin.
4. Hold the handle in front of or behind your body so that you feel a slight stretch in the delts.
5. With elbows slightly bent, raise your arm to shoulder level, leading with the elbow.
6. Slowly lower your arm back down until you feel a stretch in your delts and repeat. Don’t forget to do both sides.

Machine lateral raise 

The best option if you don’t want to think too much, just select the weight and go. Lateral raise machines typically have arms with handles that move in a predetermined path, so you don’t have to stabilize the weight. If your gym has one of these machines, we see no reason not to use it. 

Bodyweight wall side delt raise

If you don’t have weights, try this variation, as well as the exercise listed below this one. They use just your body weight to train the side delts, but you have to do them correctly, otherwise you can hurt yourself. So, we only recommend them for those with some training experience, and a good understanding of proper form. 

Steps

1. Stand sideways to a wall with your feet together and roughly twelve inches away from the wall.
2. Then bend the arm closest to the wall at a roughly 90 to 45 degree angle, ball your fist, and lean your body against the wall. Keep your body upright.
3. Now tense your core muscles, and use your delts to push your body away from the wall. At this point, you can adjust your footing closer to the wall if it’s too hard, or move your feet farther away to make the exercise more challenging.
4. Complete the set by performing the desired number of reps, then switch sides and repeat. Make sure to alternate to train both sides equally.

You can also do this exercise on a rack or slippery surface like this example. 

Side plank lateral raise

A genius idea to train your side delts using your body weight, Jeff Cavaliere of the popular YouTube channel Athlean X introduced this gamechanging variation a few years ago, and it’s a keeper for sure. Rather than lift your arm away from your body, your body is rotating away from your arm. So it essentially does the same thing, just using opposite movement. And your core will also get a great workout. 

The drawback is that you need to be decently strong to move a portion of your body weight using your deltoids. There’s no lightening the load or picking the resistance. 

Steps

1. Get in a standard plank position, propped up on your forearms and toes. Your body should form a straight line from head to toe, and you should be looking straight down at the floor.
2. Now rotate your torso to either side while pushing your forearm into the ground. Your upper body should resemble a side plank.
3. Return to a standard plank position, but don’t touch the other forearm to the floor. Repeat for the chosen number of reps and switch sides, and do the same thing.

Pro tip: Collapse your body to your left or right side, allowing your body weight to fall onto either shoulder during the negative phase of the exercise, if you want to stretch your delts, as shown in the video example below. 

Note: Because of the potential complexity of this variation, we highly recommend watching the following video demonstration, as this exercise can be hard to replicate via written instructions alone. 

Shoulder presses 

An alternative method of hammering your outer delts is to do overhead presses with your elbows mostly lateral to your body. This guide will show you proper overhead pressing technique for building insane shoulders. 

FAQs

Check out the following questions and answers section below, to help you program band lateral raises effectively.  

Wrapping Up

If you want impressive delts that draw eyes, then you need to prioritize shoulder training. That means including isolation work, specifically in the form of lateral raise variations. If you can’t train at a gym, and need a simple, portable way to get the job done, look to resistance band lateral raises. 

They’re a great option for dialing in side delt gains, and you can always move up in band strength to continue making progress. Of course, bands do have their drawbacks, but they’re still worth every bit of use.