Broader shoulders enhance your physique, balance your proportions, and create a powerful silhouette. Whether your goal is aesthetics, strength, or improved posture, building up your side delts is essential if you want visually wider shoulders that accentuate your figure.
If you’re serious about sculpting broader shoulders that command presence in and out of the gym, you’re in the right place. This guide covers the 10 best exercises to target your lateral deltoids, expert tips, and common mistakes to avoid.
Anatomy of the Delts Explained
Your shoulders might look like a single muscle group, but they’re actually made up of three distinct sections working together to control arm movement, support pressing and pulling, and shape your upper body.
Anterior (Front) Delts
These sit at the front of your shoulders and kick in during pushing movements like overhead presses or chest work. While they often get plenty of attention during compound lifts, targeted work can help build upper-body strength and stability.
Lateral (Side) Delts
The lateral or side delts are the focus for broader shoulders and our guide. The lateral delts are responsible for lifting your arms out to the sides and are key for creating that coveted "capped" look. Isolating this area gives your upper body width and shape, especially when viewed from the front.
Posterior (Rear) Delts
Located at the back of your shoulders, the rear delts help with pulling movements and posture. They're often undertrained, which can lead to muscular imbalances. Balanced shoulder development means training all three heads. Even if your goal is width, rear delts still support muscle symmetry and function.
Side Delt Training Tips
Remember these tips during workouts to ensure you get the most out of the right muscles.
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Choose the Right Balance of Compound and Isolation Exercises
Compound lifts build strength by recruiting different muscles, but don’t spend all your time on moves like overhead presses. Isolation moves are vital if you want to zero in on growing your side delts, so add in moves like lateral raises when you can.
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Focus on Abduction, Avoid External Rotation
The lateral delts are responsible for arm abduction (raising your arms to the sides). Prioritize movements that follow this pattern and avoid exercises that emphasize external rotation, which shift the focus away from the side delts and onto other shoulder muscles. Your time matters, so use it wisely.
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Train Side Delts Early in Your Workout
Lateral delts are smaller muscles, so they can fatigue quickly. Training them early, when your energy and focus are highest, helps you lift with better form and intensity. Putting them first instead of last ensures your side delts get the attention they need before larger compound lifts take over and your muscles get fatigued, making it harder to lift.
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Keep Tension in the Right Place
Avoid letting your arms drop fully or rest at your sides between reps. Instead, maintain a slight elevation to your elbow to keep continuous tension on the side delts. You’ll feel this subtle tweak, as it can significantly boost muscle activation and reduce any momentum that reduces the load on the target area.
The 10 Best Side Delt Exercises
Ready to feel the burn in your side delts? Integrate these 10 side delt exercises into your weekly split to get the look you want and the strength behind it.
1. Side Lateral Raises
You can’t go wrong with dumbbell or cable side lateral raises when you want to isolate the lateral delts.
Stand tall with a dumbbell in each hand, your arms relaxed at your sides, and your elbows bent slightly.
Raise your arms outward until they’re parallel to the floor, keeping palms facing the ground. Pause at the top for a second to maximize the muscle contraction.
Control the descent. Avoid shrugging or swinging for momentum.
2. Side Plank With Arm Raise
Remember when we discussed the importance of isolating and compound movements in your workout? Here’s a compound bodyweight shoulder move that hits the side delts while firing up your core and stabilizers.
Start in a side plank on your forearm with your top arm holding a light dumbbell. Focus on keeping the lower side of your core lifted from the floor in a straight line. Draw your belly button to your spine for core engagement and proper body alignment.
Slowly raise your arm until it’s perpendicular to your torso, then lower with control.
You can modify by dropping your bottom knee to the ground for extra support if needed.
3. Cable Lateral Raise
This variation uses a cable machine like the Speediance Gym Monster 2 to maintain constant tension, which helps target the delts through the full range of motion. Cable exercises are a great way to train the shoulders.
Use the lowest pulley setting and attach a single handle. Stand perpendicular to the machine, grab the handle with your outside arm, and raise it out to shoulder height, keeping your palm facing down.
Lower slowly, crossing the body slightly at the bottom to get a deeper stretch in the muscle.
Watch your form with this one. Stand with your weight slightly forward and brace your core to keep your form correct.
4. Seated Dumbbell Lateral Raise
If you’re prone to using momentum during lateral raises, this variation will challenge you in a new way. Seated raises eliminate momentum and force your side delts to carry the load.
Sit upright on a bench with dumbbells at your sides. Engage your core and raise both arms outward until parallel with the floor, then lower under control. If your bench has a back, place it in a 90º setting and press your back against it.
Pro Tip: Lift with your elbows, not your hands.
5. Incline Lateral Raise (on Bench)
A bench helps lock your body in the proper form and position and minimizes compensation with other muscles like your back or traps. Incline raises target side delts, minimize momentum, and improve mind-muscle connection.
Lie face down on an incline bench, dumbbells hanging straight down. Create a gentle elbow bend, lift your arms up and out to the sides until they align with your shoulders, then lower slowly.
Keep a slow tempo throughout to maximize the tension. If you want to add more focus to the move, try it one arm at a time.
6. Cable Y-Raise
This is a stability-focused lateral delt move with added upper trap and serratus engagement.
Using a dual cable setup, grab each handle and step forward.
With your arms extended, raise them upward and slightly forward into a “Y” shape. Keep tension as you return to start.
Light weight is more than okay here. What matters is your form and angle.
7. Resistance Band Lateral Raise
This is an excellent portable alternative with variable resistance when you need a good delt workout on the go, though you can also perform it with a cable machine. Just make sure the band has the right level of tension—too much, and you won’t be able to lift it; too little, and you won’t get enough engagement.
Stand on the band with your feet at a shoulder-width distance, holding the handles at your sides.
Raise your arms to shoulder level, maintaining tension at the top. Lower slowly to keep muscles engaged.
Pro Tip: Loop the band around each foot for added resistance without needing heavier bands.
8. Seated Reverse Grip Lateral Raise
The seated reverse grip lateral raise (with palms facing up) keeps the movement controlled and effective when you want strict rear delt isolation without relying on momentum.
Sit tall and grip the handles with your palms facing upwards.
Raise your arms outward to shoulder height, hold briefly, then return slowly and with control to boost hypertrophy.
9. Seated Single-Arm Lateral Raise
This variation limits momentum and keeps constant tension on the side delts, making it ideal for focused hypertrophy.
Sit sideways on a bench next to a cable machine, holding the handle with the arm furthest from the stack. Keep your torso upright and engaged.
With a slight bend in your elbow, raise the handle directly out to the side until your arm reaches shoulder height.
Lead with your elbow and keep your wrist slightly below it.
Control it back down, keeping the motion smooth.
10. Upright Row
Using a wide grip in this upright row helps bias the lateral delts over the traps.
Hold a barbell or dumbbells with your hands wider than shoulder-width. Pull the weight up to just below your chest. Let your elbows lead and keep them higher than your wrists. Lower slowly.
While hand position matters, you should focus more on elbow height for this move to maintain lateral delt activation.
You can also use the Speediance Gym Monster 2 for a cable variation of this move.
Side Delt Exercises: 3 Common Mistakes
When performing the above exercises, look closely at your form to spot these three common shoulder workout mistakes and fix them immediately.
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Swinging the Weight
Swinging the weight can help you lift heavier, but you’re sacrificing form and muscle activation. These moves are meant to be slow and controlled without momentum. You’re lifting, not swinging.
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Shrugging and Activating Traps
If your weight is too heavy, you may overcompensate by shrugging your shoulders to raise the weight and activate your traps. If side delts are your true focus, you want to avoid shrugging as much as possible. Drop weight if needed. Form matters more than load.
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Lifting Higher Than Shoulder Level
Lifting higher than shoulder height can happen when swinging. It doesn’t make the move harder for your side delts; it just adds unnecessary strain to your body and moves into your traps. Go no further than shoulder height or just below it to keep the right muscles activated.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the Best Exercise for Side Delts?
The best exercise for side delts is a lateral raise, as it isolates them. You can try several variations of this movement: with cables, lying on your side, lying down at an incline, with a resistance band, etc. Explore them all to see what works best for you.
How Do You Focus On Side Delts?
You can focus on side delts by practicing movements that lift your arms up and to the side. Lateral raises are one of the best exercises to strengthen the lateral head of the delts, so try some different variations and use the mind-muscle connection to drive the contraction.
How Many Exercises Do You Need for Side Delts?
Adding 2-3 side delt exercises to your upper body workout can help train your side delts effectively. If you’re a beginner, 1-2 exercises may be sufficient. Use proper form and engage your mind-muscle connection to get the most out of the moves.
Side Delt Training Builds Width, Defines Shape, and Improves Symmetry
A wider shoulder area creates the look of an hourglass, defining your waist and creating broadness across the top to accentuate your form. That broadness comes from the lateral delts, so it’s essential to isolate them with a couple of movements during your workouts if growth there is your goal.
Lateral raises are a true classic, but you can switch them up with variations or other side delt isolating movements that we outlined above. Whether working out in a gym or using your Speediance Gym Monster 2 at home, incorporating more side delt work will create the broad-look results you’re after.
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