Exercise Tutorial: Front Raises
Table of Contents
What Are Front Raises
Front Raises, also known as Dumbbell Front Raises, is an alternative to the Lateral Raise. This upper body exercise targets the shoulders to build strength, muscular size and is an isolation exercise for shoulder flexion.
How to Do Front Raises
The Front Raise has a very similar setup to the Lateral Raises however, instead of raising the weight out to our sides, we are raising it straight out in front of us, hence the name Front Raises.
See these instructions for more detail:
Begin by standing in a comfortable stance, with feet about hip-width apart, with a slight bend in the knee while holding light dumbbells in front of your thighs, palms facing towards you
Pull your shoulders down and back and engage your core.
Raise your arms up straight out in front of you until they reach up to shoulder level
In a slow and controlled manner, lower the weights back down to your thighs
Front Raises Form
It’s important to keep form in mind when completing the Front Raise. First thing to note is that this NOT a swinging exercise where you use momentum to get the dumbbells up. This movement is to be performed in a controlled manner, not wildly swinging dumbbells which typically happens when fatigue sets in, and this can actually lead to injury.
By attempting to use momentum, it can cause you to arch your back and shrug your shoulders, two things in which we want to avoid. Throughout the movement, think about maintaining a nice flat back and keep your shoulders down and back. In other words, think about keeping your ears away from your shoulders. It’s also important to note that this isn’t an exercise to lift heavy, start out small and work your way up.
Why Are Front Raises Useful
Similar to Lateral Raises, Front Raises are a useful exercise that targets your shoulders to help improve your strength, power and size of your shoulders. Compared to the Lateral Raise, the Front Raise targets more of the anterior deltoids to increase strength and size in that front aspect of the shoulder and upper pecs.
This exercise can also be easily modified to suit your abilities and available equipment. For the less experienced clients, it can be done with bodyweight only, a resistance band, cables or light dumbbells. Or simply perform less reps/lower weight to build strength in this position and then slowly progress. The more experienced clients can perform more reps, use a heavier weight or try one of variations.
Front Raises are also useful because it can also help improve your shoulder range of motion and control in the top position as well as correct any asymmetries and muscle imbalances clients may have.
Front Raises Muscles Worked
Front Raises Variations
Cable Front Raises
The Front Cable Raise is similar to the traditional Front Raise, the only difference is that it’s being performed on the cable machine. This exercise can be performed either with one arm at a time or two-handed. Set up in front of the cable machine, facing away from the machine with the pully set at the lowest level. Hold the handles right next to the outside of your thighs, with palms facing behind you. Now just complete the Raise as you would normally by raising your arms up to shoulder level before returning it back down.
Alternating Single Arm Dumbbell Raise
This variation can be performed in one of two ways. The same way as the traditional Front Raise, but just performing it one arm at a time alternatively. The other way would be to keep one arm raised at the top position, holding it there as the other arm raises up and down for the desired number of reps before switching arms, to further challenge yourself.