Exercise Profile
- Target Muscle Group
- Exercise TypeStrength
- Equipment RequiredExercise Ball
- MechanicsIsolation
- Force TypePull
- Experience LevelIntermediate
- Secondary Muscles
None
Target Muscle Group
Shoulders
Exercise Ball Lateral Raise Overview
The exercise ball lateral raise is a lateral raise variation and is used to strengthen the muscles of the shoulder.
The use of an exercise ball instead of a bench provides a unique challenge as the exercise ball forces you to engage your core muscles to stabilize the weight.
Exercise Ball Lateral Raise Instructions
- Grab a pair of dumbbells with a neutral grip and sit on the center of an exercise ball with your feet around shoulder width apart.
- Inhale, engage your core, and slowly raise the dumbbells to around shoulder height.
- Pause, then slowly lower the dumbbell back to the starting position.
- Repeat for desired reps.
Exercise Ball Lateral Raise Tips
- Focus on keeping the reps slow and controlled. Because this is an isolation exercise, the focus should be on correctly working the muscle - not moving as much weight as possible.
- Don't bring your arms up too high - up to shoulder height is far enough.
- If you encounter pain in the shoulder while performing the movement, consider implementing one of the following tweaks:
- Tilt your pinkies slightly higher than your thumbs. Imagine you’re pouring out a cup of water.
- Turn your palms forward so that your thumbs are pointing away from your body. This will put the shoulder in a more externally rotated position and potentially open up the shoulder joint to allow for a bit more movement.
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