# Lateral raises...what am i doing wrong?



## soliloquy (Sep 26, 2012)

so, fridays are my arm days. they consist of the normal stuff like military press with dumb bells, front raises, lateral raises, posterior raises, and bunch of exercises i've seen arnold do but have no names of 

regardless, they all go smoothly with the exception of lateral raises. my left shoulder is fine, but my right, if i focus on it, i can feel it shift unevenly rather than in a smooth transition. and quiet often it makes a popping sound kinda like the bone doesn't wanna go where down when i'm bringing it down.

the weights i do are usually not heavy. i try focusing on the 8-10 range with lateral raises, so its not super heavy. i do have a slight bend in my elbows.

the only thing i do slightly differently than what the videos suggest is i do one arm at a time rather than doing two. 

my shoulder gave me a slight bit of pain on friday, but it was fine as soon as i walked out of the gym. 


today i worked out my chest and upper back. while doing seated rows, i felt my shoulder kind of hurting a bit. i left the gym, and my shoulder has been hurting. and then about an hour ago, that part of the muscle would refuse to un-flex itself. almost as if thats the only part of my body that is hulking out 


and online methods keep mentioning something about pouring water and thumbs, but they really make no sense...

any help?

i'll go to the doctor tomorrow, but last few times i went to em regarding sport injuries, they had no idea what i was talking about. sports related injuries they dont understand too well. and their best advice is to just sleep it off :s (eg, i fucked up my spine at work with repetitive and heavy lifting. they said it'll be fine in a day or two. it lasted a year and a half...)


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## Uncreative123 (Sep 27, 2012)

soliloquy said:


> so, fridays are my arm days. they consist of the normal stuff like military press with dumb bells, front raises, lateral raises, posterior raises, and bunch of exercises i've seen arnold do but have no names of



You seem to be doing a lot of (only) shoulder exercises for an arm day, so let's just call it shoulder day. Also, not knowing the name of an exercise doesn't mean it doesn't have a name.



> regardless, they all go smoothly with the exception of lateral raises. my left shoulder is fine, but my right, if i focus on it, i can feel it shift unevenly rather than in a smooth transition. and quiet often it makes a popping sound kinda like the bone doesn't wanna go where down when i'm bringing it down.
> 
> the weights i do are usually not heavy. i try focusing on the 8-10 range with lateral raises, so its not super heavy. i do have a slight bend in my elbows.
> 
> ...



Couple of things- first and foremost you shouldn't be going to the doctor and it sounds like you already know that. I think Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. Go see a chiropractor or physiotherapist. I've said this countless times on this board. 

The 'popping/bone-grinding' isn't uncommon when doing lateral or front raises. There are a lot of underlying issues which cause it which is why you really need to see a physiotherapist to be diagnosed. Part of it can be genetic- there are three different types of of acromions (part of the scapula)







I was going to type a bunch of stuff out but that'd be a waste of time. if you want to read about it you can go here:

T NATION | Shoulder Savers - Part 1


Short answer would be don't go as high on your lateral raises. Look at the anatomy of the shoulder and you will understand why. It's the same reason you should never do upright rows. See a *good* phsyio and start doing some shoulder rehab. 

Ignoring the problem and having it only temporarily get better only goes so far before it becomes a major debilitation.


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## TRENCHLORD (Sep 27, 2012)

This doesn't solve your problem, but you might want to try one-arm side and rear lat-raises inside the cable crossover pulleys.
Set the pulley at the lowest level and grab the handle with oppisite hand.
You can go both arms together if doing bent laterals.

When doing dumbell side raises, the resistance of the weight (due to gravity) is greatest at that straight out position, which is where your issue is, so using the cable will at least give you more equal resistance throughout the motion.
Also, like already said, just try not going up quite as high. Sides aren't really a peak contraction style lift anyways. Bent/rear lats are better for hitting a hard peak contraction.


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## soliloquy (Sep 27, 2012)

Uncreative123 said:


> You seem to be doing a lot of (only) shoulder exercises for an arm day, so let's just call it shoulder day. Also, not knowing the name of an exercise doesn't mean it doesn't have a name.



no, that was just my shoulder workout. i didn't include my biceps and fore arm as thats not part of the shoulder

and i tried looking for names on stuff like bodybuilding, and i couldn't find em.

but 2 exercises go like this:
you lying on your side, holding a light weight. keep your elbow on your hip and bent at 90 degrees. you are taking the weight from the floor to a lil higher than your hip level. doing em with cables doesn't give the same result. with free weights i'm doing 10-15 lbs, while cables i'm doing 50 and it still doesn't feel like much. 



second, you're on your back, arm straight out and bent at your elbow at 90 degrees. with a light weight, you are rotating your arm on your tricep so the weight goes from being close to your head to being close to your hip. do it in a very slow motion and super super light weight.


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## peldikuneptun (Sep 27, 2012)

In case of shoulder problems I've always used rubber bands for exercising (still using these for warming up shoulders on any upper body days). I've found the "progressive resistance" of rubber bands to be extremely helpful - it doesn't inflict a lot of stress on the joint in the beginning of the movement. Lat raises, rotator cuffs etc - pretty much anything in the range of motion of shoulders.


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