You want bigger delts and a wider V-taper. Every guy does. Hitting your overhead presses and upright rows hard will definitely help, but single-joint exercises are critical, too.

The dumbbell lateral raise is probably the most popular isolation shoulder movement there is, and justifiably so. But how are you performing the exercise? The typical way of standing up straight and raising your arms out to the sides? Nothing inherently wrong with that, but there’s another version of the movement that I prefer for maximizing middle deltoid development: Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises.

Here’s why I like this variation so much…

When you do dumbbell lateral raises, the supraspinatus muscle (a rotator cuff muscle) takes the majority of the load during the first 30 degrees of the movement, starting with your arms by your side. The delts don’t kick in until after you’ve reached this point, which means the smaller, weaker rotator cuff muscle is limiting the amount of weight you can do on lateral raises and, not to mention, limiting your results too.

The way around this, of course, is the leaning dumbbell lateral raise, which removes the supraspinatus from the movement and places all the emphasis on the middle head of the deltoid.

Here’s how to do it: Hold onto a solid structure (like a power rack) with one arm and lean away from it at about a 30-45-degree angle. Hold a dumbbell in the other hand so it hangs straight down below your shoulder. Perform lateral raises by lifting your arm until it’s parallel to the floor. Hold it in the up position for a count, then slowly lower the dumbbell back to the start position. After finishing reps on one side, switch arms and repeat.

Incorporating leaning dumbbell lateral raises into your program is easy. Just slot them into your existing shoulder workout wherever you’d normally do standard dumbbell laterals or cable laterals. Generally, I do my isolation work after multi-joint moves like overhead presses and upright rows, but I also like to pre-exhaust the delts by doing the laterals first sometimes. Here’s a sample shoulder workout to illustrate…

Give this workout a try on shoulder day and let me know how you like the leaning lateral raises. Find me on Twitter or Facebook any time with #GNCJYMARMY.