How To Do Bent Arm Laterals
- March 4, 2008
- 4,145 Views
Writer
Andre_Scott
Voice Over Artist
Liv Rooth
Music
Edison Music Corp
You need big shoulders to muscle your way through a crowded bar, a crowded bus, or a crowded boutique—this deltoid exercise will get you to the front of the line in no time.
You Will Need
- Two lightweight dumbbells between 5 and 15 pounds
- A bench or chair
- Workout clothes
- A Swiss ball (also called a physio ball)
Step 1: Sit on edge of bench
Sit on the edge of a bench with your knees and feet together.
To add a degree of difficulty and involve more torso muscles, sit on a Swiss ball while doing this lift.
Step 2: Grasp dumbbells & position elbows
Grasp the dumbbells and position your elbows at a 90-degree angle, palms facing each other.
Step 3: Lift elbows
Slowly lift your elbows away from your torso until they reach shoulder height, so that your palms now face the floor.
Keep your torso ramrod straight—it focuses the lift on your shoulders, so you don’t use any back muscles to assist the movement.
Step 4: Lower elbows
Slowly lower your elbows to your side.
Step 5: Repeat
Repeat. Keep it up, and you’ll be pushing those shoulders through crowds in no time!
This exercise is also called “beer cans,” because the motion of your arms mimics that of pouring beer out of a can.
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Comments (3)
good info about info enjoyed the video
over 3 years ago by snookie96
u look like you're working out for a 'job search'
over 3 years ago by buffilms
The exercise is limited in benefits vs. risks. The potential to cause impingement (pinching/tearing) of muscles (especially the 'supraspinatous') is high and I recommend not performing it UNLESS a Sports Medicine Doctor or Physical Therapists instructs you to do so. This exercise is well know because of the extremely common promotion during the 80's and 90's bodybuilding scene, magazines, and video. Healthy performance and aesthetics are more safely obtained with multi-joint movements. Regarding the shoulders, humans would gain the benefit of strength, endurance, performance, and injury-resistance if they are able to (without pain) perform an overhead press exercise with dumbells, or even better, Kettlebell. Picking up the weight from the floor, curling up to the shoulder, and then pressing it overhead uses more muscles and is a more realistic activity. After all, WHY do you raise your arms (using the shoulders)? Usually to take an object from a low position (ie, the ground) and raising it up to head or over-the-head heights (and typically while the object is in front of you, NOT the sides). You will NEVER perform this video's exercise action in real life, therefore, doing what this video shows will untrain your nerves and muscles and likely cause unnatural stresses to the shoulder and elbow joints because of the way the weights are acting on them. There's more to say about this, but for now, think about 'real-life' movement and use