Tip: Upgrade Your Shoulder Raises

Build more muscle with lateral raises and front raises. Here's how.

Increase the range of motion on front and lateral shoulder raises. Stopping when your arms are parallel to the floor is like stopping a biceps curl when your forearm is parallel to the floor.

When most lifters are doing shoulder raises, they try to minimize involvement of the upper traps. They don't raise their arms above shoulder level or even slightly below shoulder-level, yet many of these same people do shrugs, upright rows, and other trap exercises.

The truth is, just about any upper body exercise, from seated rows to biceps curls, elicits low to moderate activity in the lower traps. So don't fool yourself into thinking that front or side shoulder raises are miraculously going to spare your traps from any activity.

So go ahead and increase the ROM for comprehensive shoulder training.