Illustrations: Everkinetic (Greg Priday), CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped, resized & combined
Side Delts
Stand tall with a light pair of dumbbells at your sides and a slight bend in the elbows.
Lean about 10 degrees forward and brace your abs.
Raise both arms out to the sides to shoulder height, leading with the elbows rather than the hands.
Keep the pinky slightly higher than the thumb, like pouring water from a jug.
Hold for a second at the top, then lower slowly over 3 seconds until the dumbbells nearly touch your thighs.
Do not let the dumbbells rest on your thighs between reps.
Rocking the torso back to throw the dumbbells up.
Going so heavy that the upper traps take over and you feel it in your neck.
Raising far above shoulder height so the tension shifts to the traps.
Dropping the arms without controlling the lowering phase.
Side delts love higher reps: 12-20 with light weight beats 6 heavy grinders.
If you feel it in your neck, halve the weight and slow everything down.
Try the lying variation on an incline bench to load the bottom of the range.
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