By healthiergang writer , certified personal trainer and athlete ().
Front Raises
The front lifts are an "accessory" or exercise isolation, which therefore serve, as the term indicates, to work a single muscle, or rather a single portion of it: the anterior deltoid, with deltoid back e trapeze as secondary and accessory muscles respectively (see figure). They can be performed with the help of various tools: let's see which ones.
1. Front Raises with Barbell
Standing, back in the position of strength, feet parallel to shoulder height; elbows slightly bent, arms at the hips and prone grip at the same width as the shoulders or slightly greater, in case you want to involve the deltoid in the movement as well lateral to a larger extent (or in the case of abduct movement).
Breathing in, bring your arms forward at shoulder height, so as to find them parallel to the floor; contract your muscles for a few seconds, then lower your arms back to the starting position as you exhale.
Remember to DON'T hyper extend your back and DON'T help you by slackening your legs (considered cheating): a movement adopted by Schwarzenegger wanted his arms to go beyond the line of the shoulders, a cheating that he used to lift heavier loads.
2. Front Raises with Dumbbells
The execution is identical but done with two dumbbells of the desired weight: they can be performed in unison or alternating the lifts to work one arm at a time. Please note: not to flex the elbows too much, so as not to shift the work on the anterior muscles
3. Ercolina Front Raises (Low Cable)
Place a bar or a rope to the hook of the Ercoline and, by passing the tool between your legs (you will be positioned with your back to the machine), perform the lift as for the other cases. With the ERCOLINE the lift will be carried out with a much greater tension, in both phases (concentric ed eccentric) your muscles will work with greater intensity.
When you perform the exercise with the barbell or dumbbells you could also do it sitting on an incline bench, with different angles of inclination. This, of course, gradually shifts the focus of the movement lower.
In phase of warm up it is possible to perform front lifts with the help of elastic bands o plates, of course, the impact on the formation of muscle mass is almost nil, but it is nevertheless a good method of initial preparation of the muscle for the next workout.
Are Front Raises Needed?
Personally I am not particularly in favor of this type of exercise; as I said in another article about the shoulders, the delts, and in this case those front, are already abundantly trained as secondary muscles in pectoral presses, and with a whole fundamental series of exercises (military press, arnold press) expressly created for them. The other sections of the deltoid can be trained as secondary muscles or accessories in other exercises for other muscle groups (biceps and triceps, back).
It 'obvious that if you did front lifts after the exercises for the pectorals, the effort you would make the deltoid do would be double and counterproductive in the final, because it would exhaust him for no reason.
Besides, we know that the front part of the body has the most developed area in the shoulders, pectorals and abdominals: this also means that extreme attention to the front part only (ultimately therefore also an extremization of the exercises for the anterior deltoids) can kyphotize your body, making your posture protracted forward in an unsightly and harmful way over long distances. for muscle, joint and bone balance.
This damage can be corrected or avoided by compensating for the work on these muscle groups and on the anterior deltoid with other work on the other sections of the deltoid (lateral and posterior).
Oltre a questo factor which I consider negative there is another one, risk this time, even more important: for the neck and back. The front lifts, progressively moving the weight away from the body in the movement, stimulate the spine in an excessive way and this, in the long run, can lead problems especially in the neck area; furthermore, since they partially stress the joint (the lift should be longer to complete the joint work) they tend in the long run to shorten the muscle and, as I said above, to contribute to the progressive "kyphotization" of the body.
A tip not to be forgotten
However, you can always recover the front lifts as an exercise isolation when training your shoulders, if you have a day dedicated to the group, but be careful to use lightly loaded because then the pectorals will stimulate the anterior deltoid again; or you can use it as an exercise alternative inside the superserie. Good workout!
