Why Old School Bodybuilders Took Lateral Raises Over Head - And Why You Should Too!

Have you ever seen how Arnold does his lateral raises? You’d might think “he’s not hitting delts but traps bro”, and sure, that’s correct. But then why did so many bb’s do it? Robby Robinson, Frank Zane and Ken Waller did the same thing. These guys are considered some of the most iconic bodybuilders of all time. Were they really training sub-optimally, or is it possible they knew something we don’t?

First, let’s focus on shoulder movement as applied to resistance training. It’s true, once the weight moves past shoulder height, the exercise stops being about just isolating the lateral head of the deltoid. You’re training the scapula to move, rotate, and stabilize under load. The entire shoulder system gets involved, including muscles like the serratus anterior and the upper and lower traps and rotator cuff. That’s right, all those other muscles that surround the deltoid. Training through this full arc isn’t a mistake when it builds resilient, mobile and pain-free shoulders together with bigger delts. Old school bodybuilders intuitively trained this full arc because it promoted resilient, mobile, pain-free shoulders—not just bigger delts, but joints that could withstand years of heavy training. And for that reason, even modern lifters Mike O’Hearn definitely believes in training in this style too. He himself advocates Full ROM shoulder work as Arnold taught him early on in his career.

And sure, some of you might be thinking, “But these guys, including Mike O’Tren, they are all juiced up! What about us Natty’s? We can’t possibly train like that! Can we?”

The short answer is, of course we can. If we go further back to the Silver and Bronze Era, we also see all kinds of lifting movements being performed overhead. More importantly, they didn’t just practice BB, but OWL, Odd Lifting, Calisthenics, Gymnastics and Hand Balancing, and we wonder why old school BB were considered all round athletes. And that’s the point. Many of these disciplines require a greater range of motion, and more importantly, strength in these ranges of motion. And exercising shoulders overhead builds strong shoulder joints that offers longevity in lifting. Strengthening the muscles other than the deltoids and traps, such as the serratus and rotator cuff build healthy shoulder joints, as they are crucial to stability and movement of the shoulder blade. Just look at the development of the serratus in BB like Mike O’Hearn, Arnold S, Steve Reeves and BE athletes.

Nowadays, many bodybuilders build large muscular bodies with weak shoulder function. Weak serratus and rotator cuffs affects the strength and stability of the surrounding muscles. A weak shoulder joint means the larger muscles like the biceps, pecs, and triceps are forced to take on a stabilizing role they were never designed for. (images of modern v OS BB, serratus development)

This is why we so often see biceps tendon tears, pec ruptures, and even triceps injuries in modern lifters. The long head of the biceps, in particular, becomes overworked trying to stabilize the shoulder when the rotator cuff is weak, leading to inflammation or rupture. Poor serratus function also alters scapular mechanics, increasing stress on the pec during pressing movements. Old-school bodybuilders trained through full ranges of motion — including overhead — not just to grow delts, but to maintain shoulder health, proper joint mechanics, and long-term durability. They weren’t just building muscle — they were building shoulders that worked, they were bulletproofing their shoulders.

Now let’s look at some exercise variations that train the lateral raise in a full ROM.

Palms Forward Lateral Raise

Take the palms forward lateral raise as performed here by Reg Park. This exercise, also called the thumb up lateral raise is a shoulder exercise prescribed by physiotherapists that strengthens the rotator cuff (especially the supraspinatus) and surrounding muscles by raising light weights in the scapular plane, an angle about 30-40 degrees forward of the body (between side and front), with the thumb pointing up as if giving a thumbs-up, going overhead or to comfortable height. It's safer and more functional than direct front or side raises, improving posture and shoulder health by mimicking natural overhead movements. If you want to incorporate this movement into your workout, I suggest you start light and work progressively, as the rotator cuff muscles are small muscles and you don’t want to injure these.

How to Perform

1. Starting Position: Stand tall with good posture, holding light dumbbells with a thumbs-up grip (palms facing each other/forward).

2. The Plane: Imagine a "V" shape; your arm moves up in this plane, not directly out to the side or straight in front.

3. Lifting: Slowly raise your arms in this angled plane, leading with your thumbs, until they are overhead or as high as comfortable. Keep your shoulder blades down and back.

4. Lowering: Slowly and controlled, lower the weights back to the starting position. 

Key Benefits & Tips

• Strengthens: Supraspinatus (rotator cuff), deltoids, serratus anterior, and trapezius.

• Improves: Posture, functional movement, and overhead athlete health.

• Use Light Weight: Prevents injury and ensures proper form.

• Control: Keep movements slow, smooth, and avoid swinging. 

Supinated Dumbbell Lateral Raise

CA Smith, trainer of strength icons Marvin Eder and Doug Hepburn, further argues that the benefits of performing the dumbbell lateral raise with a supinated grip allows one to use even more weight for deltoid hypertrophy, because in a supinated grip, the biceps function to also assist in deltoid flexion. This is another technique that has been used by physiotherapists since the early 1900s to assist patients who have lost deltoid flexion ability. And therefore performing cheating deltoid raises with a supinated grip with a full ROM, from thigh to overhead, would be a great technique to apply, as it allows the trainee to use more weight than he or she normally would because of the involvement of the biceps, which assists in shoulder flexion. A further application could be that this cheating technique could be performed as a final set after strict lateral raises when you are already warm and have already reached momentary muscular failure, to squeeze those last few reps out so to speak.

So next time you perform lateral raises, you might want to try throwing in a set of thumb up or supinated lateral raises overhead for improved rotator cuff strength and shoulder health and even greater deltoid gains. And if anybody asks why you are training delts this way, just tell them “Bro, delts day is more than just training delts. One should train all muscles associated with the deltoid complex, including the rotator cuff muscles”. Suddenly, you wont be a gym bro anymore! You’ll actually sound intelligent, in fact, more intelligent than even a science based lifter!