Cable Lateral Raise
The cable lateral raise is a side shoulder isolation exercise where you raise a single handle from a low pulley out to the side, one arm at a time. It trains the side delts with tension at the bottom, where dumbbell raises go slack. Pick it when you want wider shoulders and a cleaner resistance curve than dumbbells.
Muscles worked
The cable lateral raise trains the shoulders.
Primary
Weekly sets for shoulders
Hard sets per week that Swole.fit plans for shoulders, counting every exercise that trains it. Start a cycle near the growth line and climb toward the recovery limit before a deload.
How to do the cable lateral raise
- 01Set the pulley at the lowest position, or around hip height, and attach a single D-handle.
- 02Stand side-on to the stack and grab the handle with the hand farthest from it.
- 03Let the cable cross in front of your body and hold the frame with your free hand.
- 04Raise your arm out to the side with a slight elbow bend until your hand reaches shoulder height.
- 05Lower the handle slowly back across your body without letting the stack touch down.
Coaching cues
- Push out to the wall, not up
- Lead with the elbow, pinky slightly high
- Stay tall, no side lean
Common mistakes
- Shrugging the handle up recruits the traps instead of the side delts, so keep your shoulder down as your arm rises.
- Leaning away from the stack to move more weight cuts the delt's work, so stand upright and use a lighter load.
- Raising your hand well above your shoulder adds little and stresses the joint, so stop at about shoulder height.
How Swole.fit programs it
Log it once and the app plans the next session for you.
- Most sets land between 8 and 15 reps, the range the plan steers isolation work toward for size.
- Week one starts around 2 to 3 reps in reserve. Each week you train a little closer to failure, ending around 0 to 1 in reserve before a deload week.
- Hit the top of the range on every set and the next session adds the smallest real jump in weight, rounded to the plates, dumbbells or stack you actually have.
- Sets for this exercise count toward your weekly volume for every muscle it trains: a full set for the primary muscles, half a set for the helpers.
The full method, with the maths, is in how mesocycles work.
Cable Lateral Raise alternatives
Same muscles, different tool. Swap in one of these when the equipment is taken or your joints want a change.
Free programs that use it
Ready-made splits from the Swole.fit library. Pick one and the app runs the progression.
- Arm Blaster3 days a week, biceps, triceps, shoulders
- Beach Emergency3 days a week, chest, shoulders, biceps
- Pump & Circumstance3 days a week, chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps
- Push Power3 days a week, chest, triceps
- Arm & Delt Destroyer4 days a week, biceps, triceps, shoulders
- Shoulder Boulder4 days a week, shoulders, triceps
Log it. Let the app plan the next one.
Track your cable lateral raise free. Swole.fit picks the next weight, counts your weekly sets and tells you when to deload.