Front Dumbbell Raise
A standing front raise done alternately: one dumbbell travels up to just above shoulder height while the other hangs at your thigh, then they swap. The hanging dumbbell acts as a counterweight and keeps you honest, but the alternating rhythm is also what makes it so easy to bounce into a whole-body swing.
Own the movement
Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.
Before the first rep
- Pick dumbbells you could clearly do 15 strict reps with per arm. If in doubt, go lighter — 6-8 kg is a real working weight here.
- Stand with feet hip-width, dumbbells resting against the front of your thighs, palms turned towards your legs.
- Rotate both palms to face down and set a fixed slight bend in each elbow before the first rep.
- Pull your ribs down and squeeze your glutes so your lower back cannot arch to help.
- Face a mirror side-on if you have one — this is a movement you need to see rather than feel.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — One breath per arm, not one per pair. Exhale as the dumbbell rises, hold a second at the top, inhale over a three-second descent, then stop dead at your thigh and take the next breath before the other arm starts.
Sets, reps & load
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
Start at 4-6 kg per hand. You have the right weight when you can hold the dumbbell motionless at shoulder height for two seconds with your back against a wall. Add 2 kg only once 15 strict reps per arm meet that standard; adding reps past 20 is usually more useful here than adding load, since heavy front raises are mostly lower-back work.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Insert a full stop at the bottom. The working dumbbell touches your thigh and rests for a beat before the other arm starts. It should feel slow and slightly awkward.
Set your heels a foot from a wall and keep your upper back against it for the whole set. Any load that peels you off the wall is too heavy.
Choose weight by what you can hold still at horizontal for two seconds, not by what you can get moving from your thighs.
Keep it tracking the midline of your body. Drifting outwards turns this into a badly performed scaption and loses the front-delt bias entirely.
Why bother
Shoulder flexion with a dumbbell loads the anterior deltoid through a lever that lengthens as the arm rises, so the hardest point of the rep is horizontal and the bottom third is nearly free. That is why the useful weight here is far lighter than people expect: 6-10 kg per hand is a serious working load for most trainees.
Alternating rather than lifting both at once has one real advantage — the hanging dumbbell sits behind your centre of mass and resists the forward lean that two simultaneous raises encourage. It also halves the load on your lower back at any instant. The cost is a rhythm that invites momentum: as the left comes down, it is very easy to let the drop drive the right one up.
Where it fits
Last on a push day, 2-3 sets. The front delt is already the most heavily trained part of your shoulder if you press or bench at all, so treat this as a small finisher rather than a headline lift, and give the rear delts twice the volume you give this.
If this one isn't it
No kit, too hard, or too easy — here's where to go instead.
Same job, different kit
Start here instead
When this gets easy
Asked and answered
Alternating or both dumbbells at once?
Alternating keeps your lower back out of it and gives you a counterweight, which is why it is the default here. Lifting both at once is faster and loads your trunk more, but it also pulls you into a forward lean that most people compensate for by arching. If your back is the limiting factor rather than your shoulders, alternate.
Should front raises be heavier or lighter than my lateral raises?
Roughly the same, often a couple of kilos heavier. The front delt is the better-trained head in almost every lifter and shoulder flexion is a mechanically stronger action than abduction, so a small gap in favour of the front raise is normal. If the gap is large — 12 kg here against 6 kg on laterals — that is momentum, not strength. Pause both for a second at shoulder height and watch the numbers converge.
Palms down or thumbs up?
Palms down is the standard front raise and is what this variation describes. Turning the thumbs up shifts you towards a neutral-grip raise, which many people find easier on the front of the shoulder and which pulls in a little more of the middle delt. If the palms-down version pinches at the top, switch to thumbs up rather than pushing through it.
Why does my lower back ache during front raises?
Because a weight held at arm's length in front of you is a long lever pulling you forward, and the usual compensation is to lean back and arch. That is a load problem, not a core-weakness problem. Halve the dumbbells, squeeze your glutes, and keep your ribs pulled down. If it persists, do the movement seated on an upright bench.