Towel-Plate Lateral Raises for DOUBLE The Side Delt Tension

I love exercises that use equipment not only in ways you’ve never thought they could be used in but exercises that make equipment out of things you never really even thought WERE equipment!

That’s the beauty of this exercise…it’s a lateral raise done with a towel and a weight plate that will legitmately DOUBLE the tension on the side delts because you’re working against resistance from two different directions at once.

You’re going to string a towel (at least 2 to 3 feet long, ideally) through the center hole of a weight plate (I’m using a 25 lb plate).

 

Then you’re going to grip onto the ends, with the plate hanging down in front of you.

 

Now you’re going to do a lateral raise, bringing your hands up and out to the sides as you raise the plate up. The cool thing is, because you’re also straightening out the towel, you’re getting direct sideways resistance on the side delts, which makes for VERY effective on those side delts.

This is my preferred way to do lateral raises, to be honest. Once you’ve tried it, you won’t want to go back to regular raises.

 

Come up until the plate is at your upper chest and hold for a moment, if you can. The plate will come in contact with your upper chest. Your upper arms should be almost horizontal and your forearms will be up a bit higher.

 

Lower and repeat.

Here’s a side view.

 

This is a really simple way to essentially double the effective tension going onto the side delts when performing a lateral raise. You get the up and down resistance of gravity then the lateral resistance from the effort of straightening out the towel.