Build Broader Shoulders with This Clever Lateral Raise Variation – Light Up Your Delts Like Never Before

Wide shoulders have the ability to transform any physique. Achieving them, however, is a lot easier said than done. Lateral raises are widely regarded as the gold-standard exercise for building the side delts, with the movement targeting the lateral head responsible for shoulder width. But nailing your technique can prove challenging. Rather than leading with the elbows, many lifters end up relying on their traps or grip to complete the movement. Spamming more lateral raises isn't the answer, either. Coach Nick Nilsson has devised an unusual variation designed to reduce the involvement of the elbow joint and grip while keeping as much tension as possible on the lateral deltoids. He calls it the EZ bar shield lateral. 'This is a cool method for doing lateral raises without involving the elbow joint or grip (for the most part),' Nilsson says. 'It's similar in concept to using a lateral raise machine, in terms of moving the weight onto the upper arm instead of holding it in your hands. 'I've got the bar end cradled like a Zercher hold with the bumper plate up against my upper arm (kind of like a shield). Then it's just a matter of doing a lateral raise.' How to Do EZ Bar Shield Laterals Add a plate to just one side of an EZ bar. Pick up the bar using an overhand grip with both hands. Then hook the elbow of the weighted side underneath the bar so it sits in a Zercher-style hold. The plate should rest flat against your upper arm, creating the 'shield'. Your opposite hand continues gripping the bar to stabilise it. Start with the bar running parallel to the floor and the elbow of your working arm tucked into your side. Raise your arm out to the side while keeping the plate pressed against your arm and maintaining the same elbow angle throughout. Lift your elbow as high as you comfortably can without compromising your technique. Lower under control and repeat. You can use your opposite hand to apply a little extra resistance at the bottom of the movement or provide just enough assistance to squeeze out a couple of extra reps as you fatigue. Why Try EZ Bar Shield Laterals? It Changes the Strength Curve At the bottom of the rep, where the movement is mechanically easier, you can apply a little resistance with your opposite hand. As you approach the top, where leverage becomes less favourable, you simply reduce that extra resistance. What to read next 'One of the cool things with this setup is that you can also use that other hand to resist laterally at the bottom of the rep,' says Nilsson. 'This allows you to self-adjust the strength curve of the exercise on the fly, making it harder at the bottom, where leverage is better, and easier at the top, where leverage is worse.' It Makes Forced Reps Easier Your non-working hand can also help you complete a few additional reps once fatigue sets in. 'The non-working hand stays on the EZ bar to keep the weight in place and to assist (via self-administered forced reps, essentially) as you approach fatigue,' he says. It Reduces Grip Demands Because the working arm isn't gripping the bar, grip strength is less likely to become the limiting factor. Nilsson also argues that the setup helps reduce trap involvement by making the movement more stable, similar to a machine lateral raise. There's no evidence that the EZ bar shield lateral is superior to a traditional lateral raise, but if grip fatigue or poor technique is preventing you from feeling your side delts working, it's an interesting variation to experiment with. If there's one thing Kori Sampson knows, it's how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio. Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men's Health app.