The Poliquin Raise Challenges Your Shoulders and Builds More Muscle

WRAPPING AN UPPER body workout with a few sets of lateral raises is a common tactic for guys aiming to build up strong shoulders. But there’s another underrated exercise that you should consider the next time you want to develop your delts while will give you an even better shoulder session: the Poliquin raise.

This variation, created by the late muscle scientist Charles Poliquin, allows you to use heavier weight than you would with a standard lateral raise to yield greater gains. The way you’ll perform the moment will ratchet up the time under tension, too—another key for muscle growth.

The key, according to Men’s Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. and senior editor Brett Williams, NASM, is to pay attention to the finer points of the exercise.

How to Do the Poliquin Raise

• Start standing holding a pair of dumbbells in a neutral grip. Raise the dumbbells so that your elbows are at a 90 degree angle, with the weights in front of your torso.
• Lift your arms up to just below shoulder height, keeping your elbows bent. Keep your arms in the scapular plane (just in front of your torso rather than directly at your sides).
• Pause for a beat, then straighten out your arms (this is the same position as a standard lateral raise).
• Hold your arms extended for a second, then slowly lower your arms to your sides, taking three to four seconds.

Poliquin Raise vs. Lateral Raise

The lateral raise have long been a shoulder-shaping gold standard that work to pack on size to your delts. Performing the exercise is relatively routine: Raise your arms out in your scapular plane, hold for a brief pause, the lower back down with control.

The twist with the Poliquin raise, according to Samuel, is adding more time under tension while focusing on the eccentric portion of the movement (or lowering the weight) and fighting the resistance from gravity. “That’s the challenge of the Poliquin raise,” Samuel says. “And by doing that, we’re going to get to move even heavier weights than normal.” Cutting the raise changes your efforts drastically—but that allows you to focus your attention elsewhere.

The key to this is in the starting position. By beginning with your elbows at a 90-degree angle, you make the initial movement—the raise itself—more manageable. “Instantly, what we’ve done is we have cut our shoulder levers,” Samuel continues, “which places a lot less stress and tension on the shoulders.”

Once you straighten your elbows at the top of the movement, the lever has become much longer. That’s when the real work begins as you resist gravity to keep yourself from just dropping your hands to your sides.

Muscles Trained By the Poliquin Raise

You’ll train your lateral (or side) delts with the Poliquin raise, making this a key shoulder exercise.

Common Poliquin Raise Mistakes

The biggest mistakes you can make with the Poliquin raise is rushing the eccentric portion of the movement and using more load than you can control. You should be working with heavier weights than a standard lateral raise—but if you’re not able to hold that eccentric contraction for three to four seconds, you’re not making the most of the movement. Make sure that you lower down at that tempo for maximum gains.

How to Add the Poliquin Raise to Your Workouts

Since the Poliquin raise won’t be the heaviest exercise in your shoulder workout, it’s good to fit the exercise in toward the end of your routine, if not the final exercise to finish. “You’ve hit your heavy shoulder presses, you’ve done some lateral raises, maybe you’ve done some windmills, by now your shoulders are tired,” Samuel says. “This move allows to get in few extra of eccentric contractions at the end of your set.”

Start with three sets of six to eight reps. Just focus on keeping that time under tension for three to four seconds, which could be up to 30 additional seconds of work per set.

Want to master even more moves? Check out our entire Form Check series.