What you'll gain

• One plate is all the equipment needed, which suits crowded or minimally kitted gyms.

• The neutral two-handed grip keeps the wrists in a comfortable position.

• Strict single-joint work makes front deltoid volume easy to count in a program.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. 1

   Pick up a weight plate and hold it at the three and nine o'clock positions with your palms facing each other.

2. 2

   Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart and your shoulders pulled back.

3. 3

   Let the plate hang a few inches in front of your thighs without touching them.

4. 4

   Brace your abs and keep a slight bend in your elbows.

5. 5

   Raise the plate in front of you until it is just above parallel with the floor, then pause.

6. 6

   Lower it slowly back to the start without letting it rest against your body.

Common Mistakes

• Swinging the plate up with a hip drive, which removes the front of the deltoid from the lift.

• Letting the plate touch the thighs between reps, which unloads the shoulder at the bottom.

• Gripping too low on the plate, so it tips away from the wrists and the set ends on grip.

• Programming it only alongside heavy pressing, which piles more volume on an already busy anterior deltoid.

About This Exercise

The plate front raise swaps two dumbbells for a single weight plate gripped at the three and nine o'clock positions with the palms facing each other. You stand tall, keep the plate a few inches clear of your thighs, and raise it in front of you to just above parallel with the floor before lowering it slowly. It is a shoulder isolation movement, simple enough for beginners, but it demands strict technique because momentum is the easy way out. The path is plain shoulder flexion with the abs braced throughout. In a catalog this is the front raise that needs one piece of kit and no matched pair, which makes it useful in busy-gym and minimal-equipment programming. It also shows a plate-holding grip no other shoulder animation in the library carries.

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