Related guides: clean and press, seated front raise, shoulder press, cable y raise
Table of contents: Skip to what you’re interested in
- How-to
- Workout
- Benefits
- Drawbacks
- Muscles Worked
- Variations (plate vs dumbbell?)
- Alternatives
- Additional resources
With there being so many front delt exercises out there, why choose the plate front raise? There is a range of benefits that we’ll be covering. But first, let’s tackle how to do one.
How to do a plate front raise
Plate front raise form
- Hold the plate on either side, resting on your hips, with arms slightly bent.
- Before you start the move, ensure that your shoulder blades are back and down. This will put your shoulder socket in the safest, and most effective position for muscle activation.
- Raise the plate up explosively until it is above your head, whilst squeezing your abs and glutes for stability.
- Be sure to control the weight on the way down, using a 3 – 4 second negative.
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Front plate raise workout
For hypertrophy, aim for 10 – 12 reps for 3 – 4 sets with a 1 – 2 minute rest.
Because this exercise can become quite inconvenient when it comes to training strength (discussed in drawbacks), we would recommend sticking to hypertrophy. Furthermore, the overhead press and dumbbell shoulder press are better candidates for working on pure delt strength, whilst this exercise is better suited to mass or as an accessory/finisher.
Related guides: clean and press, seated front raise, shoulder press, cable y raise
Front plate raise benefits
This exercise is extremely functional and athletic
We love functional movements at Blackridge and the front plate raise is ideal for transferring to daily life/sport. For starters, we’re standing, using our core and legs to stabilise our torso.
On top of this, we’re also using free weights, recruiting more activation for stabilisation muscles in the upper body. Finally, we’re also gripping the weight in an unconventional manner. Not all heavy things in life have lovely dumbbell handles attached to them!
The front deltoid is isolated extremely well
When you perform this exercise you will feel an extreme contraction. Does this sound obvious? There are those exercises that isolate a muscle so well that the contraction feels a level above other exercises, this is one of them.
Front plate raise drawbacks
You can only use one plate, limiting progressive overload
As we mentioned earlier, this exercise is not a great candidate for strength and progressive overload. What do you do when you’re comfortable with a 20kg plate? Holding two plates would be dangerous.
Most people use this exercise as a hypertrophy accessory exercise to barbell/dumbbell shoulder exercises and adding a functional element to your shoulder workout makes sense. That being said, if you really need to kick the weight up, a dumbbell front raise will be a better candidate.
Load is distributed unevenly throughout the lift
When holding the plate directly out in front of us the weight is going to be the hardest to move. The further away a weight is from our centre of mass (outwards, not above our heads etc), the harder our muscles are going to be working.
At the top of the plate front raise, the weight is incredibly close to our centre of mass (from gravity’s perspective), meaning our delts aren’t working as hard throughout the entire rep, but you could argue that the exertion at other parts of the rep or your volume makes up for it. An alternative would be to use a cable front raise to negate this drawback.
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Plate front raise muscles worked
Front (anterior) Deltoid – the main muscle worked
Because we’re raising our humerus (upper arm bone) in front of our torso, our front deltoid is going to be handling most of the load.
In fact, it’s actually quite difficult for other muscles to help which is why it’s a brilliant isolation exercise. This is unlike an incline chest press that will recruit a lot of delt even though we’re technically looking for pec activation.
Biceps (Biceps brachii) – assisting
We’re not going to build huge biceps with this exercise. However, our biceps will have to stabilise the elbow joint as we keep a slight bend.
As the force required to move the plate is going to change throughout the lift, the biceps will be continuously adjusting to this change, giving the muscle a small workout
Note – It’s not uncommon to experience some upper pec activation during this movement but try to keep this to a minimum.
Plate front raise variations
Front plate raise vs dumbbell front raise
Both of these exercises do a great job of targeting the front delt so we cant differentiate them there.
The dumbbell raise has these advantages: 1) We can use any weight that we want because we’re not limited by what plates the gym has. 2) You could argue that you can get a slightly bigger range of motion as the plate stops your hands from reaching your pelvis, but this is a tiny edge.
Conversely, I would say that the plate front raise is more functional due to the grip needed and the size of the plate. In life, how often do we have to move something so heavy but so compact as a dumbbell?
The plate 8 – Try this killer variation
If you’re looking for a challenge that’s really going to challenge you athletically, try the plate 8. For this movement, grab a plate and move it in a figure of 8 (if the 8 was on its side) for the ultimate burn.
This exercise is even more functional than the standard raise because we’re working in lateral movement as well. This is a great finisher for the end of your workout.
Front plate raise alternatives
Cable front raise
The brilliant thing about this exercise is that it’s keeping constant tension on the front delt which is one of the factors of building muscle (time under tension). You’ll feel a great tightness at the top of the exercise, similar to the front plate raise
Dumbbell front raise
As discussed earlier, this is a great alternative. Whilst it’s not quite as functional as the plate variation, we have much more control over the weight we can use as we have more choice with dumbbells.
Barbell shoulder press
This one is a bit different. Whilst we’re targeting our front delt, the barbell shoulder press is one of the core compound movements that you should have in your routine. This exercise will spark muscle growth throughout your body as so many more muscles are recruited to complete it.
Additional resources
- Different Shoulder Exercises Affect the Activation of Deltoid Portions in Resistance-Trained Individuals
- Shoulder Muscle Activation of Novice and Resistance Trained Women during Variations of Dumbbell Press Exercises
- Related guides: clean and press, seated front raise, shoulder press, cable y raise
Olly is a CIMSPA accredited personal trainer with a BSc degree in sport management from Solent University. He has over 10 years experience helping clients reach their health & fitness goals.
