Firstly, grab a couple of dumbbells and stand with them by your sides, with your palms facing your body.
Stand tall with your core switched on and shoulder blades pulled back and down. Keeping your back straight, and your upper body still – that means no swinging – lift the dumbbells out to your side with a slight bend at your elbows, keeping the weights higher than your forearms.
Lift until your arms are parallel to the floor then slowly lower to the start position.
Lateral raises get surprisingly tough pretty quickly, so put your ego to one side and choose lighter weights when you first get going. I like a tempo of 3-1-2 . That’s three seconds in the ‘downwards’ phase, a one-second pause at the bottom, and then a two second drive back into parallel.”