Constant Tension Raises – The Best Shoulder Exercise You’re Not Doing

Here is a shoulder exercise you SHOULD be doing in your workouts that will take your training to another level. I present constant tension front raises.

This is a tough front raise variation that I dusted off and brought back into my programming recently. If you haven’t tried it, you’re in for an eye-opening experience. This was an original exercise from T-nation back in the day and there is actually a lateral variation that can be done lying sideways on an incline bench.

Unlike conventional raises, at no point during the repetition does tension come off the front delts which is absolutely brutal if you’re doing sets of 10 or more.

Here is how you do it:

The lifter will lie back on an incline bench that set to about 45 degrees or slightly less with the dumbbells resting on top of their quads. From there, accumulate tension in your shoulders and simultaneously sit up while bringing the dumbbells up in line with your shoulders or slightly higher to your eye level. To bring the dumbbells back down to the quads, the lifter will slowly lower themselves back to the bench as the dumbbells drop back into place.

Now, here is the important part. When the dumbbells touch the quads, the lifter will immediately sit back up into the next rep WITHOUT resting the dumbbells ON THE LEGS – keeping constant tension on the shoulders.

Because of the leverage disadvantage, you’ll only be able to use very light weights. Anything over 20lbs will tear your shoulders from the bone, so start with 10lbers and go from there. This is a perfect exercise to use in combination with other shoulder accessory exercise variations that hit different angles.

In the video, I pair constant tension raises with incline raises with a chest squeeze at the top. You can try this or experiment with your favorite raise, lateral, or posterior flye variations.

Front Delt Combo
1) Constant Tension Front Raises, 2-3 sets x 10 reps
2) Incline Front Raise to Chest Squeeze, 2-3 sets x 10 reps

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