Shoulder Raise

What it is

This movement isolates your shoulder muscles by elevating them directly towards your ears. It primarily targets the shoulders, while also engaging your lats. This exercise is a foundational way to build strength and control in your upper back.

Technique tips

• Keep your arms relaxed and straight at your sides.
• Focus on lifting your shoulders directly up, not forward or back.
• Inhale as you lift your shoulders, exhale as you lower them.
• Avoid using momentum; control the movement throughout.
• Briefly hold your shoulders at the top of the movement.
• Slowly lower your shoulders back to the starting position.

How to track your progress

Log the hold time of each set. Straddly keeps your best hold for this exercise and tells you when you beat it, so a two-second gain does not go unnoticed.