Dumbbell Lateral Raise vs. Cable Lateral Raise: Which Is Best?

If you’ve ever stood in the gym debating whether to grab the dumbbells or set up the cable machine for lateral raises, you’re not alone.

A new study (so new that it hasn’t been peer-reviewed and officially published at the time of my writing this) by Larsen et al. (2024) set out to determine if one exercise is superior for building those coveted boulder shoulders.¹

Let’s take a look at the juicy details of the study, what the researchers discovered, and how you can put their findings to work in your shoulder training.

Lateral Raises 101

The lateral raise is a classic and one of the most popular exercises for the shoulders, particularly the lateral deltoid (or side delt,) famous for giving your shoulders that broad, rounded look.

Whether you perform it with dumbbells or cables, the movement involves lifting your arms (or arm if you do it one side at a time) out to the sides while keeping a very slight bend in the elbows.

Side Delt Exercises: Dumbbell Lateral Raise — Dumbbell Lateral Raise

Cable lateral raise — Cable Lateral Raise

It’s a great exercise for building shoulder width and a staple in many training programs, especially bodybuilding programs.

Dumbbells are the classic option, with the potential downside that the resistance is highest at the top of the movement and lessens as you lower them. A huge benefit is that you can do dumbbell laterals anywhere, and all you need is a pair of dumbbells—a single dumbbell, actually, as you can do them one arm at a time.
Cables, on the other hand, provide a smoother resistance curve and allow you to adjust tension throughout the range of motion. The downside here is that cable laterals require a cable station, making it too expensive and spacious for most home gyms.

The Study Design

The researchers wanted to know if the type of resistance (dumbbell vs. cable in this case) impacts muscle growth in the side delts. Or, in short, which is best—dumbbell lateral raise vs. cable lateral raise?

Here’s how they approached it:

Who Did the Study Involve?

Participants’ arms were split into two groups: one trained with dumbbell lateral raises and the other with cable lateral raises. That is called within-participant design, meaning all participants performed both dumbbell and cable lateral raises, but each arm was randomly assigned to a different condition.
The program lasted 8 weeks, with participants training twice a week.

What Did Their Training Look Like?

In week 1, they did 4 sets per arm per session. From week 2 onwards, they increased to 5 sets per arm per session.
The goal was to lift the weights until they couldn’t do another proper rep with a target of 12–16 reps per set.

How Was It Kept Fair?

Everyone used the same range of motion (lifting their arm from their side to shoulder height).
They kept the lifting tempo steady: 1 second up and 1 second down.
Rest times were 30 seconds between arms and over 90 seconds between sets for the same arm.

dumbbell lateral raise vs. cable lateral raise

Could They Do Other Exercises?

Yes, they could do other body exercises like lat pulldowns, leg presses, and Romanian deadlifts. In fact, they were were provided with a balanced resistance training program. But they were told to avoid any shoulder exercises that might mess with the results.

Were They Supervised?

Every session had a trained coach watching to make sure they followed the program correctly.
Most participants stuck to the plan, with over 95% attendance.

How Was Progress Measured?

Muscle growth in the shoulders (side delt) at two points was checked using an ultrasound machine before and after the 8 weeks.
Participants were also encouraged to eat more calories than they burned and get enough protein to help with muscle growth (at least 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day, the amount where some research suggests muscle growth tops out).

In short, the study compared the dumbbell lateral raise vs. the cable lateral raise by making sure everything else (like reps, sets, and movement) was the same.

The Results

Both dumbbells and cables resulted in similar muscle growth:

Both dumbbells and cables increased lateral deltoid muscle thickness by a similar amount (3.3%–4.6%).
An analysis showed “moderate” to “extreme” evidence that both exercises are equally effective when it comes to hypertrophy, assuming proper form and effort (training to failure).

Why the Similar Results?

Why no clear winner? The researchers speculated that there were no major differences in muscle growth between the dumbbell lateral raise vs. the cable lateral raise for a few reasons:

Both dumbbell and cable lateral raises provide sufficient tension on the side delts. Even though cables give you a more consistent tension throughout the movement, dumbbells still deliver enough resistance at key points, especially in the bottom and mid-range of motion.
The researchers controlled the range of motion and repetition tempos for both exercises. That standardization may have minimized the differences in how each exercise could influence muscle activation. If some random dude at the gym had been swinging the dumbbells up (like many do), cables might have come out on top.
The study only lasted eight weeks, which might not have been enough time to detect slight differences in muscle growth between the two methods over a longer period of time. For example, if you had a year’s worth of training, you might have seen slightly better results from one of the exercises.

In short, both exercises worked because they provided enough stimulus for growth, and the design of the study made the differences between them less pronounced.

Limitations of the Study

As with any research, there are caveats:

Eight weeks may not be long enough to detect subtle differences in advanced lifters like these.
Experienced lifters tend to experience slower muscle growth.
A more extended ROM, especially with cables, might favor growth at longer muscle lengths, but that wasn’t tested here.
While the researchers gave nutrition guidance, they didn’t control what and how much the participants actually ate.

What This Means for Your Training

Love the simplicity of dumbbells? Prefer the smooth resistance of cables? Go for it. Both will get the job done.
Variety is the spice of gains. Rotating between dumbbells and cables can keep your workouts fresh and challenge your muscles in new ways, even if one exercise isn’t inherently superior.
While this study used a fixed range of motion, other research suggests that training at longer muscle lengths might maximize gains. If you’re using cables, try setting the pulley lower to extend the range of motion and lean so that you get maximum stretch in the side delt at the bottom of the movement.
Muscle growth depends more on training intensity than the equipment. Push to failure, prioritize good form, and practice progressive overload over time, and the gains will come.

Pro Tips for Lateral Raises

Keep your shoulders slightly down and back to minimize trap involvement.
Use a relatively light weight that lets you maintain tension on the delts without relying on momentum.
For dumbbells, don’t let your arms drop completely to your sides between reps to keep tension on the side delts.
The best of the lateral raise variations for activating your side delts is the internally rotated one, where your thumb is pointing down as if you are pouring a protein drink out of a shaker.² It is also the potentially most risky position, as it places your shoulder joint in an internally rotated position. If you feel any discomfort, switch to neutral-grip laterals.

Dumbbell Side Laterals Hand Positions — Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Sep; 17(17): 6015.

Final Rep

If there is one main takeaway from this study, it’s that both dumbbell and cable laterals are effective, so you can confidently train with whatever’s available or the exercise you like the best. Building wide shoulders isn’t about the tools but how you use them.