never hurt my elbows. i dont use an extreme amount of weight though either. i use a 15 lb dbell, one side at a time. my range of motion is such that the dbell will never come down to where my deltoid relaxes. i put one hand on my shoulder so i can feel when it starts to relax and then its back up. nice and slow and you will actually get something out of it. i gave up the swing the weight or start from the bottom laterals a while ago.