How much does the rear delt flyes hit the upper back?
I think i need some extra rear delt work. I do rows too, so i dont want to overdo it for my upper back. Ive also heard something like if you keep youre shoulderblades retracted it will hit the upper back more, but if you keep the nutrual the rear delts will be doing most of the job.
And about elbow angle. Ive heard many different recommendationes, what is best for hitting the rear delts?
This is a great exercise to develop your upper back. Using a high pulley or lat pulldown machine, attach a triceps rope and pull towards the face/forehead. Make sure you squeeze your upper back towards the end of the movement and pull the rope apart. This exercise should be done for higher reps (12-20).
I've been doing rear delt raises with a cable and rope attachment. Here's a mini-article from a t-nation newsletter.
Mini-Article: Powerful Posterior Delts!
by John Paul Catanzaro
Neglect any one of the deltoid heads and you'll develop a muscle imbalance. Usually, the rear or posterior deltoid is lacking — the classic "rounded shoulders" posture some bodybuilders get is a good example of this.
As Michael Gundill notes, "Bodybuilders have front delts that are on average five times bigger than sedentary people. Their lateral delts are three times bigger and their rear delts are only 10 to 15 percent bigger.
That imbalance translates into supraspinatus tendon abnormalities and is a source of shoulder pain." To hit more posterior deltoid, keep your arm back in the frontal (coronal) plane and use an offset grip (more on that later) or you could bend over when performing your laterals.
To reduce the stress to your lower back with this exercise, either rest your forehead on an incline bench, lay prone on a high bench, or perform the exercise unilaterally (one arm at a time) to allow the opposite hand to support the body.
Having a training partner touch the posterior delts while lifting will help focus attention and stimulate those muscles. Another tip offered by Beth and Oscar Rothenberg in their book Touch Training for Strength is to touch the elbows, then the ears, and ask the exerciser to draw an imaginary straight line between the two points as they lead the lift with their elbows.
An excellent exercise for the posterior delt is the bent-over one-arm cable lateral raise (pronated grip) using a rope. Try it and you'll see what I mean, but start with the lightest plate first.
Rear delt flys & face pulls, along with external rotations are featured in the Neanderthal No More series.
As Alwyn says think through the amount of internal rotation movements one does in and out of the gym compared to external rotation. It's no wonder then how many guys end up with shoulder problems (kuri raises his hand here).
I've just started employing YTWLs for shoulder stabilization too and man do those burn!
On the read delt fly make sure you aren't shrugging the weight (Robertson & Cressey suggest doing it on a machine for this reason). Scap pushups (pushups plus) would be another good one to get your scaps firing.
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Working "hard," or the perception of working hard, doesn't really mean anything. Sweating, vomiting, and breathing hard could be a good workout or a tropical disease kicking in.-Dan John
but you guys dont think it will be too much doing 4x6 on a rowing movement AND doing this exersice in addition? what set/reps do you recommend for the rear delt fly/bendt over lateral?
Rear delt flyes and upper back
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