adding a rear delt exercise in the middle of my cycle

W

waray214

Member
i've gradually noticed over the past couple weeks that my posture is pretty bad. i seem to slouch forward a lot and i think it may be due to small rear delts in proportion to my anterior delts. i'm on my last week of 5's and i'm thinking about adding some rear delt raises to help bring up that area.
is this a bad idea considering i'm over half way through my cycle or would it be ok? how should i go about adding these in? should i just incorporate them into the 5s and do like one or two sets of 5 at the end of my routine, using progressive overload through the week? or should i just do a lighter set of 10ish reps at the end of my routine. here's my current routine...

Squats/Deadlifts
Flat bench/Dips
Bbell rows
Dbell shoulder press
Pull-ups
Dbell shrugs (2 sets during 5's as opposed to 3 for the above)
Bbell curls (2 sets)
Close-grip bench/Rev grip bench- close-grip (2 sets)

big thanks to all hst members!
 
I know this is a week old and you might be past your 5's by know. But I still think it deserves an answer.
For rear delt, size and strenght both, I wouldn't bother with iso's like Rear Delt Raises. The weight you are able to move is rather insignificant.

I'd think of things, like adjusting the bb-rows. At least if you are doing them Yates style or something similar. Wider grip and bend enough to touch the floor, or close to it. You'd lose some weight, but in your case, I think the trade-off is reasonable.
I might add a set also.

If you're already doing that, i'd just add the extra set. I see no harm in doing that in the mid 5's if you can handle it. If the ekstra set is unmanagable, i'd suggest clustering the last set.
 
It just hit me. i said your question deserved an answer, and then didn't actually answer it.
A don't see any problems in adding an additional exercise, as long as it's done post any excercise with progression planed for the given muscle group.
As long as overall volume is added you're progressing just as fine, or better.

As for progression for the added excercise.
If it's a knew one natural progression would prob. last you long enough.. So just go for max, with whatever reps. 5 might be unwise for a completely knew excercise though.
 
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If you have bad posture, I think that strengthening up the erectors will go further toward correcting bad posture than working the rear delts. After the erectors, then the rest of the back would be my next target. Any particular reason why you believe its your rear delts that are the reason?
 
totentanz- i suspect it's my rear delts for the simple fact that my shoulders really tend to slouch forward. it just seems that my anterior delts really dwarf my posterior. i do feel my rear delts getting hit when i do pull-ups though and somewhat with rows. maybe if i adjust my hand positioning on the rows slightly it might hit my rear delts more. i usually use about a shoulder-width or slightly wider grip on rows...i've heard the wider the grip the more rear delt activation. would widening my grip help? i love focusing my workouts heavily on compounds but sometimes i feel the rear delts don't get hit hard enough, at least for me, with compounds i.e. shoulder press, pull-ups, rows. i've considered doing upright rows but i'm not sure how effectively that hits rear delts if at all. haha sorry i'm kinda just spewing out random thoughts here but i've really got no one else to consult with about this. you hst einsteins are my saving grace :)
 
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