Rear Delt techniques

Q

QuantumPositron

New Member
As part of my effort to realign my posture and build my shoulders up I have decided that direct rear delt work is necessary. However, every time I do a bent over flye/raise it always seems that my traps are doing most of the work. Does anyone have any advice on how to best hit the rear delts?
 
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(QuantumPositron @ Feb. 20 2008,10:10)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Does anyone have any advice on how to best hit the rear delts?</div>
When I worked with a personal trainer, he had me do the seated bent over lateral raises, but with the elbows at a 90 degree angle. That shortens the lever arm and puts way less stress on the gleno-humongous joint.

You can tell you've isolated your delts when you can't use anything more than the little pink dumbbells, or maybe the powder blue ones...
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My vet has me doing the Rubber Band Reverse Flys for my shoulder impingement therapy.
 
Going flat should take some of the lift off the traps. Our local gym owner has a fantastic back but does lots of inclined lateral raises - his high point isn't traps but rather the lower traps and rhomboids. All I've seen him do otherwise is seated rows.

...but Pendlay's still RULE, Dude...
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...just not for delts.
 
Doing strict full range-of-motion rows for the past couple months, I feel I am hitting the rear delts, along with lats, rhomboids, lower-mid traps, infrapinitus, teres major and minor.....the whole upper back.
My shoulders haven't felt this good in years.
And my back shape is taking on a thicker look.  Thicker traps and lats, along with a little rear delt bulge and rotator cuff bulge.
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Pulldowns and Pullups are probably better for getting purely wide lats.  But the rows hit everything and give more central back thickness.

Isolations? NAH!

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/BackGeneral/LVInclineRow.html

Check out the list of muscles targeted....basically the whole back!
 
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(QuantumPositron @ Feb. 20 2008,10:10)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Does anyone have any advice on how to best hit the rear delts?</div>
Have you tried face pulls? I really feel those in the rear delts as well as the whole upper back. Like the others have said, any rowing movements (done with proper form) should hit the rear delts sufficiently.
 
I suspect we're going to find a variation in face pulls. I'm doing them for the shoulder ACL joint impingement, so I've focused on a rotation of the humerus. I just supposed that we were trying to hit the internal rotators for this.
For QP, to hit the rear delts with them, I imagine that the elbows would be held high, to pull the humerus backward with the delts.
I suggest lawnmowers. Get a stirrup handle on a low cable pulley to your side, and pull across your abs and upward - starting that lawnmower.
 
i have successfully mastered a technique shown to me a while ago, unfortunatley its hard to explain. if u bend over to say 45-90 degree using dumbells, its kind of a raise but more of a rowing motion. it kicks the **** out of my rears.

if not i find the next best exercise is to use is a peck deck in reverse, this way u can keep the tension on at all times.

an enlarged rear delt can really set your shoulders off.
 
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(quadancer @ Feb. 21 2008,10:02)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I suspect we're going to find a variation in face pulls. I'm doing them for the shoulder ACL joint impingement, so I've focused on a rotation of the humerus. I just supposed that we were trying to hit the internal rotators for this.</div>
I'm doing them for the same reason. The way I'm doing them is to end up as if you were doing a double biceps pose. But this hits the EXTERNAL rotators - in addition to the rear delts, et al.
 
Okay, but I assumed from a video that you pull towards the eyes - hence the reason for using ropes, straps, or whatever will go to either side of the head. I think the rear delts are being used regardless of how you path the ROM, but another difference will be the weights used.
My rehab work is 25x3, using around 40 lbs...but if I were to seek hypertrophy for the posterior deltoids, I'd be pulling near BW with lower reps. And it would be impossible to do that rotating the humerus; you just don't have the leverage. The fists follow the same path pretty much, but the elbow position changes the way it works. With the ACL problem, I can't even do the elbows up position at all.
 
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(quadancer @ Feb. 21 2008,16:15)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Okay, but I assumed from a video that you pull towards the eyes - hence the reason for using ropes, straps, or whatever will go to either side of the head. I think the rear delts are being used regardless of how you path the ROM, but another difference will be the weights used.
My rehab work is 25x3, using around 40 lbs...but if I were to seek hypertrophy for the posterior deltoids, I'd be pulling near BW with lower reps. And it would be impossible to do that rotating the humerus; you just don't have the leverage. The fists follow the same path pretty much, but the elbow position changes the way it works. With the ACL problem, I can't even do the elbows up position at all.</div>
I didn't know what a face pull was until I saw this video and that's how I've been doing them. I'm using very light weights and high reps for my shoulder, however, I don't see why someone couldn't do them with heavier weights (once they've solved the problem of maintaining their balance
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The video is towards the end of the article.
http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1426252
 
CORRECTION. After loading the video, I realize that it's pretty much what I've been doing, and I didn't realize that my elbows were that high through the movement. The neutral grip makes the humerus rotate. The pronated grip would have to be used for using heavy weights and hitting the delts that way. I still don't think it's the best exersize for rear delts.
 
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