Rear delts

[anthrax]

Any ideas to hit the rear delts?

OK, let me elaborate a little more:
I've used and abused the typical chest and front delts routine which ended up with rounded shoulders, rotator cuff problems among other issues

So I'd like to correct this muscle imbalance and strengthen the rear deltoids

I'm already doing Bent over lateral raise (though I don't like it), seated rows, rear delt machine and face pulls

 

[mrhoon]

The exercise I've found to work best for me is the bent dumbell row, balancing on a bench, you bend 90 degrees at the waist. Using really heavy weight its easy to get other muscles "to help", but I focus on my elbow moving only. From strech position, my hand only acts as the hook on the weight, my shoulder is the pivot point(does not move), back straight and my elbow moves up, like being pulled on from the ceiling. If the movement is correct, the dumbell should come up to your side between your lower ribcage and your hip. If you are moving too many "helper muscles" it will come more into your chest. For me this really blasted the rear head. Even when I'm soft and round my rear delts pop out to be seen.

 

[DaPit26]

rear delt row (using a strait bar), reverse flies. my favorite is lying facing on an incline bench at a 50 degree to 75 degree angle and doing flies and pulls. Or laying face down on the flat bench and doing laterals like that. Or sometimes on the flat bench I'll lie face down and use a strait bar pulling it toward my chest.

 

[redguru]

Any ideas to hit the rear delts?

OK, let me elaborate a little more:
I've used and abused the typical chest and front delts routine which ended up with rounded shoulders, rotator cuff problems among other issues

So I'd like to correct this muscle imbalance and strengthen the rear deltoids

I'm already doing Bent over lateral raise (though I don't like it), seated rows, rear delt machine and face pulls

Rear delt barbell rows. Keep you arms out to prevent lat involvement.

 

[Tom Treutlein]

Don't bother trying to do a row just for them. Unless you're a bodybuilder trying to bring up a lagging bodypart, your best bet is to focus on bentover rowing. Do them with a bar. No machines. No sitting down. Get as close to 90 degrees as you can.

 

[muscelove]

Tom your explanation has me confused. Sitting down with a bar? i dont see how it can be performed

 

[Madcow2]

Tom your explanation has me confused. Sitting down with a bar? i dont see how it can be performed

I think it says "no sitting down".

BUt yeah - get your barbell row comparable to your bench. Do it right and not like a typical humping baboon you see standing almost upright in the gym. Here is a good read and pics: http://www.midwestbarbell.com/totalelite/index.php?showtopic=498&view=findpost&p=9976, if you don't want to pull each rep from the floor at least do them strict as close to 90 as you can and still accelerate the concentric portion.

Learn to love pressing overhead - do it standing with a barbell. Pushpress is also great.

Think about snatch pulls from the hang position (just above knees) as well as snatch high pulls (this can really tax the delts). Videos: http://www.uwlax.edu/strengthcenter/videos/video_index.htm

In the mean time, including some rotator work for is a good idea. Do whatever isolation you choose but it's unlikely to matter until you can get your other big lifts and rows comparable to your bench. If you can strict bench 2 times as much as you can strictly row then it stands to reason you are going to be dramatically overdeveloped up front and have issues with shoulder integrity. Plus, lats are really important to a big bench so it will pay off regardless.

 

[Tom Treutlein]

Plus, lats are really important to a big bench so it will pay off regardless.

I've heard this before. Why is this, exaclty? I know that the lats come into play at the bottom portion of the lift. Is that the main thing?

 

[blut wump]

All I've done this year is bent rows, military press and power cleans for my rear delts area. You could also count in power shrugs and deadlifts, I guess, but these have given me more all-round shoulder growth than I've ever had from laterals and reverse flyes.

At the moment, I'm a firm believer in sticking with the larger compound movements over any number of smaller, isolation exercises.

 

[lavi]

im curious, how do military presses, power shrugs, and deads work the rear delts?

thanks

 

[muscelove]

At the moment, I'm a firm believer in sticking with the larger compound movements over any number of smaller, isolation exercises.[/QUOTE]

I totally agree. Wish i knew 5 years ago what i know now

 

[curgeo]

Lats act as a stabilizer when you bench. You essentially use your lats to lower the bar. The larger the upper back becomes, the less distance the bar has to move.

Like MC said (maybe we should call him mc hammer..LOL) the compound movements are the key. When you do isolation movements, stick to dumbell shrug and cleans to help the rears and rotators...this is essentially the same as a barbell clean.

Another thing to think about when doing isolation stuff (which again is not as effective as compound movements) is when doing bent laterals...try not to pinch your shoulder blades together at the top of the movement...this will keep the rears working. Again, it is not as effective as compound movements that MC Hammer suggested, but it is worth noting.

 

[H_T_]

try doing bb rows in madcows manner. i like them a lot.

 

[blut wump]

im curious, how do military presses, power shrugs, and deads work the rear delts?

thanks

I was just mentioning the exercises I'm doing which might have a bearing on the overall area and which might have contributed towards giving me better results than the isolation work I used to do.

I mentioned deads and power shrugs since the traps sit right next to the rear delts and I don't see how the rear delts can come away fresh from a session of either of those exercises. Don't forget that being a support or stabiliser muscle in a heavy compound exercise can often lead to more development than hitting the muscle directly with light isolation work. Thus also the military press.

 

[anthrax]

Thanks guys!

I'm already doing a nearly 90 degress BB rows

As for Military Press I thought they target the Anterior Deltoids???

I need to correct an imbalance (too much pecs, not enough rear delts) and I thought this exercise would do no good for this specific purpose?

 

[blut wump]

Thanks guys!

I'm already doing a nearly 90 degress BB rows

As for Military Press I thought they target the Anterior Deltoids???

I need to correct an imbalance (too much pecs, not enough rear delts) and I thought this exercise would do no good for this specific purpose?

I've found my lateral delts improving a lot since doing MP. Can't really say they do much for my anterior delts but the movement, along with push press, is a good all-round shoulder exercise. I think the power cleans have been a good contributor to my upper back area of late.

 

[Madcow2]

Thanks guys!

I'm already doing a nearly 90 degress BB rows

As for Military Press I thought they target the Anterior Deltoids???

I need to correct an imbalance (too much pecs, not enough rear delts) and I thought this exercise would do no good for this specific purpose?

Something has to stabalize the bar while it's being pressed. The back comes into play significantly.

You might really look at snatch grip high pulls. Far far better than upright rows or any of that crap and believe me - the first few you do, you will instantly realize there is significant heavy involvement.

 

[view]

I agree with the philosophy so far in this thread that rows, chins, cleans, etc will bring a lot of rear delt growth, but if want, I don't see anything wrong with adding bent over laterals at 3x10-12 at the end of the day.

 

[blut wump]

I've been thinking lately about the heavy compound exercises in general as against the traditional BBer-type isolation exercises and also machine exercises. The biggest difference in feel seems to be that when you're doing the traditional or machine exercises you generally feel very steady and secure, even safe.

With the big exercises there's no comfort zone. You can feel that there's a lot of body involvement to attain and maintain stability. There's a possibility of everything going tits up and a genuine feeling of risk involved. Even with the difference between something like shrugs and power shrugs you're destabilizing the body and having to keep control of a weight you've just turned into a projectile.

I agree, view, nothing wrong with some high-rep isolation work to get the blood flowing, especially if you enjoy it.

 

[muscelove]

I have heard that an imbalance in strength between rear delts or lats and pushing power makes you more prone to injuries aswell. It is what leads to most shoulder especially cuff injuries. There was an article in FLEX about it this month.

 

[Elite_Fry]

Any ideas to hit the rear delts?

OK, let me elaborate a little more:
I've used and abused the typical chest and front delts routine which ended up with rounded shoulders, rotator cuff problems among other issues

So I'd like to correct this muscle imbalance and strengthen the rear deltoids

I'm already doing Bent over lateral raise (though I don't like it), seated rows, rear delt machine and face pulls

do u have an example of ur rounded shoulders?
i think i might have something similar

 

[anthrax]

do u have an example of ur rounded shoulders?
i think i might have something similar

here

 

[Elite_Fry]

i got that shit also
help me get rid of it

 

[Ish]

Try out some face pulls.

 

[anthrax]

i got that shit also
help me get rid of it

I wish I could
and in case you didn't notice it, it's the purpose of this thread

 

[Wylie]

I used the prone reverse lift for fun and it worked,
take two dumbells and bent over from the waist until your upperbody is paraller to the floor. Hold the dumbells palms facing front and arms almost straight lift them close to your body until paraller and hold for a sec. the return to starting position and repeat.
I did anywhere from 1-3 sets of 12-6 reps, takes a little getting used to but after that gave me a good pump on rear delts and was worth it...

 

[emptywallet]

Watch your elbow position when doing presses. And keep your ass and back in that damn chair as well, and avoid the urge to lean back. Here's a decent pic of my shoulders from a long bit ago, before my knee injury.

http://hucker.fdns.net/EWcropped1.jpg
http://hucker.fdns.net/EWcropped2.jpg

 

[Jim Ouini]

Guess I'll chime in as another proponent of the compound moves.

Dead, Military/Push Press, Clean Pull have resulted in some noticeable size gains in my entire shoulder area and traps.

Plus they're just more fun to do than the front raise/bent over fly/chicken wing triumvarite with the 20lb db's.

I don't have to bogart my way down the db rack either

 

[blut wump]

lol @ chicken wing triumvirate

I kind of wondered about lateral raises even back as a complete n00b when I read that the movement is mostly useless unless you keep your pinky uppermost. Another exercise lost in the mists of memory. I sometimes wonder whether I'll find a reason to take all these little exercises up again when I'm an elite lifter.