The Best Rear Delt Exercise You Should Do

Bench press variants, frontal and lateral raises, and overhead presses are exercises that can help you strengthen your shoulders. All of those workouts are excellent, but you must also exercise your rear delts, also known as posterior deltoids. This is why you would want to incorporate some of the best rear delt exercises.

An imbalance between the three deltoid heads might eventually cause serious rotator cuff issues. You also do not want to have poor posture due to this imbalance that likely dragging your shoulders forwards.

To avoid an imbalanced shoulder and a higher risk of a shoulder injury. Our list of the best rear delt exercises will help you better balance your shoulders.

In this article we hope to answer and explain:

1. Is Rear Delts Back Or Shoulders?
2. Are Rear Delts Hard To Grow?
3. Best Rear Delt Exercise
4. Other Rear Delt Exercises

 

Is Rear Delts Back Or Shoulders?

Even though the rear delts (posterior deltoid) functions more like a back muscle. The rear delts are actually one of the three deltoid heads on your shoulders.

The anterior deltoid helps in pressing exercises like the bench press as well as raising your arms in front of you. The posterior deltoid raises your humerus behind you as you walk or pull something, while the middle deltoid elevates your arms out to the sides.

The rear delt serves a critical function as a dynamic shoulder stabilizer in addition to its positive effects on posture.

 

Are Rear Delts Hard To Grow?

Rear delts are not necessarily hard to grow but can be easily overlooked in workouts. A lot of people also dont properly target the rear delts.

One of the reasons for this is that they’re really completing exercises with different muscle groups since they’re using too much weight to complete the exercise.

We must recognize that it won’t take much weight to strike the back delts effectively since they are difficult to hit. Although it might be argued that movements that activate the delts, such as high pulls and cleans, can be done with heavy weight, a lot of the effort is really done by the upper traps and other back muscles.

This is why we should focus on doing workouts such as face-pulls, as explained later in this article, along with your workout. These isometric exercises will really help pump up your rear delts.

Make sure to use lightweights or bands to really target the rear delts without activating larger muscle groups. It is important to keep your form.

This is where our list of the best rear delt exercises will really come in handy.

 

Best Rear Delt Exercise

Face pull is known as one of the best rear delt exercises. It combines two of the three tasks of the rear deltoids, horizontal abduction and external rotation of the humerus. This makes it a very effective exercise for the rear delts and upper back. This workout is a great warm-up or primer before an upper body workout session. It also works well as a “burner” exercise at the end of an upper-body, shoulder, or back workout. This is one of the best rear delt exercises because of the way it isolates the rear delts.

How to perform this workout:

1. On a cable machine, adjust the pulley so that the rope handle is at eye level.

2. Take a few steps away from the pulley while holding one end of the rope in each hand so that the cable is taut and your arms are extended in front of you.

3. Set your feet shoulder-width apart and stand straight up. Your knees should be slightly bent. Draw the rope towards your eyes while maintaining your elbows up, allowing your hands to pull the rope apart until they are over your shoulders.

4. Reverse the motion, then take up your initial posture.

If you do not have a cable machine you may also you an exercise band as well. Following the same steps and movement.

If you do not have access to either but have a pair of dumbbells, one of the best rear delt exercise is the rear dumbbell lateral raises.

In addition to putting the back delts at a proper angle to defy gravity and generate force, the bent-over position puts additional posterior chain muscle to use by activating the posterior core and spinal erectors. This movement has stood the test of time and is a classic.

How to perform this workout:

1. Bend at the hips, whether you’re sitting or standing, to get your upper body as near to parallel to the floor as you can.

2. Holding a dumbbell in each hand, raise the dumbbells out to the sides until your upper arm is parallel to the floor. Maintain a flat back throughout.

3. It’s not necessary to maintain your arms completely straight; a slight bend in the elbows is typically more comfortable.

4. Reverse the motion, then take up your initial posture.

 

Other Rear Delt Exercises

One of the other best rear delt exercise is barbell rear delt row.

Similar to the barbell row, the barbell rear delt row involves pulling the weight to your mid-chest rather than your stomach. This makes the exercise harder on your upper back and rear delts while reducing the contribution of your lats to it.

How to perform this workout:

1. Place your feet under a weighted barbell with your toes pointing outward and roughly shoulder-width apart.

2. With your palms facing inward and a little broader than shoulder width, lean down and grab the bar.

3. Letting your arms dangle straight down, flatten your back until it is nearly parallel to the floor.

4. Make careful to flare your elbows at roughly a 60-degree angle with respect to your torso as you pull the barbell to your mid-chest area.

5. Reverse the motion once the bar reaches your body, then restart the exercise.

Using the reverse fly machine if available is a great way to target the rear delts. Using this machine makes it quite simple to perform one of the best rear delt exercise.

This exercise shouldn’t replace other exercises, but it’s a great option that allows you to perform the movement with lighter weights and safely.

How to perform this exercise:

1. Your feet should be firmly planted on the floor when you sit down with your face to the machine. Your shoulders should be level with the handles.

2. Put your chest against the pad while holding the grips with your palms facing down. Move the weight back in an arc until your arms are straight out to your sides while keeping a tiny bend in your elbows.

3. Reverse the motion, then take up your initial posture.