No real comment from me since my back sucks… I’m just taking notes 
Ok here’s something so that I’m kind of contributing… Face Pulls are awesome for traps/upper middle back. I am a big fan (plus they helped me a lot in recovering from shoulder surgery)
[quote]thrasher_09 wrote:
A lot of good advice thanks guys. Just in relation to the John Meadows heavy chest supported rear delt swings and the wolfe face pulls/other face pulls. I normally rotate the weight at my shoulder joint while not really pulling my shoulder blades together as I always thought these were rear delt movements.
Are you guys pulling your shoulder blades back for the above exercises on each rep? or rotating at the shoulder joint if you know what I mean.
It seems like every back exercise I do my rear delts take over up top if I row to chest and lats take over if I row to bottom. I have been holding my contractions for a 2 sec count on every rep but it just fires up my lats more. My lats are more developed then my mid/lower trap area and I think my thickness is lacking because of it. The only real exercise where I feel my upper back contracting hard is after a set of deadlifts.
I will try the above exercises and see if they help.[/quote]
That makes me wonder if your mid traps/rhomboids are excessively tight/knotted up. Maybe some deep tissue massage of that area along with some activation work (the rope face pulls might be good for this purpose) before rowing and stretching them really well after might help you start to feel them working more eventually.
Really make sure you’re consciously focusing on retracting and squeezing your scapulae together on every rep of your upper back exercises. On barbell and tbar rows like someone said earlier, you’ll use more upper back if you stay at a more 45 degreeish angle as opposed to being parallel to the ground.
On seated rows try using one of those wide neutral grip bars and pulling to just under your chest, protract your scapulae when you go forward then squeeze them together hard when you pull back. Don’t rely on rear delt work to build your traps and rhomboids.
[quote]kingbeef323 wrote:
[quote]thrasher_09 wrote:
A lot of good advice thanks guys. Just in relation to the John Meadows heavy chest supported rear delt swings and the wolfe face pulls/other face pulls. I normally rotate the weight at my shoulder joint while not really pulling my shoulder blades together as I always thought these were rear delt movements.
Are you guys pulling your shoulder blades back for the above exercises on each rep? or rotating at the shoulder joint if you know what I mean.
It seems like every back exercise I do my rear delts take over up top if I row to chest and lats take over if I row to bottom. I have been holding my contractions for a 2 sec count on every rep but it just fires up my lats more. My lats are more developed then my mid/lower trap area and I think my thickness is lacking because of it. The only real exercise where I feel my upper back contracting hard is after a set of deadlifts.
I will try the above exercises and see if they help.[/quote]
That makes me wonder if your mid traps/rhomboids are excessively tight/knotted up. Maybe some deep tissue massage of that area along with some activation work (the rope face pulls might be good for this purpose) before rowing and stretching them really well after might help you start to feel them working more eventually.
Really make sure you’re consciously focusing on retracting and squeezing your scapulae together on every rep of your upper back exercises. On barbell and tbar rows like someone said earlier, you’ll use more upper back if you stay at a more 45 degreeish angle as opposed to being parallel to the ground.
On seated rows try using one of those wide neutral grip bars and pulling to just under your chest, protract your scapulae when you go forward then squeeze them together hard when you pull back. Don’t rely on rear delt work to build your traps and rhomboids.[/quote]
Thanks for the help. I might get some work done on the area and really cut back on the weight to try to feel the muscle working.
Agree with kingbeef and others here:
Wide(ish) grip
45 deg angle (not parallel to floor)
Good contraction (maybe a slight hold/pause)
Other things to add; use a sensible load. When load gets beyond a certain point, it becomes more of a movement (A to B) instead of targeting the target muscles.
Also, throughout the day, practice shrugging your shoulder-blades together (almost like the habit of cracking your knuckles lol). So it’s like a shrug, followed by a horizontal shrug (shoulders up then back) - you’ll probably make it crack too (releasing the gas or whatever). This not only releases tension (‘loosen’ the muscles) and stress, but it will help you to target the muscles better and become more ‘aware’ of them.