Alright guys, I just got back from the gym. I tried the following for rear delts:
reverse cable flys (like in the Kai video)
one arm reverse cable flys
dual pulldown machine reverse flys
pulldown face pulls
row station face pulls
Everything feels wrong. The one that feels… passable is the one arm reverse cable fly wit the rope attachment. It feels okay, but my shoulder popped really weirdly a few times. It was… rather unpleasant. I had to drop the weight. It definitely wasn’t cartilage or whatever. Felt like my shoulder almost got dislocated.
With the Kai reverse flys, the attachments kept smacking each other and it was just not feeling good.
And all face pulls crush my pinkies at the top of the movement.
Basically, I need a rear delt isolation movement hardcore. I liked the feel of the reverse pec deck flys, but it’s the particular machine at my gym… it sucks. It’s a bit uneven, I think, and makes my back/shoulders feel weird. Might be part of why my right rhomboid constantly hurts/is stiff.
I am personally in disagreement with most of the advice in this thread.
For me personally and a few people I have helped with their training the most effective movement is high speed back flyes.
Key here is using a higher weight than what you can use with controlled speeds.
Keep the torso 100% locked into position. Pull the bells up with the elbows kept highest, arms 90 degrees away from the body.
Pull up with speed and resist eccentrically.
The powerful concentric contraction from pulling with speed gives a good pump and the eccentric load (it is impossible to hold the bells staticly in the top position due to the leverages and the fact that the muscle fibres of the target muscle is maximally shortened and has a diminished capacity for force production in this position) tears fibres down.
Try it with 6-10rep sets and I would be surprised if you didn’t see noticeable growth.
Everything feels wrong. The one that feels… passable is the one arm reverse cable fly wit the rope attachment. It feels okay, but my shoulder popped really weirdly a few times. It was… rather unpleasant. I had to drop the weight. It definitely wasn’t cartilage or whatever. Felt like my shoulder almost got dislocated.
Any suggestions, guys? Anything?
thanks[/quote]
Try keeping your scapulae back and down all the time: it should make your shoulders a lot more stable.
Try this out, Lie on your back and depending on how strong you are elevate your feet alittle.
Second put some thing under your elbows like an inch or two above floor.Put your elbown on the floor or platform and keep them at your side.
Drive your elbows into the floor and lift up your body,like a reverse pushup.The movement itself doesnt have much range of motion but it isolates your rear delts.As you get stronger try putting your arms straight out like a rear fly.
[quote]ptpoul wrote:
I am personally in disagreement with most of the advice in this thread.
For me personally and a few people I have helped with their training the most effective movement is high speed back flyes.
Key here is using a higher weight than what you can use with controlled speeds.
Keep the torso 100% locked into position. Pull the bells up with the elbows kept highest, arms 90 degrees away from the body.
Pull up with speed and resist eccentrically.
The powerful concentric contraction from pulling with speed gives a good pump and the eccentric load (it is impossible to hold the bells staticly in the top position due to the leverages and the fact that the muscle fibres of the target muscle is maximally shortened and has a diminished capacity for force production in this position) tears fibres down.
Try it with 6-10rep sets and I would be surprised if you didn’t see noticeable growth.[/quote]
I really need to do pre-exhaustion to make any strength (more important for me) or size gains in the rear delts.
I start with deads or rack pulls, move to BO Row, then seated row, then shrugs, then face pulls, and end with high pulley reverse cable flyes. There are usually other exercises interspersed throughout, but those form kind of the core of my back day.
[quote]thephantom wrote:
I second the rear delt raises, but a bit different than dankid. I get the most benefit form doing them 1 arm at a time, and using the heaviest weight possible. I’m not that strong of a guy but even I can use the 60’s for these. Honestly, once I started really pushing the weight my rear delts really blew up. [/quote]
x2
same here, but also found that when i did them 1 arm at a time, you can get 10-12 reps or maybe just 8, then switch to the other arm. Instead of resting and calling it a set, go back and get another 4-6 or more reps out of each shoulder before resting. call it an extended set or whatever, forcing the delts to do more work seems to do it for me.
-use cable bent laterals 1 arm at a time, and using a similar concept above do side laterals as the extended set. so 1 set 10 reps bent cable then move to 8-10 reps of standing side laterals (so 4 sets in all before a break). you will get a great pump.
for front raises used to use a 45lb plate and not stop by looking in the center hole with my eyes, but bring it all the way overhead. when I started going into reps above 12 and got into sets of 20, get a great burn all over and now use a 70lb db. greater benefit from using higher reps for delts.
another trick was to treat it like a lagging bodypart like calves and just hit it more frequently, EOD or every 3rd day. also do reverse upright rows with EZ bar behind my back.
last bit is I use a lifeline fitness “chest expander” for delt training. Matt Furey has some exercises that work great for after I had surgery and rehab it. Getting it stronger I was able to handle heavier weights, then I was able to put some size on.
just 2 cents. hope it helps.
[quote]Artem wrote:
Also, I can never feel my rear delts working. If I ever feel a burn on rear raises, it’s in my upper traps.
Is there some way to feel them better?[/quote]
Mind muscle connection.As stated before on here when training shoulders leave your ego at the door, I have begun doing rear flyes on the pec dec and like it quite a bit.Start light and try to feel your rear delts working and work up from there.
seriously man try what I suggested I never felt my rear delts every until I did those. Then if you follow it with all the fancy stuff you’ll feel it in those too
Go way down in weight, even to just your arm, and do your rear delt exercises as though they are physio/rehab exercises.
Slow concentric
Squeeze at the top for a 3-5 count
Slow eccentric
Repeat
After a few workouts you’ll start to develop the necessary kinesthetic awareness to activate your rear delts in the relevant rear delt exercises.
Then you might discover after a week or two that reverse pec dec flyes at your gym don’t suck anymore! :^D
It’s what muscle mags were talking about when they refer to, dare I say the forbidden words(?), the “mind-muscle connection”. At least it’s what they should be referring to.
cable reverse flys. dont use a D-handle, just grab the ball at the end of the cable. u get a better ROM than reverse pec-dec flys and use more stabilizing muscles.
[quote]Dirty Gerdy wrote:
seriously man try what I suggested I never felt my rear delts every until I did those. Then if you follow it with all the fancy stuff you’ll feel it in those too ;)[/quote]
The plate grabbing thing doesn’t sound good, but I’ll try the squeezing the traps thing.
I’ll also try reverse cable flys again just grabbing the balls, no handles.
I also don’t like that it doesn’t offer much progression. On pec deck, you can add weight pretty steadily. A plate on the cable stack makes a huge difference on flys.
