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When it comes to shoulder development the front and lateral head of the shoulder gets enough stimulation, even from the compound lifts, but the rear delt is almost always left out of the equation.
The average gym goer always neglects the rear delt exercise just by being ignorant to what they truly offer.
A stronger well rounded shoulder comes from development of all three heads. This should come as a no-brainer that if you don't inflate a balloon in all directions then it won't become well rounded, the same is the case with our shoulders we must work every striated head with the same intensity. To build well rounded shoulders do the following exercises.
The idea of best rear delt exercises is quite flimsy, but the best exercises for you, now that is something you should go after. Don't just find the best exercises, find the best exercises for you and for starters you can try these following exercises.
The name clears the exercise itself, you take a resistance band and you try to pull it apart. It's easier said than done but to target the rear delt you must do it in the following manner.
This is a well known rear delt exercise. The average gym goer does this and has returns on even light weight. This exercise however has a very long learning curve and you must practice this for a long time and after doing so you might feel your rear delt activated perfectly doing face pulls.
The Dumbbell reverse fly has been a primary movement for old school bodybuilders to develop the rear delts.
The Inverted row or Australian pull ups are a famous calisthenics exercise used to build a good base and strength in the upper body region. This exercise is often recommended to increase strength for doing pull ups.
The pull up is an ultimate back builder, it hits your lats, traps, lower back and rear delts. To make this movement a rear delt dominant you should use a wider grip.
The common misconception in bodybuilding is that a wider grip on lat Pulldown will make the lats wider but that is not so. The wider grip on lat Pulldown is a rear Delt dominant exercise.
The single arm dumbbell row has been in practice ever since the inception of free weights and today also many bodybuilders and strength athletes still do this movement. With a slight modification you can target rear delts effectively.
The bent over barbell row is considered to be the best back builder by many bodybuilders. This movement has the same mechanics of a deadlift and targets your entire back with slight modifications. Let's see how you can target rear delts using a bent over barbell row.
To target your rear delts efficiently you must understand the mechanism which targets your rear delts without engaging your triceps and traps and that falls on two main factors, exercise selection and volume.
The rear delt muscle is difficult for any beginner to hit properly, first you must learn to adjust to the movement and for that you must pick the correct exercise according to your intensity.
You can start hitting rear delts on the machine first if you are a beginner and slowly you can start hitting them on a cable machine, then you can slowly progress to using dumbbells and barbells.
The overall volume in training rear Delts matter a lot, for beginners hitting 4-5 sets with high reps and lighter weight is going to train rear delts effectively, but as soon as you increase your compound lifts then you can start to lower the sets and reps on your rear delts as they get enough stimulation from your compound lifts. Some professional bodybuilders only need 1-2 sets for stimulating rear delts.
Training rear delts can sometimes get tedious as the learning curve on every rear delts exercise is long. The rear delt exercise first needs some amount of muscle mass to develop beforehand to even feel the muscle working during the workout or when you flex them. To properly feel the rear delts during workout you can follow these tips.
Your scapular movement dictates either traps or rear delts are working, to engage your rear delts properly remember to retract your Scapula back and stuff throughout the rear delts exercise.
Training your rear delts will jot cause any pre fatigue while you workout your heavy compound lifts, so training your rear delts first will lead to better gains and safer progression.
Your exercise variables include the weight, tempo and number of reps and just changing weight might not cut it, so try to change your workout tempo first and then increase your reps and only when you've become comfortable in these two ranges then you increase the weight you're lifting.
The reason why most people don't train rear delts is because they don't know how rear delts improve your other lifts and how balanced a well rounded shoulder looks. The benefits of training rear delts are as follows.
A well developed rear delt improves shoulder stability in your presses. A well developed shoulder gives a superior performance during bench press and shoulder press and helps avoid injuries.
A well developed rear delt pinches the upper back muscles so you always keep your chest out and proud giving you a better posture.
If you wish to see how well rear delts help you in your upper body strength just look at people who train rear delts regularly and the people who don't. The people who train their rear delts regularly have a better stability performance and gain strength and size faster.
The rear delt is a muscle which contributes to the overall shoulder gains. The rear delts have small fibers stretching from the scapula to the shoulder. These fibers help stabilize the shoulder joint in presses and pulls with ease. The anatomical study of the rear delt also confirms how important the rear delt muscles are to our upper body strength and stability