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[Al Shades]

And to make this thread relevant to the exercise section, I've included my write-up for targetting the rear deltoids.

Originally Posted by Al Shades

Rear Delts are one of the hardest muscle groups to hit, since every movement that involves them is largely dominated by scapular retraction caused by the mid back muscles. Try bringing your upper arm rearwards without retracting your shoulder blades and "squinching" your back. It's nearly impossible. If you do not pay incredibly close attention to this while training, anything you do for the rear delts is going to turn into a mid back exercise instead. To give you an example of what I mean, look at the photo animation for transverse extension from exrx.net:

http://www.exrx.net/AnimatedEx/Delto...earDeltRow.gif

Notice how far he is bringing his shoulder blades back. This movement has nothing to do with the rear delts. His upper arm is barely being drawn rearward on its own.

I have a discovered a few strategies for isolating the rear deltoids:

1) Train them with your arms at a high angle in relation to the torso.

I need to take a step back here and explain that chest and back exercises are perfectly analogous. Every chest movement is either a press or a flye. Every back movement is either a row or a reverse flye. A row is the exact opposite of a press, and a reverse flye is the exact opposite of a flye. All chest and back movements can be done in either a horizontal plane (ex. flat bench/seated row), or at a high or low angle, (ex. decline/incline benches and bent-over rows). For some reason, nobody ever thinks to do high angle rows, probably because they're difficult to setup. If you want rear delts, you need to do your rows at a high angle. If you do wide grip pullups, you recruit them to some extent. However, with vertical pullups, the angle is simply too high. To make an analogy with chest training, you're turning a high angle, incline bench into an overhead press. That won't do. So what I do is rear delt pulldowns on a lat pulldown machine, using a very wide grip and leaning very far back with my torso so that the angle of pull won't be vertical. I hold the posterior lean throughout the movement, and really focus on drawing the upper arm rearwards, NOT the shoulder blades.

2) Second tip is just what I mentioned before: Pull with your upper arms, not your back retraction muscles.

3) Third tip, which is very useful, is to do a variation of a shoulder doorway static stretch before performing all of your rear delt movements. Basically, you are going to mimic the rear delt row done CORRECTLY - as described above - and simply hold in the fully retracted position. The tricky part is bringing your upper arm back as far as you can to stretch it without retracting that scapula. One trick you can use to ensure this is to flare your lats as hard as you can. Flexing the lats will prevent the mid back muscles from activating and squinching your shoulder blades. Raise your arm in the position of the rear delt row, grab onto something with your hand, flare your lats, and then, very slowly, turn your torso towards the wall or object you are holding onto, thus drawing your rear arm backwards. You should not try to physically retract the upper arm, as you would in the row. This will defeat the purpose of the stretch.

http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/ga...id_stretch.jpg

So you are doing a shoulder doorway stretch as pictured above, but without significant scapular retraction. Most people have tight muscles in the front of their shoulders and torso, so this stretch will greatly help them to activate their rear delts due to the principal of reciprical inhibition. Do it right before performing your rear delt rows and flyes. Remember to turn your torso in order to draw the upper arm rearwards, and go VERY SLOWLY. Your body wants to perform this movement by retracting the shoulder blades. It takes much effort in order to teach it otherwise. I have to turn extremely slowly and hold my breath throughout the entire stretch or else my back will squinch.

Comments? Make sense? Please leave feedback on this post if you found it informative, didn't understand it, or if you disagree with my methods.

[KopyKat]

Originally Posted by Al Shades

And to make this thread relevant to the exercise section, I've included my write-up for targetting the rear deltoids.

Great article, i should recruit you for our postural article project:

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...0#post11437870

You focus on aspects that i understand now as well due to experimenting.

[Al Shades]

Ah, posture is a very interesting and complex subject. I do have some techniques for posture, flexibility and mobility that I would readily share. Contact me if you ever want my input on something.

[SDFlip]

face pulls are similar to your rear delt pulldowns

[Al Shades]

Pretty much.

[SDFlip]

Originally Posted by Al Shades

Pretty much.

try it with a rope next time

[Al Shades]

Wouldn't go wide enough. I now prefer doing it with a bar while standing next to a mirror so that I can see my rear delts contracting.

[SDFlip]

Originally Posted by Al Shades

Wouldn't go wide enough. I now prefer doing it with a bar while standing parallel to a mirror so that I can see my rear delts contracting.

i guess you are limited by the length of the rope attachment. the ones i've used have been pretty long so they work fine.

if you pull the rope apart as you pull back, you can get a better ROM and really squeeze your rear delts. the bar will stop at your neck/chest but the rope will let you go much further.


also have you tried doing a rear delt fly with cables. put the pulley about eye level and keep your elbow locked. like a reverse fly but with your arm completely straight.

[sgtrobo]

DB's work great for these, better than anything I've tried. Incorporates rotator cuff as well, I used these to help get my rotator cuff bback in order. Using DBs allows for a better peak contraction at the top of the motion.

The way I describe it is to bend over with 2 DBs, sit at the end of a bench, lean forward so that your upper body is parallel and the 'bells hang down at your sides, then row the DB's to your eyes keeping your elbows up and back as far as possible, then control the descent.

works like mad.

[spider28]

or u can use the cable cross machine to hit the delts