Best Rear Delt Exercises: 7 Moves for Fuller Shoulders

The best rear delt exercises are the reverse pec deck, the cable rear delt fly, the bent-over dumbbell rear delt raise, the face pull and the wide-grip row to the upper chest. Do 6 to 12 hard sets a week, keep the weight light enough that your shoulder blades don't do all the work, and use 12-25 reps. That's most of what it takes.

The rear delts are the back third of the shoulder. They're small, they're hard to see in the mirror, and they get skipped more than any other part of the shoulder. When they're developed, the shoulder looks round from the side and the back, not just from the front. Here's how to train them properly.

What the rear delts do and why they lag

The rear delt pulls your upper arm backward and out to the side, like the end of a wide row or the motion of spreading your arms behind you. It also helps rotate the arm outward. Pressing doesn't train it at all, and most rows only hit it a little, because the lats and mid back take most of the load.

That's why so many lifters have big front delts from benching and a flat spot at the back of the shoulder. From the side, the shoulder looks like it tips forward. Adding rear delt work fixes the look and balances out all the pressing, which most people's shoulders appreciate.

The 7 best rear delt exercises

Pick two of these per session, ideally one fly-type movement and one pull:

• Reverse pec deck: 3 sets of 12-20. Easy to set up, stable, and simple to push close to failure. Use a neutral grip on the handles.
• Cable rear delt fly: 3 sets of 12-20. Cross the cables at shoulder height and pull your hands out and back. Constant tension through the whole range.
• Bent-over dumbbell rear delt raise: 3 sets of 15-25. Hinge forward until your torso is near parallel and raise the dumbbells out to the sides.
• Chest-supported rear delt raise: 3 sets of 15-20 lying face down on an incline bench. Removes the cheating that happens when you stand bent over.
• Face pull: 3 sets of 12-15 with a rope at upper chest to face height. Rear delts plus mid traps.
• Wide-grip row to the upper chest: 3 sets of 10-12 on a cable or chest-supported machine, elbows flared out at about 70-80 degrees.
• Single-arm cable rear delt row: 2-3 sets of 12-15 per arm. Pull the handle back and out with the elbow high.

Rear delt form: keep the shoulder blades quiet

The most common mistake is turning every rear delt exercise into a back exercise. If you squeeze your shoulder blades together hard at the end of each rep, the mid traps and rhomboids take over. For rear delts, let the shoulder blades move a little but think about sweeping your arms out in a wide arc, as if you're trying to touch the walls on either side of you.

Lead with the elbows or the pinky side of the hand, keep a soft bend in the elbows, and stop when your arms are in line with your body. Going further back just shortens the rear delt and hands the rep to your upper back. Lower each rep under control in about two seconds. If you have to swing your torso to get the weight up, it's too heavy.

A small trick on the reverse pec deck: set the seat so the handles are at shoulder height and sit a little farther from the pad. You'll feel the back of the shoulder much more and the traps less.

How heavy should rear delt exercises be?

Lighter than your ego wants. Plenty of strong lifters do bent-over rear delt raises with 10-20 lb (4-9 kg) dumbbells and reverse pec deck sets with 50-90 lb (22-40 kg). If you're moving the whole stack on a pec deck in a blur, most of the work is coming from somewhere else.

Higher reps suit this muscle. Sets of 12 to 25, taken within one or two reps of failure, build it well and are easy on the joints. The best rep range for hypertrophy guide explains why light, hard sets grow muscle about as well as heavy ones. Progress by adding reps first, then the smallest weight jump you can find, like 2.5 lb (1 kg) plates or the next pin on the stack.

Sets, frequency and where to put them

Most people grow their rear delts well on about 6 to 12 direct sets a week, split over two or three sessions. Heavy rowing adds some indirect work on top. If your rear delts are clearly behind, push toward the top of that range for a few months, then drop back once they've caught up. Our guide on how many sets per muscle per week shows how to raise volume without burying yourself.

Rear delts recover fast and don't take much out of you, so they fit almost anywhere. You can put them at the end of a pull day, after lateral raises on a shoulder day, or even between sets of bench press as a superset. Just leave enough rest that you're not shaking on the second exercise.

A sample rear delt routine

Two short blocks a week is enough for most lifters. Rest 45-75 seconds between sets.

• Pull day: wide-grip chest-supported row 3x10-12, reverse pec deck 3x15-20.
• Shoulder or push day: cable rear delt fly 3x12-20, face pull 2x12-15.
• At home: bent-over dumbbell rear delt raise 3x15-25 and band pull-aparts 2x20, three times a week.

How rear delts fit into the rest of your shoulders

Rear delts don't make you much wider from the front, that's the side delts' job. What they add is depth. A shoulder with a full rear head looks round from every angle, and it shows clearly in back poses and side shots. Pair this plan with a shoulder workout for wider shoulders and you'll cover all three heads without extra front delt work.

The back of the shoulder also sits right next to the upper back and lats, so it frames a wide back nicely. The back exercises for width post covers the pulling side, and how to build traps explains how face pulls and rows hit the mid traps at the same time. To see rounder delts on your own photo, try the shoulder editor.

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