Even people that workout a lot, like body builders, and regularly perform exercises for the rear delts will tell you that the posterior delt is a very difficult muscle to work. You have to pay attention to strict form when working your rear delts so that other larger muscles don’t take over and power the movement. This is the reason why we just focus on rear delts as the only upper body muscle we work after training the lower body in several of the XTRAIN workouts.
In the XTrain Bonus Rear Delts workout you will do three exercises for three sets that focus on developing the rear delts. This bonus workout should only take you about 10 minutes. You will be able to do this workout separately or as part of a premix with the rest of the routine.
Your Shoulder muscles can be divided into three groups:
1. Anterior Deltoid – located in the front of each shoulder
2. Lateral Deltoid – middle part of your shoulder
3. Posterior Deltoid – Back part of your shoulder
Interestingly, a study that compared the shoulder strength of body builders to sedentary people found that the body builders had anterior deltoids (front) that were 500% stronger than people who didn’t work out. They also had lateral deltoids (middle) that were 300% stronger when compared to the sedentary group. But get this! The body builder’s posterior delts (back) were only 15% stronger!
Muscle imbalances between the front and rear delts can partly be explained by the over emphasis of exercises that work the anterior delt and the lack of selecting exercises for the posterior delt. Pressing movements like bench presses and pushups are among the favorite and most used exercises by my most people who workout, but as far as the shoulder muscles are concerned these exercises usually favor the anterior delts.
To really work the posterior delts you need to mainly select isolation exercises that specifically work this area of the shoulder. Many people just skip exercises for the rear delts because of time constraints and lack of interest in working such a small muscle they know little about.
With today’s lifestyle of slouching in a chair with our arms typing on a keyboard it is no wonder so many people have bad posture and weak posterior delts. With a little focus you can strengthen your delts which will improve your posture and hopefully prevent a shoulder injury. And if that’s not enough, having toned delts will make you look better and thinner when wearing an arm and shoulder exposed dress.
