Rear delts--Shonie are you out there? Or anyone else

[Maximus]

who might have input..........

Anyway I have pretty decent shoulders, I military press 27.5 lb dumbells, flies with 22.5 dumbells, front raises w/ 25 lb dumbbells, bent over flies with 25 lb dumbells.........

So one of the trainers at my gym was giving me constructive criticism (& I did take it for what it was b/c it was not done in an offensive way whatsoever). Basically he said the rear delts are one of the hardest muscles to build, & while I had good shoulder definition & striations the rear delts definitely needed some work. I talked to another trainer who I'm pretty good friends with (my sweet little 24 year old) & asked what he thought. He said turn around & flex your shoulders. So we both did & I'm looking in the mirror seeing no definition while he had this pretty cool looking line going down the rear delt. I definitely noticed a pronounced difference & was thinking WTH, I guess this is pretty much the only body part where I really haven't had much results.

I asked what he thought I should do to build this muscle (I just love free advice from pros LOL), b/c there is no way I have time to add to my routine & lets face it, rear delt exercises are pretty much the same damn thing (bent over flies, be it dumbbells, cables, whatever........I'm not aware of any other rear delt exercise).

He said I should just add 3 sets of heavy bent over flies to every single weight training workout, basically adding an additional 9 sets of rear delt exercises.

I'm interested in any other opinions. Shonie I'd really like your take on this, if you're out there, & anyone else who might help me build this body part.

 

[Rogue]

Hello Maximus. I have asked your question of a man who has amazing well-rounded shoulder muscles. Here are his suggested exercises:



"-Reverse cable crossovers lying on bench

-Seated laterals(bringing the dumbells from under your thighs)

-Standing Butterfly laterals(start slightly leaning forward and bring the dumbells from in front of thighs, and leaning back during the movement to bring the rear delts more into play).

-Standing behind thigh laterals(bringing the dumbells up from behind the thighs and leaning back during the movement)

-Lying laterals bringing weight up from in front of your thighs

-Lying laterals bringing the weight up from behind your thighs

-Lying laterals with a thumbs down grip


Power exercises for rear delts

-Wide grip bentover rows to chest
-Leaning forward Wide grip upright rows
-Wide grip cable rows to neck
-Bentover dumbell rows with overhand grip"

At least there are some options here to try. What works for some does't work for others. Hopefully you will be able to make use of this info.

 

[kathryn]

I'd start my shoulder routine with the rear delt work (bent-over flyes, or probably better, cable flyes) to hit them before they are fatigued from assisting the other shoulder muscles. By preexhausting them, when they do "help" the other shoulder muscles, you can squeeze a little bit more out of them than you could otherwise.

Then I'd do the rest of my shoulder work (though I don't usually do anterior shoulder work. I agree with Jerry Robinson of "Health for Life" research and publishing (co-author of "The 7-Minute Rotator Cuff Solution" and author of a number of weight training manuals), that the front shoulders are well worked during chest work, and it's more common for people to have an upper body imbalance from doing too much chest/anterior shoulder work vs. back work---and since we do more pushing moves in daily life those muscles are already more worked through our daily activities).

As a final burn, you could do some band rear shoulder exercises at the end of your shoulder workout. Or maybe even a rotator cuff exercise (hold both ends of the band, with your arms down at your sides, elbows bent at 90 degrees, then pull back with your hands, keeping your elbows locked to the sides) that also gets the rear delt.

One thing I noticed with your weights (which are very impressive, by the way!), you are lifting the same amount with front and rear. Usually, the rear delt is harder to hit withh heavy weights, so maybe you are involving the lats and other back muscles more than necessary when lifting this weight. Try a session or two DECREASING (I know, it seems to go against what your goals are, but bear with me) the weight you use on rear flyes. And focus on form, a two-count lift, a one-count squeeze and hold at the top of the move, and a 4-count lowering. By focusing on isolating the rear delt, you might see some changes.

Them's my suggestions. Do with them what you will!