The rear delt fly is an awesome exercise to strengthen the posterior deltoids, improve your physique, prevent shoulder injuries and improve posture. In fact, it’s one of the best rear delt exercises. This movement can be performed with dumbbells, plates, a rear delt fly machine or a cable pulley machine. In today’s article, we will give you some simple tips to make your rear delt fly technique more effective, no matter whether you perform this exercise with dumbbells, plates, or some sort of resistance training machine.
Position your Hands in a Neutral Grip
To make the rear delt fly technique more effective, make sure your palms face each other in a neutral grip position.
This position has been shown to recruit the rear delts more effectively for better results. You can even use a neutral grip if you perform this exercise as a cable rear delt fly. Just turn your palms towards each other.
Keep your Shoulders Down
Keeping your shoulders down can help you make sure you are not over-activating your upper traps.
By keeping your shoulders down and relaxed, you help keep the emphasis on your rear delts.
Bent your Elbows Very Slightly
Bending your elbows very slightly throughout the rear delt fly can help you keep the focus on your posterior deltoid muscles. If your arms are too bent at the beginning, you may recruit different muscles instead. Conversely, if you keep your arms too straight, you may also fail to target the rear delts or end up with joint pain.
Keep your Lats Tight
Keeping your lats tight throughout the rear delt fly can also help you stabilize your shoulders and keep from recruiting more powerful muscles thoughout this movement.
Use Light Weight
Many people need to lighten the weight on this exercise to make sure they actually use their rear delts instead of recruiting bigger, stronger muscle groups. When in doubt, keep the weight on the lighter side and focus on the mind-muscle connection.
Use High Reps
The rear delts are a postural stabilizer muscle that consists of mostly slow twitch muscle fibers. You probably want to do 10-30 reps per set on this exercise to target the rear delt muscles most effectively.
Manipulate your Exercise Order
REar delt flies are best performed near the end of your upper body workouts. Perform your heavy compound movements before focusing on isolation movements like rear delt flies near the end of your training sessions.
Final Thoughts
The rear delt fly is an effective accessory exercise for the posterior deltoids. By following the tips in this article, you can better recruit and strengthen your rear delt muscles for better posterior shoulder development, strength and performance.
