Having bigger and healthy shoulder muscles means doing the right exercises and also be committed to what you do. The deltoids are shoulder muscles with three heads; front, middle, and back. There are a lot of best rear delt exercises that you can do to focus on the back shoulder muscles. And there are also medial deltoid exercises as well as side delt exercises. In the following paragraphs, you are spoiled with a lot of delt workouts that are good for your back, medial, and front deltoids. Those best rear delt exercises are explained properly with clear steps to follow if you want to do them.
By the end of the article, you will know how to build your shoulder muscles as well as strengthening them.
Rear Delt Exercises At Home
You might be wondering how to hit your rear delts at home. However, there are different best rear delt exercises that you can do at home to target the rear delts. Remember, that deltoids or delts have 3 heads; front, middle, and back.
Bent Over Lateral Raise
The bent over lateral raise is a strength exercise that targets the delts muscles. You should try this great exercise if you want to have good-looking delts muscles that are not inflated. To do the exercise follow the instructions below;
- Holding a pair of dumbbells, stand with your feet at shoulder width distance. Keep your arms hanging and the palms facing each other.
- Then bend your body at torso level until your chest is parallel to the ground and keep your spine flat. Bring the dumbbells in front of your knees.
- Engage your core and keep your shoulder blades pinched. Then bring up your arms until they are parallel to the floor.
- Pause for a second and slowly return the arms to the starting position.
- Repeat.
Rear Delt Exercises With Dumbbells
With access to dumbbells, you can do various exercises to target the rear delts muscles. Interestingly, you can do these exercises at home because you don’t need a lot of equipment. Below are the deltoid exercises with dumbells that you can do,
Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise
- Holding the dumbbells in your hands, stand with your feet at shoulder width apart. Make sure your shoulder blades are pinched throughout the exercise.
- Make sure that your palms are facing your body sides.
- Then raise the dumbbell up to the neck level, keeping your arms sideways and fully stretched. Breathe as you lift the weights.
- Return the weights slowly to the starting position.
- Repeat.
Bent Over Dumbbell Lateral Raise
This exercise is good for rear delts. It makes them stronger and bigger. Additionally, it also increases the pull and push performance. Besides working the shoulder muscles, this exercise is also good for strengthening the upper back, chest, and arm muscles. This is how you do the bent over dumbbell lateral raise,
- While holding a pair of dumbbells, stand with your feet at shoulder width apart.
- Bend your torso until your chest is parallel to the floor.
- Lift the dumbbells and make sure that you maintain your arms sideways until those arms are parallel to the floor.
- Pause at the top of the movement and then reverse the movement to lower the weight to the starting position.
- Repeat the movement to reach the number of preferred repetitions.
Rear Delt Exercises For Beginners
As a beginner, you might struggle to do some exercises. As such, you will need to start with easy exercises and upgrade as time goes on. Below are the beginner friendly best rear delt exercises.
Standing Cable Face Pull
If you just joined the gym and you want to focus on your shoulders, the standing cable face pull is one of the exercises that you can do.
- Start by setting a cable machine and make sure that the pulley is at the highest setting.
- Stand in front of a machine with your feet at shoulder-width apart.
- Grasp the rope handles and extend your arms in front of you. Bend your knees slightly.
- Then pull the rope handles towards your face until you feel your shoulder blades being pinched.
- Repeat.
Side Delt Exercises
The side deltoids are also known as the middle deltoids. There are several exercises that you can do to hit those muscles.
Lying Side Laterals
To hit the middle deltoids, you can do the lying side laterals.
- Firstly set up a bench and make sure that it is secure. Then lie on top of a bench on your side and pivot with your elbow on the same bench.
- Pick up the dumbbell with the other hand that is free. Then lift the dumbbell up until the arm is perpendicular to the floor.
- Lower the dumbbell to the starting position.
- Repeat.
Besides the lying side laterals exercise, other exercises that hit the middle deltoids include rear military press, barbell upright row, dumbbell reverse overhead laterals, and more.
Underdeveloped Rear Delts
Having underdeveloped rear delts can make you feel uncomfortable. You might experience stability problems at the shoulders. Additionally, you might experience pain and that can cause poor posture.
There are several things that may help you develop your rear delts. As you develop your deltoids muscles, you should avoid doing the same exercises. Do various exercises to hit those rear delts.
Developing the rear delts is difficult. Targeting the rear delts is also tricky especially if you are a beginner. It is advised to avoid using weight when you are targeting the rear delts. Using heavyweight makes it difficult to hit the rear delts and that can make other muscle groups handle the weight.
In addition to that, doing the exercises in the wrong form makes it difficult to hit the rear delts. The way you do exercises contribute to the development of your muscles. In most cases, rear delts exercises are all about arm abduction and rotation. Make sure that you get that right when doing exercises such as resisted scapular slide, reverse grip rear delt flye, face pull, and many others.
Resistance Band Rear Delt Exercises
With the resistance band, you can do several exercises to target the rear delt muscles. Some exercises that you can do are as follows,
Resistance Band Rear Delt
This is one of the beginner-friendly exercises that you can do at home. The resistance band rears delt exercise is good for strengthening your shoulder muscles as well as the arm muscles. This is how you do it,
- While holding a resistance band, stand with your feet at hip-width apart
- Make sure that you are holding the ends on a resistance band. Then make your arms straight in sideways so that the band is crossing your chest.
- Bring your arms back again until they are even with your shoulders.
- Return your arms to the starting position.
- Repeat.
Apart from this exercise, other resistance band rear delts exercises include band bent overfly, band rear delt lift, band face pull, and more.
Rear Delt Exercises Cable
You can also take advantage of a cable machine to hit your rear delts. However, it is always important to know which exercises target the rear delts muscles and knowing the proper way of doing the exercises. If you have access to a cable machine, you can do the following exercises,
Cable High Pulley Lateral Extension
This is one of the best deltoid exercises. It hits the rear delts. Additionally, it also works the rhomboids, traps, lats, and many others. This is how you do the exercise,
- Make sure that the pulley is in the highest settings.
- Then grasps the left pulley with the right hand and the right pulley with the left hand
- Stand upright with your feet at shoulder width apart.
- Start extending your arms diagonally until they are beside your body. Pause in that position and squeeze the upper back muscles.
- Return your arms to the starting position and repeat the movement to reach the number of desired reps.
Other exercises that you can do include crossbody shoulder raise, standing cable rear delt fly, one arm bent over cable lateral raise and many others.
Front Delt Exercises
As much as there are rear delt exercises, there are also exercises that are specifically good at hitting the front deltoids muscles. If you want to target the front delts, you can try the following exercises,
- Cable front raise
- Dumbbell front raise
- Arnold press
- Decline push-ups
- Dumbbell lateral raise
Best Rear Delt Exercises Bodybuilding
Bodybuilding exercises make it easy to train your shoulders if you don’t have GYM equipment. Interestingly, there are several bodybuilding delts workouts that you can do. The following exercises are good at targeting your rear delts muscles, and they make them stronger.
- Pike push-ups
- Assisted pull-ups
- Bodyweight lateral raise
- Rear delt row with bedsheet
- Rear delt fly with bedsheet
Final Thoughts
With the best rear delt exercises, you can work your shoulder muscles. However, the shoulder muscles consist of the rear deltoid, middle deltoid, and front deltoid. Therefore, you will need to work all those muscles to make your entire shoulder stronger and bigger.
As discussed above, weaker shoulder muscles make you suffer. You might fail to do the day-to-day activities, and you might experience shoulder pains. Your shoulders can easily get injured if they are weak. But training those deltoids make you live a healthy life.
Have you tried the rear deltoid exercises? Which ones will you recommend and what advice are you sharing with others who are in course to work their shoulder muscles? Share your thoughts and experiences below.