I need to write about these. In isolation, they dont amount for much. In conjunction with heavy lifting (not even necessarily in the same session) they are a boon.
Lets start here. Rear delt work seems like bullshit. Its a small piece of the pie, and going heavy negates the point of training it (with one teensy exception ill mention later). So why bother? Wont my delts get trained with compound movements? Ill feed you baby dick.
Los reasons
1) Stability
In compound movements that engage rear delts (upper body pulls, snatch deads, overhead pressing) your rear delts are activated as stabilizers but not movers. A more stable person is a stronger person. Case and point, can you move more weight on a bench press or overhead press? Got'em.
2) Shoulder health
Sooner or later, your shoulders are going to be a problem. This is usually diagnosed along with YOU GOD DAMN MONGOLIANS AND YOUR BAD BENCH PRESS FORM. Does bench pressing fuck up your shoulders? Not really. More so a mixture of muscular imbalances (i.e. mega front delts, teeny tiny rear delts), awful repeated movement patterns (looking at both the bench and straight bar chinups), and the most damning....sitting at a work desk. That being said, most people have shoulder issues whether or not they lift, so poor form is not the culprit here.
I used to think i was exempt from this. Heavy weighted chinups were my bread and butter. Until...they werent. This was expressed first by my elbows, then by my shoulders. I would regularly go months where my left shoulder was imflammed day and night.
The fix and prehab for this pain: rear delt work.
3) Hypertrophy on the 3d level
Circling back to the first sentence in this article, rear delt work on its own wont do shit for your overall shoulder size. In conjunction with heavy lifting, it will make your delts pop giving you a 3d appearance. Fuck. Yes. Bruh.
Rear delt movements
Note: This is not a comprehensive list. There are way more amazing rear delt movements out there for you to discover and use. These are the ones I cherish.
Compounds:
- snatch grip high pulls
- rows (tbar, pendlay, bent over, yates, bw)
I err more to high pulls than anything else. They are basically pf fliers for your upper back, legs, ass, and shoulders. All without having to go heavy (in comparison to deadlifts). They will make you bigger, faster, and stronger while asking for very little in return.
For both high pulls and rows, explore all rep ranges >= 3.
Isolation:
- rear delt raises (one are at a time)
- rear delt swings (a la John Meadows https://www.t-nation.com/training/rear-delt-destroyer-sets)
There is a huge difference between the two(2) isolation movements above. Rear delt raises are light high rep movements, and rear delt swings are heavy high rep movements. Do them both on different days, or cycle them in and out of use.
Rear delt raises are the reason this article exists, so we will start here. The goal here is NOT weight, but feeling your rear delt contract under time and tension. Going too heavy (see: 20lbs is too much for me) will force your body to quickly engage your traps when your rear delts cannot pick up the slack. This turns an amazing rear delt prehab and hypertrophy exercise into a shitty trap movement. Hypertrophy can and will be induced with light weights, as your rear delts are a comparatively small muscle (even if the main goal here is essentially a shoulder armor buff). Perform them bent over at a 45 to 90 degree angle, arms straight or slightly bent, one arm at a time (this is personal, but i feel more contraction with the single arm variation), and do not be afraid to add slight rotational body english as you get tired.
Rear delt swings (see the tnation link for a how to) are also great for prehab, but have a larger priority with hypertrophy than their raises cousin.
For both, perform for sets of 20-100.
Frequency for rear delt isolation movements
Here is where the magic comes in (especially if you are lifting daily). These can be done for fairly high volume (100 reps+) daily. There may be an initial decrease in your overall pressing performance, but that pales in comparison to the protection and hypertrophy rear delt isolation provides.
I hope this has helped someone out there who wants bigger shoulders while keeping their long term shoulder health in top condition. Most of my lifting injuries have likewise been rehabbed with lifting, (with a different approach than what got me there in the first place).
