What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.
Today I'm going to show you the fastest way to build your rear delts.
Guess what we're not going to do?
We're not going to use a light dumbbell like this and do a reverse fly.
There's nothing wrong with the motion because we know the function of the rear delt is to
get that arm back, behind our body.
But if you always do it in this straight arm fashion, which I've talked about on this channel
before, you're limiting the amount of activation of the rear delt.
You're limiting the capacity of the rear delt to perform the lift.
What happens is, we know extension, getting that arm behind the body – if I just take
my arm and I do it straight, I'm anatomically limiting the amount of extension I can get
of my humerus behind my body.
Versus if I changed the position, bend the elbow, and keep going back.
I get much more extension on the arm back behind my body than when I go straight.
So that would say this is probably a reason why you wouldn't want to do the rear delt
fly.
But there's another reason why you wouldn't.
The rear delt, like the middle and front delt, has a high capacity to handle some load.
It's not the weak link that it's made out to be where I can only handle 5lb and 10lb
dumbbells to do it.
Guys, it's got a lot higher capacity for strength if you would allow it to.
But when I take this and do a straight arm reverse fly, what I'm doing is, because I'm
increasing the moment arm by extending the elbow out on the rear delt, I'm dramatically
inhibiting its ability to lift any type of weight.
It's very difficult.
This 5lb weight gets heavy when I lift it out straight like that.
So, what we do is not worry about keeping it straight.
We want to get to a bent arm setup.
The best way to do this is with the classic back exercise, the seated row.
No doubt, this exercise will build your rear delts as fast as possible because we're going
to be able to load it appropriately.
Now, there are a few things you're going to have to do.
If I were to get into a seated row setup here – this is different than what you might
see at a gym where you have the plate and you can put your feet on it.
But this is what I have to do here.
This is my counterforce for my feet.
The fact is, we need to choose the right attachment.
A lot of you will go and use this.
We take this and we pull, and we might feel a little bit the next day in the rear delt,
but we're doing this as a lat exercise.
And, of course, it does train your lats because you're getting a good stretch on your lats
out here, and then pull back, adduction of your arm into your side.
The issue with this is the handle.
We know if I bring the handle, this is about as far as I can get.
This is going to limit the amount of extension where I can get that arm behind my body again.
Remember, just focus on here to here, how much extension can I get back?
If this handle is used, we're going to get stuck here.
Now you might say "Just use a straight bar."
All right.
If I use a straight bar instead of being stuck here, out here, now I can get to here.
What this doesn't solve is the secondary issue here.
That's the fact that it still keeps our elbows tight to our side.
I mentioned this being a lat exercise.
The tighter to your side your elbows are, the more activation of the lats in favor of
the rear delt.
The way we want to get our rear delt to take over here and do as much of the work as possible
is to get those elbows out high.
Get out of adduction.
Get out of what the lats do.
Let the rear delts to the extension of the arm.
So, what we do is add the long bar attachment.
That's what's going to get us the best effect because the long bar allows us to grab out
wider, which will take our arms away from our body, out of adduction.
So, this is what it all looks like when you play it out for real.
We obviously have a lot heavier weight than anything we would handle in some rear delt
fly setup.
We're setup nice and tall, arms are out wide, and we're going to try to get this upper arm
back as far behind our body as possible.
Again, the elbows are high.
They're not tucked in down here.
They're high.
We come out, we come, and drive them back.
You can see that rear delt fired up.
I can tell you, if you haven't done a seated row in a long time if you do these your rear
delts will be on fire for the next five days.
Especially if you haven't done them for a while.
And I'm not saying you're not working your back.
You can see every muscle in my back working.
It's just that, preferentially, because of the elbow placement and because of our focus
on getting the elbow back behind our body into extension, we're really making the rear
delts work here.
And because the load is substantially higher than what we've probably used on the rear
delts, you're going to see some quick increases here.
Both in the strength of the rear delt and also the size response to it because of the
overload.
The fact is, if you're trying to train your rear delts – which you should be.
Just because you can't see them doesn't mean you don’t need to develop them.
You have the option to see a lot faster growth if you stop thinking about just the things
that everybody else does, like those lame rear delt flys.
There are much better options, as you've just seen here.
Sometimes it's a classic back exercise.
Guys, I hope you've found the video helpful.
If you did, leave your comments and thumbs up below.
Let me know what else you want me to cover and I'll do my best to do that for you.
If you're looking for step by step programs where we make exercise selections by applying
a level of science to what we select – there's a reason and meaning for everything we do
in the gym.
You have to apply that to your programs if you want to see the best results from them.
All our programs do that at ATHLEANX.com.
In the meantime, if you haven't already done so, please click 'subscribe' and turn on your
notifications so you never miss a video when I put one out.
All right, guys.
See you soon.