Nothing creates the image of thickness from the side like a solid set of rear delts—and raises are the best way to develop them. Do them wrong, however, and you may as well be doing nothing at all. To help you avoid wasting your energy on lackluster sets, fix the mistakes at right to take your raises to new heights.
5 Reasons Your Rear-Delt Raises Suck
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1 OF 5
1 of 5
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You use too much weight
Save the heavy weights for rows and presses. Otherwise, you won’t feel the muscle working. There are times and places where you use heavy weight for your rear delts, but for the rear-delt raise it is best to stick to light weight, baby.
2 of 5
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You lack scapular control
As with all upper-body hypertrophy, scapular control is of utmost importance. If you allow your scapulae (aka shoulder blades) to slide back and forth, you risk turning your rear-delt raise into a rhomboid-dominant movement. And if you pinch them together and shrug, you incorporate the traps too much. Think about putting your scapulae in your back pockets and isolating the rear delts.
3 of 5
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You don’t do enough reps
Rear delts respond to volume. Start with three to five sets of 15 to 20 reps. And if you are doing intensity sets, be it dropsets or rest-pause sets, you can push the reps even higher—sometimes to 100, with 50 to 60 being the preferred range.
4 of 5
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You hardly ever do the
As a small muscle, the rear delts recover quickly—so working them a minimum of two times per week is recommended. Try supersetting light rear-delt raises with chest flyes on an upper-body pump day, and then doing moderate-weight rear-delt raises after bench press on a chest/shoulders or press day.
5 of 5
AzmanL / Getty
You don’t feel the reps
Lying facedown on a bench and swinging weights around is not the way to perform a rear-delt raise. For this move, it really pays to invest in developing that mind-muscle connection. Concentrate on feeling the exercise in the rear delts and only the rear delts, making microcorrections throughout the movement.
Save the heavy weights for rows and presses. Otherwise, you won’t feel the muscle working. There are times and places where you use heavy weight for your rear delts, but for the rear-delt raise it is best to stick to light weight, baby.
You lack scapular control
As with all upper-body hypertrophy, scapular control is of utmost importance. If you allow your scapulae (aka shoulder blades) to slide back and forth, you risk turning your rear-delt raise into a rhomboid-dominant movement. And if you pinch them together and shrug, you incorporate the traps too much. Think about putting your scapulae in your back pockets and isolating the rear delts.
You don’t do enough reps
Rear delts respond to volume. Start with three to five sets of 15 to 20 reps. And if you are doing intensity sets, be it dropsets or rest-pause sets, you can push the reps even higher—sometimes to 100, with 50 to 60 being the preferred range.
You hardly ever do the
As a small muscle, the rear delts recover quickly—so working them a minimum of two times per week is recommended. Try supersetting light rear-delt raises with chest flyes on an upper-body pump day, and then doing moderate-weight rear-delt raises after bench press on a chest/shoulders or press day.
You don’t feel the reps
Lying facedown on a bench and swinging weights around is not the way to perform a rear-delt raise. For this move, it really pays to invest in developing that mind-muscle connection. Concentrate on feeling the exercise in the rear delts and only the rear delts, making microcorrections throughout the movement.
