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Prone YTW raise

Rear delt work for the back with your bodyweight.

How to do it

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Lie face down, arms forward

  1. Starting position

    Lie face down with straight legs, your arms extended forward and your thumbs pointing up.

  2. The movement

    Raise your arms in a Y, lower them, raise them in a T, then pull your elbows into a W before lowering.

Most common mistake

Don't shrug your shoulders toward your ears, keep them down and make each shape slowly and clearly.

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Muscle group
Back
Equipment
Bodyweight
Where
Home or gym
Logged as
Reps

Muscles worked

The prone YTW raise trains the muscles around your shoulder blades and the back of your shoulders, with each shape shifting the emphasis a little. The Y is usually described as working the lower trapezius most, the T the middle trapezius and the muscles between your shoulder blades, and the W the back of your shoulders and the small muscles that turn your upper arm outwards. None of the shapes lifts much, so it is control and endurance you train. Many people use it to balance out a lot of pressing.

Common mistakes

  • Lifting your chest to get your arms higher. Your lower back then does the work. Keep your chest on the floor and lift only your arms, even if that is just a few centimetres.
  • Bending your arms in the Y and T. Bent elbows shorten the lever and make the shapes easier than they look. Keep your arms straight for the first two shapes and bend them only for the W.
  • Adding weight too soon. Even light dumbbells feel heavy with straight arms. Start with none, then move to water bottles or dumbbells of half a kilo to a kilo.

Variations and alternatives

  • The dumbbell Y raise trains the Y with weights, when you want to load that shape.
  • The face pull on a cable trains the back of your shoulders and the outward turn of the upper arm with more resistance.
  • The rear delt fly resembles the T with dumbbells, for building the back of your shoulders.

Sets and reps

One round is 6 to 10 reps of Y, the same number of T and finally W, and 2 to 3 rounds are enough for most people. Hold the top for one to two seconds on every rep. The exercise works well as a warm-up before bench press, shoulder press and rows, or at the end of a session for your upper back. There are more ways to plan your sets in the guide to sets and reps.

Build up in this order: longer holds, more reps per shape and finally a light weight in each hand. Take the smallest increase you can, as half a kilo is a lot with straight arms. That is progressive overload even when the weights are tiny.

Also called

  • prone ytw
  • y t w raise

Swap for

Taken, or missing the equipment? The same movement with something else.

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