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Exercise library · Shoulders

Rear delt fly

Rear delt work for the shoulders with dumbbells.

How to do it

1 of 3

Hinge forward with a flat back

  1. Starting position

    Stand hip-width apart, hinge forward with a straight back and hold a dumbbell in each hand with slightly bent elbows.

  2. The movement

    Raise your arms out to the sides until they align with your shoulders, then lower the dumbbells with control.

Most common mistake

Don't swing the dumbbells, keep your torso still and guide the movement with your shoulders.

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Muscle group
Shoulders
Equipment
Dumbbells
Where
Home or gym
Logged as
Weight × reps

Muscles worked

The rear delt fly trains the back of your shoulders, the rear part of the deltoid. The muscles between your shoulder blades, the middle traps and rhomboids, help, as do the external rotators of the shoulder. Your spinal erectors and hamstrings simply hold the hinge. The angle of your upper body decides what gets trained. The closer to horizontal your torso is, the more of the work lands on your rear delts. Stand more upright and the movement becomes more of a lateral raise, with your side delts and traps taking over.

Common mistakes

  • Standing too upright. With your torso only slightly forward, you lift mostly out to the side rather than back. Hinge forward until your torso is nearly horizontal. If keeping your back still there is hard, rest your chest on an incline bench.
  • Bending your elbows more and more. It turns into a row, and your back takes over from your rear delts. Keep the same slight bend throughout.
  • Shrugging towards your ears. Your upper traps then take much of the work. Keep your shoulders down and think of moving the dumbbells wide, not up.

Variations and alternatives

  • The reverse pec deck is done seated with chest support on a machine, so you need not hold the hinge.
  • The cable rear delt fly gives resistance through the whole movement and lets you train one arm at a time.
  • The face pull trains your rear delts and upper back in a rope pull on a cable.
  • The prone YTW raise trains the same area on the floor at home, with no equipment.

Sets and reps

The rear delts respond best to light dumbbells and plenty of reps. 12 to 20 reps over two to four sets is common, and 10 to 15 works if you want to go a little heavier. Heavy sets of few reps do not work here, as you have to swing or bend your arms to get the weight up. The guide to sets and reps explains more.

The steps between light dumbbells are large. Going from 4 to 6 kg adds half the weight again, so progressive overload here is mostly about reps. Stay with the same dumbbells until you reach the top of your range in every set. You can also make it harder at the same weight by holding for a second at the top or lowering more slowly. Keep one or two reps in reserve so your form holds until the last rep.

Also called

  • reverse fly

Swap for

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

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