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Exercise library · Shoulders

Reverse pec deck

Rear delt work for the shoulders on a machine.

How to do it

1 of 3

Chest on the pad, handles at shoulder height

  1. Starting position

    Sit facing the chest pad, plant your feet and grip the handles at shoulder height with nearly straight arms.

  2. The movement

    Move the handles back and out, pause when your arms align with your body, then return with control.

Most common mistake

Don't shrug your shoulders, keep them down and move your arms back without arching your lower back.

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Muscle group
Shoulders
Equipment
Machine
Where
Gym
Logged as
Weight × reps

Muscles worked

The reverse pec deck mainly trains the back of your shoulders, the rear part of the deltoid, which moves your arms backwards. The muscles between your shoulder blades, the middle traps and rhomboids, help, as do the external rotators of the rotator cuff. The chest pad keeps your upper body still, so all your effort goes into your arms. Many coaches keep the shoulder blades fairly still to give the rear delts more of the work. Squeezing them hard together at the end brings in more upper back.

Common mistakes

  • Bending your elbows more and more. The movement turns into a row, and your back takes over from your rear delts. Keep the same slight bend in your elbows throughout the set.
  • Throwing the handles back. With momentum, your arms fly past your body and the pause at the end disappears. Move the handles back at an even pace, so you can stop at the end without the weight pulling your arms forward.
  • Resting between reps. When the plates touch down at the start, your muscles get a break mid-set. Turn around just before the weights reach the bottom.

Variations and alternatives

  • Rear delt flyes are done with dumbbells and your upper body hinged forward, for when the machine is busy.
  • The cable rear delt fly gives even resistance and lets you train one arm at a time.
  • The face pull trains the rear delts and upper back in a pulling movement with a rope on a cable.
  • Band rear delt flyes are the same movement with a resistance band, good at home or as a warm-up.

Sets and reps

The rear delts are small muscles that respond well to light weights and plenty of reps. 12 to 20 reps is common, and 10 to 15 works if you want to go a little heavier, over two to four sets. Heavy sets of few reps achieve nothing here, as your back and momentum take over. The guide to sets and reps explains more.

It is not very tiring overall, so it fits at the end of most upper-body sessions. The machine makes it safe to train close to your limit, with one or two reps left (see reps in reserve). Add reps first and raise the weight once you reach the top of your range in every set, in line with progressive overload. One step on the stack is often large for the rear delts, so add a few reps rather than jumping in weight.

Also called

  • rear delt machine

Swap for

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

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