I train chest/shoulders on one day and back/arms on another. For shoulders, I do dumbbell shoulder press, Arnold press, front raises, and side raises.
For back, I do chins, pull ups, straight bar rows, T-bar cable rows, and T-bar lat pulldowns.
Do all of the rows hit my read delts properly, or do I need to include some reverse fly? I would do that on shoulder day, but it would hit my middle back too and that would influence my back day.
What should I do?
Thanks
I think if you didn't include them the stimulation from your rows would be sufficient, and even if you chose to do 3-4 sets on shoulder day, it's not nearly enough to weaken your back. Unless you're really weak in the upper lats area. On the other hand, you will of course damage your rear delts, which could hold you back on back day (haha).
Are your rear delts growing along with the rest of your shoulders? If so then you obviously dont need any more work.
But looking at your shoulder workout, you have a ton of front delt work but hardly any rear delt work. I personally would nix the front raises and replace them with rear delt raises.
I was thinking of just adding 3-4 sets of reverse machine flys to chest/shoulder day. Do you think that whatever it does to my middle back would be repaired by back day, which would be in 2 days.
For example:
monday: back/arms
tuesday:legs
wednesday: chest/shoulders (rear delt reverse flys)
thursday: off
friday: back/arms
saturday: legs
next week, chest/shoulders is done twice and back/arms once.
Is there any way to siolate the rear delts or minimize back involvement in the revserse rear delt fly?
When performing the exercise, try to really focus on just swinging your arms about the shoulder joint. This of course utilizes the rear delts. DO NOT focus on squeezing your shoulder blades together as this will activate the scapula retractors and rhomboids (which isn't really a bad thing, generally speaking).
I have trained back after shoulders with only a day between workouts and my rear delts actually grew better from the added frequency.
Rear delt machine flies are a great delt/trap exercise and take the middle of your back out of the movement pretty well.
On the rear delt machine fly, I've found that bending the elbows a little at the peak of the contraction really helps to put all the stress on the rear delts and away from the back and traps. Almost like adding a hint of a row at the top.
I also do Deads on back day and I've heard that those work the rear delts, but the only place where I've ever felt them is in the lower back.
funny, i think deadlifts are a great rear delt exercise. The day after deadlifts I always feel a distinct soreness in my rear delts that i never get from rowing.
So, do you think I should add rear delt reverse machine flys to chest/shoulders day or to back/arms day?
Where would it have the least overlap considering I do rows/chins/deads on back day and benching(flat, inclinde, decline)/flys/shoulder press/front, side raises on chest/shoulder day?
I would not recommend chest and shoulders on the same day. You can strip your joints and be off for some time from injuries. When doing shoulders you put stress on your joints and when doing chest you lift heavy and put pressure on the joints.
I have a shoulder day and a chest day.
But if your main movement is the bench press, you're hitting shoulders already. I would rather have more recovery time then have a day devoted to shoulders.
Can you go on about this please? All of my benching and shoulder pressing is with dumbbells. Does that matter? What do you mean "strip your joints?" It doesn't sound fun...
I would definitely echo what Alquemist is saying here.
::edit::
I just realized this thread was 20 days old. God damnit...
Yeah but pebble bumped it so there's no reason to feel guilty, 20 day bump is nothing. =)
Anyway, my rear delts are so underdeveloped that even when I completely contract them (top of a reverse fly movement) they still seem smaller than the front delt, and the front delt should be completely stretched in that position right?
This is like having triceps that still looks smaller than your biceps even with a straight elbow, a problem I bet a lot of guys also have who specialize too much like that.
I really wonder what the reverse would be like, as I've never seen is. Is there someone whose triceps and posterior delts are bigger-looking than their biceps and anterior delts even when their elbows are completely bent and their arms are in front of them?