The Best Cable Rear Delt Exercises

If there were an award for the most commonly under-developed muscle in the human body, it would probably go to the rear deltoids. Located on the back of your shoulders, the rear delts are often out of sight, so they’re out of mind. Very few lifters single out their rear delts for direct training.

In comparison, the anterior or front deltoid is on constant show, so most people train it hard and often with exercises like overhead presses and front raises. Additionally, the anterior delts are involved in every chest exercise you do. As a result, the anterior deltoids are seldom underdeveloped.

Weak, small rear deltoids can hurt your shoulder health, posture, and appearance. Almost everyone who lifts weights needs to pay more attention to this often-forgotten muscle. It might be small, but it’s still important!

In this article, we reveal the best cable exercises for targeting your rear delts.

8 Best Cable Rear Delt Exercises

Want to beef up your rear delts with cables? These are the best exercises for your goal!

1. Cable face pull
2. Seated wide grip cable row
3. Reverse cable crossover
4. Cable external rotation
5. Single-arm rear delt fly
6. Cable supine reverse fly
7. Cable overhead press
8. Cable Cuban press

1. Cable face pull

The cable face pull is one of the best rear delt exercises you can do. Not only does it target your posterior deltoids, but it also works your middle trapezius and rhomboids. These muscles often work together and are crucial for shoulder stability and posture.

So, do yourself a favor and do a few sets of cable face pulls 2-3 times a week. Your shoulders will thank you!

How to do it:

1. Attach a two-sided rope handle to a cable pulley set to around chest level.
2. Stand with your feet hip-width apart so that you’re in an upright posture.
3. Grab both sides of the handle with a neutral grip. Place one foot in front of the other for balance.
4. Lower your elbows slightly but keep hands at head level.
5. Pull the rope toward your face as far as possible while pulling both handles apart.
6. Extend your arms and repeat for the desired number of reps.

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Pro tip: Avoid using your lower back during this exercise by sitting backward on an exercise bench with the backrest set to vertical. Rest your chest on the backrest and keep it there for the duration of your set, like this:

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2. Seated wide grip cable row

Regular seated rows are an excellent lat exercise that also works your posterior deltoids. However, you can make them more rear delt-centric by adopting a wider grip and pulling the bar into your chest instead of your abs.

You won’t be able to lift as much weight as usual, as this is not a very biomechanically efficient movement. However, you’ll really feel it in your rear delts.

How to do it:

1. Attach a long bar to your seated row machine. Hold the handle with an overhand, wider-than-shoulder-width grip. Sit up straight with your knees slightly bent and core braced. Pull your shoulders down and back.
2. Leading with your elbows and keeping your wrists straight, bend your arms and pull the bar into your chest.
3. Extend your arms and repeat.

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Pro tip: Try doing a set of wide-grip seated rows to the chest immediately followed by a set of regular seated rows to really pump up your rear deltoids AND build your lats.

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3. Reverse cable crossover

The cable crossover machine isn’t just a great way to train your chest. You can use this popular exercise station to train your rear delts, too. Reverse cable crossovers allow you to isolate your rear delts with laser-like accuracy. However, you’ll need to go light as this exercise is far more challenging than it looks because of the long levers involved.

How to do it:

1. Stand in the middle of a cable crossover machine. Using the high pulleys, hold the left cable in your right hand and the right cable in your left hand. Cross your wrists in front of you with your arms extended but elbows slightly bent. Brace your core and pull your shoulders down and back.
2. Open your arms and pull your elbows back until they are slightly behind your shoulders. Really squeeze your shoulders together to maximize rear delt muscle engagement.
3. Return to the starting position and repeat.

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Pro-tip: Experiment with the height of your arms to hit your deltoids from different angles. Try moving from low to high and not just high to low. If your crossover machine is adjustable, try doing reverse crossovers with your arms horizontal, too.

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4. Cable external rotation

External rotation is one of the most underused functions of the posterior deltoids. This exercise is often thought of as a rotator cuff exercise, which it is, but you’ll also feel it deep in your rear delts.

Don’t go too heavy with this exercise; it’s a subtle, controlled movement that works best with light weights and medium to high reps.

How to do it:

1. Set an adjustable cable machine to around waist height. Attach a D-shaped handle to the pulley.
2. Stand side-on to the weight stack and hold the handle in your furthest hand. Bend your elbow to 90 degrees, tuck your upper arm into your side, and position your forearm across your upper abdomen.
3. Without twisting your hips or shoulders, rotate your arm outward as far as you comfortably can.
4. Return to the starting position and repeat.

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Pro tip: Place a folded towel under your arm and hold it there throughout the exercise to remind you to keep your elbow close to your ribs for maximal muscle engagement.

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5. Single-arm rear delt fly

The advantage of this exercise over other rear deltoid moves is that it allows you to train one arm at a time. This helps strengthen the mind-muscle connection and means you can identify and fix any left-to-right strength imbalances. As an added benefit, you just need a single cable to do this exercise, so it’s ideal for busy or less well-equipped gyms.

How to do it:

1. Stand side-on to a low pulley machine. Bend your knees slightly, hinge forward from your hips, and hold the cable with your furthest hand. Brace your abs and pull your shoulders down and back.
2. Draw your arm across and up until it’s roughly parallel to the floor. Keep your hand in line with your shoulder.
3. Return to the starting position and repeat.

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Pro tip: You can also do this exercise using both arms simultaneously, which can be a useful time-saving option for some lifters. However, you will lose the unilateral benefits of training each arm independently.

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6. Cable supine reverse fly

The cable supine reverse fly is an effective isolation exercise for the posterior deltoids. Done face up on a flat bench, it provides lots of support for your lower back and also stops you from cheating as you cannot use your legs or upper body to help raise the weight.

How to do it:

1. Begin by setting up the pulley handles at the highest point on each side.
2. Grab the left pulley with your right hand and the right pulley with your left hand so the cables cross each other.
3. Lie down on the bench with your shoulders level with the pulleys.
4. Pull your arms out and down until your hands are level with your shoulders.
5. Return to the top of the movement, and then repeat for the desired number of reps.

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Pro tip: Like many rear delt exercises, the one works best when performed with light to medium weights and moderate to high reps. Going too heavy will take the stress off the target muscles and put it on your arms and upper back.

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7. Cable overhead press

Most overhead pressing variations emphasize your anterior and medial deltoids. This exercise puts more tension on your rear delts as you’ll need to work extra hard to stop your arms from being pulled forward and down.

How to do it:

1. Attach a straight bar to a low cable. Grip the handle with an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip. Curl or clean the handle up to your shoulders. Make sure you are facing the weight stack.
2. Brace your core, pull your shoulders down and back, and stand with your feet roughly shoulder-width apart.
3. Press the handle up and overhead to arms’ length. 
4. Lower the bar back to your shoulders and repeat.

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Pro tip: Think about pressing the bar up and back in an arc to maximize rear deltoid engagement. This will also figure up your middle and lower traps and rhomboids. 

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8. Cable Cuban press

The Cuban press is a well-known, if seldom performed, total shoulder exercise. It was once the “secret weapon” of the Cuban Olympic weightlifting team. This exercise works all three deltoid heads with a significant emphasis on that all-important rear delt.

How to do it:

1. Attach a straight, revolving bar to a low pulley. Alternatively, if using a dual low-cable machine, you can use two D-shaped handles.
2. Hold the bar/handles in front of your thighs with an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip. Brace your core.
3. Bend your arms and upright row the bar up to your sternum.
4. Next, rotate your arms out and away, raising the bar to your forehead.
5. Finally, press the handle up and overhead to arms’ length.
6. Return to the starting position by reversing this motion.

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Pro tip: You can also do this exercise with dumbbells or a barbell, so you really have no excuse not to include it in your workouts!

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Why Use Cables, Anyway?

Cables are arguably the best way to work your rear deltoids. Using cables means you can keep the target muscles under almost constant tension and really hammer home that all-important mind-muscle connection.

You can also use a cable machine to hit your rear delts from numerous angles. A small change in joint angle can have a significant impact on the effect of whatever exercise you are performing.

Finally, most cable machines have incremental weight stacks that start with a low load. The rear deltoid is not especially strong, so you don’t need a lot of weight to fatigue it. That’s especially true if you’ve been neglecting your rear delts recently.

Yes, you CAN use dumbbells and barbells to train your rear delts, but in nine cases out of ten, a cable machine will produce better results.

Deltoid Anatomy

Your shoulders are made up of three major muscles – the deltoids. The deltoids work together but can also be emphasized and trained separately. The three deltoids are:

Anterior deltoid

Located at the front of your shoulder, the anterior deltoid is responsible for flexion, horizontal flexion, and medial rotation of the shoulder joint. As such, the front deltoid is involved in all chest and overhead pressing exercises. The anterior deltoid is generally the largest and most well-developed of the three.

Medial deltoid

Also known as the lateral deltoid, this muscle is located on the side of your shoulder. Its primary role is the abduction of the shoulder joint. Bodybuilders do exercises like dumbbell and cable lateral raises to target this muscle. The medial deltoid is responsible for the width of your shoulders and your V-taper.

Posterior deltoid

Positioned on the back of your shoulder, the posterior deltoid is responsible for extension, horizontal extension, and external rotation of the shoulder joint. While it is involved in most back exercises, bodybuilders typically do more pushing than pulling, which is why the posterior deltoid is often underdeveloped compared to the anterior deltoid.

Underdeveloped posterior deltoids can lead to poor posture, less upper body mass, and an unbalanced physique. It could also increase your risk of shoulder pain and injury. Weak posterior deltoids can impede your performance of several vital exercises, not least lat pull-downs, pull-ups/chin-ups, all types of row, and biceps curls.

That’s because the posterior deltoids act as stabilizers during these movements. If they fail before the muscle you’re targeting, your set will come to a premature halt, and your workout won’t be as productive.

So, if you want bigger biceps or lats, you MUST also strengthen your posterior deltoids!

FAQs

1. What’s the best way to program rear delt training if you’ve been neglecting them for a long time?

If you’ve not been doing much rear delt training, your anterior deltoids are probably strong and overdeveloped in comparison. If that’s the case, you need to deemphasize the bigger deltoid and do more volume for the smaller head.

One way to do this is with the 3-2-1 method.

Simply do three sets for your posterior deltoids, two sets for your medial deltoids, and only one set for your anterior deltoids. This will rebalance your shoulders in double-quick time.

For example:

• 3 sets of 12-15 face pulls (Posterior delts)
• 2 sets of 10-12 cable lateral raises (medial delts)
• 1 set of 6-8 barbell overhead presses (anterior delts)

Do this 1-2 times a week to develop strong, balanced, functional shoulders.

2. What’s the best rep range for training the rear delts?

Most rear delt exercises work best with light to moderate weight and medium to high reps. 12-20 is a good range for most people. Using heavier loads invariably leads to increasing upper back engagement, which may take tension off the muscles you want to train.

If in doubt, go lighter, move slower, and do more reps to hammer those rear delts into growth. If you can’t feel your rear deltoids working, invariably it’s because you are using too much weight.

3. What’s the best rear delt exercise if you can’t go to the gym?

I’m a massive fan of two rear delt exercises that are perfect for home use – band pull-aparts and hand-release push-ups.

To do band pull-aparts:

1. Seated or standing, hold a resistance band with an overhand, shoulder-width grip. Raise your arms out in front of you. Bend your arms slightly and pull your shoulders down and back.
2. Open your arms and stretch the band out across your chest.
3. Return to the starting position and repeat.

To do hand-release push-ups:

1. Kneel down and place your hands flat on the floor, slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Your fingers should be pointing directly forward. Walk your feet back, ensuring your body is straight and rigid; brace your core. Look straight down at the floor.
2. Bend your arms and, under control, lower your chest to the floor. Keep your body tense and straight.
3. Pull your shoulders down and back and lift your hands a few inches off the floor. Do not arch your lower back.
4. Place your hands back on the floor and push yourself back up to return to the starting position.
5. That’s one rep – keep going!

4. How often should I train my rear delts?

Assuming your rear delts are underdeveloped, I’d train them at least twice a week and even every other day. For example, you can add extra rear delt exercises to your regular shoulder workout or do an exercise or two after any upper body session to stimulate rear delt growth.

Ultimately, training the rear delts just once a week probably won’t do much for their size or strength. Try to accumulate at least ten hard sets of rear delt training week to bring them up sooner.

5. How can I improve my posture faster?

Training your rear delts and upper back is a good start to fixing your posture, but you also need to stretch the muscles on the front of your chest and shoulders. Otherwise, these tight areas will always pull you forward into a slouch.

One way to do this is to superset chest stretches with rear deltoid exercises. This will increase your range of motion during the rear delt moves, and also make better use of your training time.

Check out this guide to stretching your pecs and anterior delts.

Wrapping Up

Are you guilty of neglecting your rear deltoids? Don’t worry – you are not alone. A lot of lifters forget all about their posterior deltoids because they can’t see them. It’s always more motivating to train the muscles you can see in the mirror, right?

The good news is that the rear delts are very responsive, and it won’t take much work to bring them up to par with your other shoulder muscles. After all, they’re pretty small and don’t need heavy weights. You should have no problem doing 2-3 sets of 1-2 exercises for them a couple of times a week without increasing fatigue or needing a lot more recovery.

You can even train your rear delts at home, as many of the exercises in this article can also be performed using resistance bands.

So, stop ignoring your rear delts and, instead, start working them hard and often. They’ll soon begin to grow and add a lot to your shoulder appearance, performance, posture, and joint health.