Dumbbell Rear Delt Row

What the dumbbell rear delt row actually trains

A dumbbell rear delt row is a bent over rowing movement performed with a dumbbell in each hand and the elbows flared wide, so the upper arms travel out to the sides rather than back along the ribs.

The posterior deltoid does the primary work. The middle and lower trapezius and the rhomboids retract the shoulder blades, the biceps and forearms hold the dumbbells, and the spinal erectors hold the hinge isometrically.

The elbow flare is what separates this from an ordinary dumbbell row. Elbows tucked, the lats are the prime mover and the rear delts are along for the ride. Elbows out at ninety degrees, the line of pull runs across the back of the shoulder and the posterior deltoid fails first.

The reason to choose dumbbells over a bar for this is range. With a barbell the range stops when the bar hits your chest, which is well before your upper arms have finished travelling. With dumbbells the hands pass either side of the torso, so the elbows can carry back until the upper arms are level with your back or slightly beyond. Pallares and colleagues found full range training produced better outcomes than partial work, and this variation simply allows more of the range to exist.

The cost is load. Two dumbbells held in a hinge are limited by grip and by your ability to hold the position, so the weights stay modest.

Worth being clear about how this differs from the reverse flye variations in this library. A flye keeps the elbow fixed and works almost purely at the shoulder joint. A row bends the elbow, which shortens the lever, brings the mid back in, and lets you handle considerably more weight. The rear delts are the most undertrained part of most people's shoulders, and having both a loaded version and an isolated version in the programme is the practical answer.

Setting up and executing

Take a dumbbell in each hand with a neutral or overhand grip; use whichever feels better at the top.

Stand with the feet hip width, knees softly bent, and hinge at the hips until the torso is close to parallel with the floor.

Brace the abs and set the lower back flat. Let the dumbbells hang directly below the shoulders with the arms straight.

Row them up and out, driving the elbows wide so the upper arms stay roughly perpendicular to your torso. Point the elbows at the walls rather than at the ceiling.

Stop when the upper arms are level with your back, squeeze the shoulder blades together and hold for a beat.

Lower over two to three seconds until the arms hang straight, then row again.

The mistakes that cost you the most

Elbows drifting in is the fault that quietly converts this into a standard dumbbell row. It usually happens because the weight is too heavy, since tucking recruits the much stronger lats. If you cannot keep the elbows perpendicular for every rep, the dumbbells are wrong.

Torso too upright breaks the line of pull. Gravity pulls the dumbbells straight down, so the rear delt only gets a good line when your torso is close to horizontal. At forty five degrees you are doing a poorly angled back exercise.

Rowing too heavy produces both of the above at once, plus a hip heave to get the first few centimetres. Fenwick and colleagues found rowing variations differ considerably in trunk activation and spinal loading, and a rigid torso keeps this one where it belongs.

Turning the wrists over at the top is a habit picked up from lateral raises. It shortens the range and adds nothing.

Rounding the lower back is the position to avoid. Holding a hinge unsupported for fifteen reps is genuinely tiring, and the back rounds before the rear delts are done. If that is your pattern, move to an incline bench and stop pretending the free version is a virtue.

Sets, reps and rest by goal

Higher reps, moderate load, moderate rest.

For muscle gain, three sets of twelve to fifteen with ninety seconds. For strength, three sets of ten to twelve with two minutes, though rear delt strength is not a goal in itself. In a fat loss phase, three sets of fifteen to twenty with a minute.

Do not chase weight. Positioning determines the target far more than load does here, and a perfect set with twelve kilo dumbbells beats a sloppy one with twenty.

Slow the lowering phase. Letting the dumbbells drop back to the hang wastes half of every rep, and the eccentric is free work that costs only attention.

Schoenfeld and colleagues found a dose response between weekly hard sets and hypertrophy. Rear delts are the muscle where most people fall furthest short of a useful weekly dose, so count these sets alongside flyes and face pulls and aim to hit the region two or three times a week.

Refalo and colleagues found stopping a rep or two short of failure produces comparable growth to going all the way, which suits a movement where the last rep is usually the one where the elbows tuck.

Where it fits in your split

Mid session, after the heavier pulling.

On push, pull and legs it goes on pull day after the main rows and chin ups, or on push day if you are using rear delt work to balance a pressing heavy programme. On a bro split it fits on either shoulder or back day. On an upper and lower split it can appear in both upper sessions without any problem. On a full body programme it is quick, needing only two dumbbells.

Frequency is where the decision actually matters. The rear delts are small, recover fast and rarely get sore, which makes them one of the clearest cases for training a muscle two or three times a week rather than once.

A sensible pattern is this movement in one session and a reverse flye or face pull in another, so you get both the loaded and the isolated version of the same job.

Variations worth knowing

The barbell rear delt row allows heavier loading and a cleaner progression, at the cost of the range stopping when the bar reaches your chest.

The chest supported version, face down on an incline bench, removes the hinge and the lower back entirely and lets the rear delts be the only thing that fails.

A single arm version with the free hand braced on a bench lets you use a heavier dumbbell and exposes side to side differences.

The cable rear delt row from a mid pulley keeps tension at the bottom of the rep, where free weights go slack.

The machine reverse flye is the isolation version on a fixed path, and it is the easiest of all of these to take to genuine failure.

And the face pull adds external rotation to the movement, training the rear delts and the rotator cuff together.

What the evidence says

Sakoma and colleagues described the deltoid as three functionally distinct segments, which is the anatomical basis for treating the posterior head as a muscle that needs its own exercises rather than one that gets enough incidentally.

Kara and colleagues compared trapezius activation levels and ratios during scapular retraction exercises and found substantial differences between variations, supporting the emphasis on elbow flare and torso angle rather than load.

Fenwick and colleagues compared rowing exercises for trunk activation and lumbar spine load and motion and found meaningful differences, supporting a rigid torso or a supported version.

Ludewig and Reynolds documented the association between scapular kinematics and glenohumeral joint pathology, supporting permanent inclusion of retraction work rather than occasional blocks of it.

Pallares and colleagues found full range training beat partial range training for strength and hypertrophy, which is the direct argument for dumbbells over a bar in this particular movement.

Schoenfeld and colleagues on weekly volume explains why rear delt frequency matters, and Refalo and colleagues on proximity to failure explains why the last grinding rep is not worth the technique it costs.

Common questions

How is this different from a reverse flye?

The elbow bends. A reverse flye keeps the arm nearly straight, which isolates the rear delt but limits the weight to something quite light. A row shortens the lever, brings the rhomboids and mid traps into the movement, and roughly doubles the load. More total work, less isolation, and both are worth having.

Dumbbells or a barbell?

Dumbbells give you more range, since the hands pass either side of the torso instead of stopping at the chest. A barbell lets you load heavier and progress more cleanly. If you can only do one, dumbbells suit the rear delt better and the bar suits the upper back.

Why do I feel this in my lats?

Because your elbows are tucking or your torso is too upright. The elbows should stay roughly perpendicular to your body throughout, and the torso should be close to parallel with the floor. If the position falls apart under fatigue, the dumbbells are too heavy.

Should I use the chest supported version instead?

Probably, if it is available. Lying face down on an incline bench removes the lower back and the hinge, which are usually what fails first, and lets the rear delts be the limiting factor. The unsupported version is only better if you specifically want the isometric torso work.

How often should I train rear delts?

Two or three times a week. They are the most reliably undertrained part of the shoulder, they are small and they recover quickly, so several short exposures beat one long session. Alternate rows with flyes or face pulls so you cover both the loaded and the isolated version.