How to grow your shoulders (rear delt edition)
Nikola Man
We are approaching the end of this series and today we will discuss the last member of the shoulder trio – the rear delt. As is the norm, we start off with some anatomy:
The posterior delt (meaning it’s behind hence the name rear) primarily performs one function and that is horizontal shoulder abduction. I know, that’s a big word, basically it means moving your arms apart horizontally. If it doesn’t make sense now it will when you see videos of exercise execution.
Time for some volume talk:
Minimum volume (MV)
While side delts always require some direct work in order to be maintained, but the rear delt is already fairly active in most pulling movements so the its MV tends to be much lower. So if you desire to keep your rear delts the same size you should be doing 0-2 sets per week.
Minimum-effective volume (MEV)
The least amount of work you have to do to see some rear delt growth is around 6 sets per week. Again, the reasoning is the same, if you’re doing MEV or more for your back, you’re probably getting sufficient stimulus to maintain the rear delt and, quite logically, if you want it to grow you need to add some work.
Maximum recoverable volume (MRV)
The most volume you can do and still recover and benefit is probably around 20 sets per week. Slightly lower than the MRV of 25 for side delts, but definitely more than the 12 sets that front delts can recover from.
Intensity and frequency
The intensity for rear delts is pretty much the same as for the side delts due to their similarity in size and structure. If you’re doing a set for quads, say a squat or a leg press, that’s going to be really damaging stuff, but a set for rear delts causes a very localized small amount of damage. With that in mind, I recommend the same thing as I did last week, do your rear delts anywhere between 8 and 20 repetitions per set and try to keep the majority of your work at 10 reps and above.
In terms of frequency, we go back to the gold standard of 2 sessions of direct work per week. You can get away with more, for example 4 or even 5 sessions, but I don’t recommend doing rear delt work that often. Stick to 2 or 3 solid sessions a week and you will be just fine.
Exercise selection
Tips for making a program
Incorporate rear delt training into your weekly schedule by adding one or two exercises per session. The great thing about rear delts is that they recover fairly quickly so you can add them on either days when you do mostly pushing movements (chest, shoulders and triceps) or days when you mostly do pulling movements (back and biceps). Personally, I prefer adding rear delts to the end of my back workouts, but if you prefer a different way then go for what works for you.
Also, do not be afraid to experiment with different exercises, there are plenty of other ones available online, the section above contains only the most famous ones.
Other important comments
I’ve got only a single short comment here. DO NOT NEGLECT REAR DELT WORK. Seriously, exercising this muscle group will help you with shoulder joint health and it will give you physique a solid boost.