Small muscles that you supposedly do not pay due attention to, in fact, can work even twice a week. Here’s what to keep in mind when training the rear delts.
Back training is built from rods; shoulder training mainly from bench presses. It’s simple, isn’t it? In the first case, you choose from a variety of pull-ups and pull-ups that recruit certain departments of the ministry of the posterior muscle mass: the latissimus dorsi, middle and lower trapezius, rhomboids. Maybe you even include a little deadlift in the equation. Shoulder day revolves around military presses, dumbbell presses, and isolations like side raises.

But there is one muscle group that wedged right in the middle between these two: the rear delts. The muscles located on the back of the shoulder are very actively involved in multi-joint exercises for the back, when you bring the elbow out of the plane of the body. In other words, in pulling movements and in this classic ending-workout-shoulders – wiring for the rear delts.

So when should you train the rear deltas – along with the shoulders or with the back? The question may seem far-fetched, but, in fact, there are more nuances here than you can imagine. Let’s figure it out.

Out of sight, but keep in mind
It should not surprise anyone that the stimulation of the muscle fibers of the rear delts in overhead presses is not very great. Presses are aimed at the middle and front deltas, and also at the triceps. After a few hard sets, your body will definitely let you know that this is the case. And scientific research will put an end to the question.

An unpublished EMG (electromyography) analysis from 2014 showed that overhead dumbbell presses had significantly less posterior deltoid activation than bent over dumbbell rows. It follows from this that other types of pulls are no less effective in terms of recruiting the rear deltoid muscles.
If overhead presses don’t break the rear delts, but deadlifts do, why shouldn’t bodybuilders train the rear deltoids with the back instead of the shoulders? In fact, many do just that. But before you make your decision on this, let’s talk about some of the nuances that need to be taken into account.

Chance of a double hit. Let’s say you decide to do isolating exercises for the rear deltas – breeding dumbbells to the sides in an inclination, crosses in crossover, wiring to the rear deltas in the peck deck – on the day of training the shoulders, in order to be guaranteed to work out all three bundles of the deltoid muscles. Then you must not forget that the back deltas will receive another portion of the load on the day of the back.

In this situation, the rear delts get two full workouts in one round of your split. And there is nothing wrong with that! On the contrary, it can be an excellent strategy to tighten the rear deltoid muscles if you have them lagging behind the anterior and middle bundles.

The rear deltas need rest. You usually don’t train the same muscle group two days in a row to give it enough time to recover. If you plan to work your rear delts well, make sure that at least 48 hours pass between back and shoulder workouts.
You can train your back and shoulders in one day. Yes, one possible solution to this dilemma is to work both muscle masses in one workout. If you choose this option, start the session with a larger muscle group – in our case, from the back. Who knows, maybe starting out with deadlifts will be good for your shoulder health and increase your bench strength!

Isolation of the rear deltas is always in the end. If you train rear delts with your back, put single-joint delt movements after all multi-joint back exercises, just like on shoulder day. The combination of multi-joint rows and isolation movements works the rear delts very effectively.