Chest-Supported Dumbbell Rear Delt Fly

Setup

Set an adjustable bench to roughly 30-45 degrees. Lie chest-down, a dumbbell in each hand hanging straight below the shoulders.

Execution

1. 1Let the arms hang with a slight elbow bend at the bottom
2. 2Raise the dumbbells out to the sides in a wide arc, leading with the pinkies
3. 3Squeeze the rear delts at the top, elbows at shoulder height
4. 4Lower under complete control back to the start

Key cues

• No momentum possible — pure rear delt squeeze
• Lead with the pinky, elbows stay above the wrists
• Chest pinned to the bench the whole set
• Slow and controlled on both the raise and the lower

Common faults

• Chest lifting off the bench to cheat extra range
• Bending the elbows too much and turning it into a row
• Using too heavy a weight, sacrificing the strict isolation this variant is meant to provide
• Rushing the tempo instead of a slow, controlled arc

Tweaks

• Steeper incline to shift emphasis slightly toward upper traps
• Single-arm version for unilateral focus
• Add a 1-2 second pause at the top

Muscles

Notes

Considered by many hypertrophy coaches the gold-standard rear-delt isolation movement due to the complete elimination of momentum and lower-back assistance.

Sources

• How to do a Chest Supported Rear Delt Flys!
• Dumbbell Rear Lateral Raise - ExRx.net (movement basis)

Attribution: Renaissance Periodization / General Hypertrophy Canon