Why Can't I Feel My Rear Delts Working

The Real Reason You Can't Feel Your Rear Delts (It's Not Weakness)

If you're asking, "why can't I feel my rear delts working," it's almost certainly because you're using 5-10 pounds too much weight, forcing your stronger back muscles to take over the lift. You're not alone. You do endless sets of reverse flyes and face pulls, feeling a burn everywhere *but* the back of your shoulder. You feel it in your traps, between your shoulder blades, maybe even your triceps. It’s one of the most common frustrations in the gym, and it makes you feel like you're wasting every single rep.

The problem isn't that your rear delts are weak; it's that they're small and easily bullied. The posterior deltoid is a relatively small muscle compared to the powerful trapezius (traps) and rhomboids that make up your upper and mid-back. When you ask your body to pull a weight backward, it defaults to the strongest tool for the job. Your brain says, "Get this weight from point A to point B," and your massive, strong back muscles scream, "We got this!" while your tiny rear delts get shoved out of the way. This is a coordination problem, not a strength problem. Your goal isn't to lift heavier; it's to teach your brain to fire the correct, smaller muscle first. Until you solve that communication issue, adding more weight or more reps just reinforces the bad habit, making your traps and rhomboids even more dominant.

Finally feel the right muscles working.

Track your form and lifts. Know you're targeting the right muscle every time.

The 90-Degree Mistake: Why Your Form Is Sabotaging You

Most people think rear delt exercises are about pulling your hands straight back. This is the fundamental mistake that guarantees you won't feel your rear delts. The primary function of the rear delt is *horizontal abduction* of the humerus (your upper arm bone). That's a fancy way of saying it moves your arm away from your body's centerline out to the side, in the horizontal plane. It's not designed for heavy retraction, which is pulling your shoulder blades together. That's the job of your traps and rhomboids.

Imagine you're standing in a narrow hallway. A proper rear delt movement is trying to touch the walls on either side of you with your elbows. The wrong movement, which most people do, is trying to touch the wall *behind* you. This subtle shift in intent changes everything. When you focus on pulling straight back, you instinctively squeeze your shoulder blades together first. This pre-activates your mid-back, and the rear delts never get a chance to be the primary mover. You need to learn to move your arm independently of your scapula.

Here's the cue that will fail you: "Pinch your shoulder blades together." For almost every other back exercise, that's good advice. For rear delt isolation, it's poison. It's the very thing that encourages your bigger, stronger back muscles to take over. To truly isolate the rear delt, you need to initiate the movement from the shoulder joint itself, thinking only about sweeping your arm out and away. The scapula will move slightly at the end of the range of motion, and that's fine. But it must not be the driver of the movement. Your focus should be 100% on the upper arm moving in a wide arc, like you're giving the world a big hug from behind.

That's the mechanical fix. You now understand the physics of the movement: sweep the arm out, don't pull the shoulder blade back. But knowing this and executing it perfectly for 3 sets of 15 reps without your body reverting to its old, efficient habits are two completely different skills. Can you honestly remember the exact weight and reps you used for reverse flyes last week? If you can't, you aren't tracking progress-you're just guessing and likely reinforcing the same mistakes.

Weeks of progress, all in one place.

Every workout logged. Proof you're getting stronger and building the body you want.

The 3-Step Protocol to Finally Activate Your Rear Delts

To fix this, we need to strip everything back, drop the ego, and re-learn the movement from scratch. This three-step process will build the mind-muscle connection from zero and guarantee you feel your rear delts. You will use weight that feels embarrassingly light. That is the entire point. If you feel it in your traps, the weight is too heavy.

Step 1: Find the Muscle with the Wall Y-Raise (0 Pounds)

Before you touch a weight, you need to know what the contraction is supposed to feel like. This drill isolates the rear delt with almost zero trap involvement.

• How to do it: Stand about a foot away from a wall, facing it. Hinge slightly at your hips and place your hands on the wall in a 'Y' shape, just above shoulder height, with your palms flat against the wall.
• The movement: Keeping your arms straight and your traps relaxed (don't shrug), try to press your pinkies and the back of your hands backward, as if trying to push them *through* the wall. You won't move much, if at all. This is an isometric contraction.
• The feeling: You should feel a deep, specific contraction on the very back of your shoulder. That's it. That's the muscle you've been searching for.
• The prescription: Hold this contraction for 5 seconds. Relax for 2 seconds. That's one rep. Perform 2 sets of 8 reps. Do this before every upper body workout to wake the muscle up.

Step 2: Master the Banded Pull-Apart (Lightest Band)

Now we add movement. Grab the lightest resistance band you can find, usually a thin red or orange one. A heavy band will force your traps to engage.

• How to do it: Stand tall, holding the band with an overhand grip, hands shoulder-width apart. Raise your arms straight out in front of you at shoulder height.
• The movement: Initiate the movement by thinking about driving your elbows out to the sides. Do not think about pulling your hands apart. Keep your traps down and relaxed. The range of motion is small; the band should only stretch about 12-18 inches. Stop when your arms are in line with your shoulders.
• The feeling: Focus on recreating that specific sensation from the Wall Y-Raise on the back of your shoulder. The movement should be slow and controlled, especially on the way back in (the eccentric).
• The prescription: Perform 3 sets of 15-20 reps. If you feel your traps taking over, stop the set, reset, and focus on keeping them down.

Step 3: The Perfect Dumbbell Reverse Flye (5-15 Pounds)

This is where most people go wrong, so execution is everything. Start with 5-pound dumbbells. Yes, 5 pounds. If you're a strong guy who benches 225 lbs, you will still start with 5-10 pounds. This is a finesse move, not a power move.

• How to do it: Grab your 5 lb dumbbells. Hinge at your hips until your torso is nearly parallel to the floor. Maintain a flat back. Let the dumbbells hang straight down below your chest with your palms facing each other.
• The movement: Keep a slight, soft bend in your elbows-this bend should not change throughout the entire lift. Instead of lifting the weight "up," think about sweeping your arms "out" to the sides in a wide, smooth arc. Lead with your pinkies, trying to turn them toward the ceiling. Stop when your arms are parallel to the floor. Going higher will engage your traps.
• The feeling: At the top of the movement, you should feel that now-familiar squeeze in your rear delts. Squeeze for one full second. Then, control the weight as you slowly lower it back to the start over 2-3 seconds.
• The prescription: Perform 3 sets of 12-15 reps. If you can't feel the rear delt on at least 10 of the 15 reps, the weight is too heavy. Drop it. Using 10 lbs correctly is infinitely better than slinging 30 lbs around with your back.

What to Expect: Your 60-Day Rear Delt Timeline

Building this connection and seeing results takes patience. Your body has spent years using the wrong muscles for this movement. You have to undo that programming. Here is a realistic timeline.

• Week 1-2: The Awkward Phase. This will feel strange. You will use weights that feel ridiculously light. Your focus is not on getting a pump or feeling fatigued; it's on feeling the contraction on every single rep. Success in week one is feeling the rear delt work on just 5 out of 15 reps. That's a win because it's 5 more than last week. You will be tempted to grab the 25s. Resist.
• Week 3-4 (Month 1): The Connection Solidifies. By now, the mind-muscle connection should be consistent. You'll be able to feel your rear delts working on almost every rep of your sets. The movement will feel less awkward and more natural. You might be able to increase the weight, but only by the smallest increment possible (e.g., from 5 lbs to 7.5 lbs). The rule remains: if you lose the feeling, the weight is too heavy.
• Week 5-8 (Month 2): The First Visual Changes. This is where the hard work starts to pay off. When you look in the mirror, you'll begin to notice a subtle but definite change. Your shoulders will appear slightly fuller and wider from the back and side, creating a better "cap." You can now more confidently add weight (e.g., moving from 10 lbs to 12.5 or 15 lbs) because the neural pathway is strong. You've taught your body the right way to move, and now you can focus on progressive overload to drive muscle growth.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Role of Face Pulls

Face pulls are an excellent exercise for overall shoulder health and upper back development, but they are not a pure rear delt isolation move. They heavily involve the mid-traps and rhomboids. Master the isolation exercises in this guide first. Once you can feel your rear delts working consistently, you can add face pulls back into your routine, focusing on driving the elbows back to emphasize the rear delts more.

Training Frequency for Rear Delts

Because the rear delts are a small muscle group and you're using light weight with high reps, they recover quickly. You can and should train them more frequently than larger muscle groups. Hitting them 2-3 times per week at the end of your upper body, push, or pull workouts is optimal for growth.

Rear Delt Exercises at Home

The Wall Y-Raise requires no equipment. Banded Pull-Aparts are perfect for home gyms; a set of resistance bands is a cheap, versatile investment. For reverse flyes, if you don't have dumbbells, you can use water bottles, cans of soup, or any object of equal light weight to learn the movement pattern.

Feeling It in Your Triceps

If you feel reverse flyes in your triceps, it means you are extending your arm at the elbow during the lift, turning it into a triceps kickback. Your elbow bend should be locked in place. The entire arm, from shoulder to hand, should move as one single lever. Film yourself from the side to check.