The Face-Plank Wing Back: Horizontal Reverse Shoulder Sculptor

Pressure Cascade · Mechanism

Alright, it's time to sculpt those rear delts, and we're doing it lying down because standing is overrated and lying down is underrated. The Lying Rear Delt Raise is an intermediate shoulder exercise that targets the back of your shoulders — those little muscles that most people ignore until they see a photo of themselves from the side and realize their shoulders look like flat-screen TVs instead of 3D objects.

You lie face-down on an incline bench with a dumbbell in each hand, arms hanging down toward the floor. You raise the dumbbells out to your sides in a wide arc, squeezing your shoulder blades together at the top like you're trying to crack a very stubborn walnut between your rear delts. Then you lower with control, feeling the stretch at the bottom and the squeeze at the top. The incline bench supports your chest, which means you can't cheat by standing up and using momentum — your rear delts have to do every bit of the work, and they can't delegate to other muscle groups like lazy middle managers.

The rear delts are small muscles, but they punch way above their weight class in terms of visual impact. Well-developed rear delts give your shoulders that capped, round look from every angle, and they improve your posture by pulling your shoulders back instead of letting them slump forward like a disappointed parent. After a few sets of these, your rear delts will be so pumped that you'll feel like you're wearing shoulder pads — but they're made of muscle, not 1980s fashion mistakes. Lie down, raise those wings, and sculpt shoulders that look good from every direction.