Bent over rear delt raises and barbell bench presses

hiitsscott

Am I the only one who struggles with these? No matter how light a weight I use I can't do rear delt raises properly and I struggle to move the barbell up and down in a controlled manner on bench presses. My arms are all over the place, again regardless of weight. It's more just keeping my arms in place, I have better success when I do these on a smith machine. Am I terrible at these or is this a common problem for people?

DopeItUp

When you say you can't do rear delt raises, what happens? Are you just using too much weight? That is an exercise that is going to take very minimal weight to accomplish what you need.

Bench press stability is a combination of factors, I'm guessing your technique is faulty. Go look up something like "So you think you can bench" on youtube and follow it. Tucked shoulder blades, leg drive/stability and total body tightness contribute heavily to bench pressing properly and safely.

Willbenchforcupcakes

DopeItUp wrote: »

When you say you can't do rear delt raises, what happens? Are you just using too much weight? That is an exercise that is going to take very minimal weight to accomplish what you need.

Very much agree. Rear delt raises and rear flies a my lightest weight accessories. I only need 5-10 pounds to accomplish what I need - a tight hard contraction in my rhomboids and lower traps.

Bench press stability is a combination of factors, I'm guessing your technique is faulty. Go look up something like "So you think you can bench" on youtube and follow it. Tucked shoulder blades, leg drive/stability and total body tightness contribute heavily to bench pressing properly and safely.

Very very much agree here. If you're having trouble controlling your arms, you're very likely not creating a stable base to bench from. The do you think you can bench video will help a lot if you don't have access to a great bench coach in person. Find a set up that work for you, and use it every single set, from bar only warm ups on up.

piperdown44

Just chiming in and agreeing with DopeItUp and IMC.
Heck, I only use 10-15lb dumbbells for rear delt flys and there's nothing wrong with my delts.
You've got to have a stable base for bench. Drive those shoulder blades into the bench and keep tension in the whole body with the arch.

icemaiden37

Rear delt raises are a pretty brutal (sorry, "effective"!) isolation exercise so you're only going to be using really low weights for those. I only use 4kg for those (the lightest weight of all my entire collection of workouts!) and my shoulders complain throughout! It's one of those exercises where I *really* feel every rep!

As for bench press, do you also do dumbbell presses at all? Doing these regularly can really help your bench press as they help train the stabilising muscles and address any muscle imbalances. Otherwise, I take a little time to wiggle my shoulder blades together on the bench and plant my feet firmly on the floor before considering lifting the bar.