How to do the Dumbbell Rear Delt Fly
Step by step
- Hold a light dumbbell in each hand, soften your knees and hinge forward at the hips until your chest points toward the floor.
- Keep your back flat and let the dumbbells hang under your shoulders with a soft bend in your elbows.
- Raise both arms out to the sides in a wide arc, leading with your elbows.
- Stop when your arms reach shoulder height and squeeze your shoulder blades.
- Lower slowly under control back to the hanging start position.
The thing people get wrong
Use light weight and keep elbows soft - swinging heavy dumbbells turns this into a shrug and misses the rear delts.
Coaching cue
Keep your chest pointed at the floor the whole set; standing up between reps hands the work to your back.
Stay safe
Keep your back flat rather than rounded; holding a long hinge with a rounded back stresses your lower back.
Make it easier or harder
- Easier: Do it seated with your chest resting on your thighs so your lower back does not hold the hinge.
- Harder: Pause for two seconds at the top of every rep.
Muscles worked
- Primary: Rear delts, Upper Back
What to do instead
Same job, different movement — useful if you don't have the equipment or it doesn't feel right today.
Daily Coach builds this into a real weekly plan. It picks the exercises for your equipment and experience, swaps around injuries you tell it about, and tracks what you actually lifted.