StrengthIn review

Chest-Supported Rear-Delt Raise

A rear-delt raise face down on a flat bench, with the arms hanging straight down.

This page is a working draft. A coach has not reviewed it, so read it as a starting point, not as checked instruction.

Pattern: Shoulder raise
Modality: Strength
Difficulty: Beginner
Mechanic: Unknown
Force: Unknown
Laterality: Bilateral
Impact: Low
Trains where: Gym, Home
At home: Yes

How to do it

Set up

Lie face down on a stable flat bench with the chest on the pad and the torso level with the floor.
Plant the feet and let two light dumbbells hang straight down below the shoulders, clear of the floor, with the palms facing each other.

Do the rep

Keep a soft elbow bend and raise both arms out to the sides.
Stop when the upper arms are about level with the torso and parallel to the floor.
Lower the dumbbells under control until the arms hang straight down, with the chest on the bench.

What counts as a rep

A rep counts when both upper arms reach about torso level, parallel to the floor, and both arms return to hang straight down while the chest stays on the flat bench.

Breathing

Exhale as you lift; inhale as you lower.

Cues

Keep the chest on the pad.
Move the arms out wide.
Keep the neck long.

Common mistakes

Lifting the chest off the bench
What you seeThe chest leaves the pad as the arms rise.
FixUse less load and keep the chest in contact with the pad.
Chest support removes the trunk swing from the raise.

Stop the set if

Stop if you feel sharp pain.
Stop if the bench moves or the shoulders pinch.
End the set when you cannot meet the stated rep standard under control.

General educational content, not individual coaching or medical advice.

Muscles worked

Prime movers

Rear deltoids · moderate confidence

Assisting

Trapezius · moderate confidence
Rotator cuff · moderate confidence

Equipment

Dumbbell + Bench

Lie face down on a stable flat bench with the chest on the pad and the torso level with the floor. Plant the feet and let two light dumbbells hang straight down below the shoulders, clear of the floor, with the palms facing each other.

In the app

You log this by hand. The camera coach does not watch this movement yet.

Tracking: Manual

How this page was checked

Draft. A editorial reviewer has not signed this off yet.

Draft text is original copy for Wave 2 batch 9, written from the blueprint CSV row and the owner rules approved 2026-10-12 in #340. No human review is complete.
Technique, cues, rep standard, breathing, stop cues, and error corrections need independent sources and the assigned review tier (blueprint two-source rule).
Programming roles, skill tier, failure cost, timed use, goal fit, and equipment follow the owner rules; the switch-on PR must confirm them.
Legacy relations and engine edges stay empty until the progression ladder lane and S2-CAT-005.
Timed use and goal fit copy ex_face_pull. The copied timed-use state is disallowed; no review evidence is claimed for this draft.
Rule 1 gives home yes because every required picker item is a dumbbell or bench. The CSV says home false. Environment and programming location constraints include gym and home.
Dumbbell load uses kg with load-and-reps and the allowed metrics of ex_dumbbell_shoulder_press (rule 1).
Rule 2 gives this movement secondary_pull + isolation_target.
Failure cost low: a failed rep lowers a light dumbbell, as ex_dumbbell_lateral_raise and the Wave 1 dumbbell curls. This is the approved exception to the general rule 3 dumbbell cost of moderate.
Home yes differs from ex_dumbbell_lateral_raise (home false). The Wave 1 record stays unchanged under the owner ruling.
Skill tier beginner: a new user can perform one clean rep in the first session, as the owner ruled (rule 3).
Two dumbbells move together and count as bilateral_rep, as ex_dumbbell_shoulder_press (rule 1).
Exception to the CSV optional bench: the named seated or chest-supported movement requires one bench (rule 1).
This record overlaps ex_incline_dumbbell_rear_delt_raise in this batch. The owner keeps both as separate records; this row is not a rule 4 alias.
Anatomy refines the CSV family hints for this movement: primary rear-deltoids; secondary traps, rotator-cuff. The assigned review tier must confirm these draft lists.
The flat bench, the level torso, the arms-straight-down start and the torso-level finish are draft choices that set this record apart from ex_incline_dumbbell_rear_delt_raise (bench at about 30-45 degrees). Coach review must confirm them, and that the bench height keeps the dumbbells clear of the floor.

All instruction and editorial text in this record is original draft copy written for Allena. Planning metadata comes from the internal Wave-2 blueprint CSV.

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