Cable Rear Delt Fly
The cable rear delt fly is a rear shoulder isolation exercise where you pull crossed cables apart from shoulder height with nearly straight arms. It trains the rear delts with less help from the upper back than rows give. Pick it to build the back of your shoulders, a spot most pressing-heavy programs leave behind.
Muscles worked
The cable rear delt fly trains the shoulders.
Primary
Weekly sets for shoulders
Hard sets per week that Swole.fit plans for shoulders, counting every exercise that trains it. Start a cycle near the growth line and climb toward the recovery limit before a deload.
How to do the cable rear delt fly
- 01Set both pulleys at about shoulder height and remove the handles or attach D-handles.
- 02Grab the left cable with your right hand and the right cable with your left hand so they cross.
- 03Step back to the middle with arms straight in front of you and a slight bend in the elbows.
- 04Pull your arms out and back in a wide arc until your hands line up with your shoulders.
- 05Pause briefly, then let your arms come back in front of your chest slowly.
Coaching cues
- Sweep out wide, think hands to walls
- Keep your shoulder blades mostly still
- Lead with the back of your hands
Common mistakes
- Squeezing your shoulder blades hard together turns it into a mid-back exercise, so let the arms move while the blades stay quiet.
- Bending the elbows to pull the handles back makes it a row, so hold a fixed, slight elbow bend.
- Choosing a heavy stack shortens the range to a twitch, so use a light load you can control through the full arc.
How Swole.fit programs it
Log it once and the app plans the next session for you.
- Most sets land between 8 and 15 reps, the range the plan steers isolation work toward for size.
- Week one starts around 2 to 3 reps in reserve. Each week you train a little closer to failure, ending around 0 to 1 in reserve before a deload week.
- Hit the top of the range on every set and the next session adds the smallest real jump in weight, rounded to the plates, dumbbells or stack you actually have.
- Sets for this exercise count toward your weekly volume for every muscle it trains: a full set for the primary muscles, half a set for the helpers.
The full method, with the maths, is in how mesocycles work.
Cable Rear Delt Fly alternatives
Same muscles, different tool. Swap in one of these when the equipment is taken or your joints want a change.
Log it. Let the app plan the next one.
Track your cable rear delt fly free. Swole.fit picks the next weight, counts your weekly sets and tells you when to deload.