The reverse fly exercise is a great shoulder exercise, utilising primarily the rear deltoid muscle fibres.
Reverse flyes are a fairly easy exercise to do, meaning you can add them to most shoulder workouts alongside another multi-joint compound exercise such as the barbell shoulder press.
The only equipment you require is quite common and found in most, if not all gyms.
You can do this exercise standing up and bent over, called the bent over reverse fly, you can do this exercise on a bench too and in other ways such as leaning on a bench and using one arm or the cable and machine reverse fly.
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(Dumbbell) Reverse Fly Exercise Instructions:
Target Muscle: Shoulders
Exercise Type: Strength
These instructions below are specifically designed for the dumbbell reverse fly exercise, however a similar method applies with the barbell, resistance band or cable variation of this exercise. These instructions require an incline bench and a pair of dumbbells.
To start, lie on an incline bench (at around 30-45 degrees) with your chest pressing against the upper part of the bench.
Then hold a pair of dumbbells in each hand with your palms facing each other.
Push your arms out and in front of you so that your hands are perpendicular with the bench. Hold your weight up with your feet. This will be your starting position.
While maintaining a slight bend in your elbows, move the dumbbells outwards and away from each other, but keep the same angle with the bench, contract your shoulders while doing this.
Once your arms are parallel with the floor pause for 1-2 seconds.
Slowly lower the weights back down to your starting position.
Repeat this for your desired amount of repetitions.
Additional Variations: You can do this exercise with cables or resistance bands, you can also do both arms at a time or alternate between your arms. You can also do this exercise leaning over on a bench, alternating your arms, in a bent over position and in many other ways.
Caution: Try not to use a heavy weight and stick to an intermediate-light weight.