▸ Back

Incline Bench Pull

Middle BackBarbell

beginner · isolation · strength

Also works: Lats · Shoulders

Face down on a 30-degree incline, palms down, elbows flared wide, pulling until your upper arms and torso form a T. Despite the name it is not a row for the lats — the flared elbow path makes it a rear-delt and rhomboid movement, and it needs far lighter weight than that sounds.

▸ How to

Own the movement

Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.

Before the first rep

Set the bench to roughly 30 degrees — flat enough that the pull is close to horizontal.
Lie face down with your chest on the pad and your chin clear of the top edge.
Take a dumbbell in each hand and rotate the wrists until the palms face the floor.
Let the arms hang straight down and flare the elbows out to the sides, ready to travel wide.
Press your feet into the floor or the bench frame so you stay put when the weights move.

Every rep

Pull the dumbbells up and out to the sides, leading with the elbows, like the reverse of a bench press.

Let the forearms hang loosely — they are hooks, not levers.

Stop when the upper arms are level with your back and your body makes a T from above.

Hold that top position for a full second and feel the squeeze between the shoulder blades.

Lower slowly all the way down until the arms hang straight before starting the next rep.

Breathing & tempo — Exhale as you pull, inhale on the descent. Keep the tempo deliberate: one second up, one second at the T, three seconds down. Speed here just recruits the traps.

▸ Programming

Sets, reps & load

Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.

Hypertrophy

3-4 sets of 12-20

Endurance

2-3 sets of 20-25

Start with 4-6 kg dumbbells even if you row 30 kg — the flared position gives the rear delts terrible leverage. Good looks like 15 reps with a one-second hold at the T and no shrug. Add reps up to 20 before adding weight, then go up by 2 kg per hand at most.

▸ Fix your form

What goes wrong

The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.

Using row weights and turning it into a shrug with bent arms.

Halve the load. Start with 4-6 kg dumbbells and only add weight once you can hold the T position for a second on rep fifteen.

Tucking the elbows in toward the ribs as the set gets hard.

Keep the elbows pointing straight out to the sides. If they drift in, the rear delts have quit and the lats have taken over — stop the set there.

Shrugging the shoulders toward the ears at the top.

Think of pulling the shoulder blades together and slightly down, not up. Lower the weight until you can finish the rep without the traps taking over.

Cutting the bottom short so tension never releases.

Let the arms hang completely straight at the bottom of every rep. The stretch on the rear delts at full extension is a large part of why this works.

▸ The case for it

Why bother

Elbow angle decides the muscle. Pulling with the elbows tucked to your ribs recruits the lats; pulling with them flared to 90 degrees takes the lats almost entirely out of the equation and leaves the rear delts, rhomboids and mid-traps to do the work. This is the flared version, done on purpose.

Those muscles are small and they lose leverage badly in the T position at the top, which is why sensible loads here are a fraction of what you row. That is not a flaw. Most people's rear delts are undertrained precisely because they only ever get worked as a side effect of heavy pulls that the lats dominate.

Where it fits

Late in a pull day or as a finisher on a push day, three sets of 12-20. It is a useful counterweight to a lot of bench pressing, since it trains the exact positions the bench neglects. Twice a week is fine because the loads are small and it recovers quickly.

▸ Swap it out

If this one isn't it

No kit, too hard, or too easy — here's where to go instead.

▸ Questions

Asked and answered

Is this just a chest-supported rear delt raise?

Close, and the distinction matters less than people think. A rear delt raise keeps the arm straight; this bends the elbow, which shortens the lever and lets you use a bit more weight and bring the rhomboids in more strongly. Both train the same neglected region. Running one properly beats alternating both badly.

Why does the name say bench pull if it is a rear delt exercise?

Because the classic bench pull is a rowing exercise for rowers, done with the elbows tucked and a heavy bar under an elevated bench. This flared-elbow, palms-down version keeps the name and changes the muscle. If you want the rowing version, tuck the elbows and use a bar.

Can I do it with a barbell?

Only if the bench is elevated on blocks so the bar can clear the floor with your arms straight. With a bar the grip is fixed and wide, which suits the flared path fine. Dumbbells are simply less setup for the same effect.

How heavy should this get over time?

Not very. Most people top out somewhere around 10-14 kg per hand with strict form, and that is a reasonable ceiling. If your loads are climbing fast, check on video that the elbows are still flared and you are not just doing an incline row with a wider grip.