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Tonal coach Ackeem Emmons performing a reverse cable fly on Tonal.

Reverse Cable Flys: Step-by-Step Guide for Rear Delts Strength

Activate those hard-to-target rear delts and upper back with the reverse cable fly, learning proper set-up, form, grip type, and helpful mind-muscle cues.

Plenty of us don't realize how often our arms and shoulders remain tightly rounded "inward." Think of how your shoulders tense when you type and text, or when you carry heavy bags of groceries, or reach forward to open doors.

These movements might not seem strenuous, but that attitude can lead to neglecting some important back training and strengthening, particularly muscles like your rear delts (located on the back of your shoulders) or your rhomboids (which sit between your spine and your shoulder blades).

The reverse cable fly can counteract that neglect. It's an upper-back and posterior-shoulder targeting exercise that often works like a lesson in "re-opening" your backside.

It’s especially helpful if your training or daily life leans heavy on pushing motions and you want something that gives your back equal attention.

Cables make this exercise smoother and more forgiving than many free-weight flies. You can work from a neutral, comfortable standing setup and let the machine guide the resistance, all while you focus on alignment and appropriate form.

Once you learn the basic setup, it’s easy to explore variations in reverse cable fly bent torso angles, as well as high or low pulley positions. This keeps training diverse for a slightly different challenge.

Let's begin with the standard reverse cable fly version, as well as explore muscles worked, calories burned, common form FAQs, and several other tips and cues so you can build upper-body strength and control on your terms.

Contents
  1. Reverse Cable Fly: Step by Step
  2. Reverse Cable Fly: reps & intervals
    1. Average Duration of
    2. Estimated Calories Burned
    3. Recommended Number of exercises Per Week
    4. Warmup & Cool Down Exercises
    3.
  3. Muscle Groups Targeted
  4. Equipment Used for Reverse Cable Fly
  5. Who This Exercise is Best For
  6. Answers to FAQs about Reverse Cable Fly
  7. Concluding words on Reverse Cable Fly

Reverse Cable Fly: Step by Step

Standard Reverse Cable Fly


1. Set the cables. Place both pulleys at about shoulder height or just below.

2. Attach a single neutral-grip handle to each side and stand centered between them.

3. Grab the handles with your arms crossing. (I.e. Reach your left hand to hold the right handle and your right hand the left handle.)

4. Take 1-2 steps backward to activate cable tension, still gripping both handles. Ensure you haven't stepped back so far you feel off-balance.

5. Stand with feet hip-width apart, slight bend in the knees. Your arms should start slightly in front of your chest with a gentle bend at the elbows.

6. Keep your spine long and torso stacked over your hips. No arching through the lower back.

7. Ensure your neck also stays neutral by looking straight ahead, or slightly down. Let your shoulders settle down away from your ears, not shrugged upward.

8. Start the fly. Open your arms out to the sides in a wide arc, like you’re drawing a soft “T” shape with your hands.

9. Drive the motion from the back of your shoulders, not by yanking with your hands or wrists.

Tip: Keep your wrists in line with your forearms and elbows, avoiding any sharp bends.

10. Pause and return. Stop when your hands reach roughly in line with your shoulders, then hold the pull for 1-2 seconds.

Note: There's no need to force your hands far behind you, as that may lead to overextension and poor form. Always return the handles to the starting position slowly, resisting the cables rather than letting them snap forward.



Standard Reverse Cable Fly Variations:

Versions of cable flies often come down to two adjustments: Changes to the pulley height and changes to your body's angle.

  • A high reverse cable fly sets the pulleys to sit above your shoulders. For some lifters, the most effective high cable fly pulley height is around their foreheads, allowing them to better share the load between rear delts and upper traps.
  • A low reverse cable fly does the opposite. It sets the pulleys to below shoulder-height. That lowered starting point may feel more comfortable for some individual's shoulder and body builds.
  • A bent-over cable fly requires you to bend forward at the hips (~20-30 degrees, without impeding cable paths) but keeps pulleys adjusted to shoulder height.

Reverse Cable Fly: reps & intervals

Use these rep and set suggestions as a starting place. Your workout should ultimately be designed for you, respecting its challenge and meeting your goals intentionally without going overboard, or just mirroring what you see others do.

  • Reverse cable fly reps for muscle growth: 6-20 reps
  • Reverse cable fly reps for strength endurance: 8-12 reps
  • Reverse cable fly reps for max strength: 4-8 reps
  • Beginner reverse cable fly intervals: 2-3 sets
  • Intermediate reverse cable fly intervals: 3-4 sets

Average Duration of Reverse Cable Fly

Ensure proper form and slow, steady pacing across your reverse cable flies. This should help
you feel the upper back working instead of letting momentum take over any part of the exercise.

  • One rep: ~3-4 seconds
  • One set: ~30-50 seconds

Estimated Calories Burned

These are educational ranges, not personalized readouts. Your personal cable load, rep and set tempo, body size, and your effort level will nudge these numbers up or down.

We calculated the following calories burned ranges based on an adult performing 3 sets of 10 reverse cable flies:

  • Women (140-180 lbs): ~10-20 calories per working set
  • Men (170-210 lbs): ~15-25 calories per working set
  • Adults 225+ lbs: ~20-30 calories per working set

(These are educational ranges, not personalized readouts.)

Recommended Number of exercises Per Week

Most people can integrate reverse cable flys 1-2x/week, usually on upper-body or pull-focused days. Because the rear delt shoulder muscles are comparatively smaller to others on the back, they often benefit from consistent light-to-moderate work rather than heavy, infrequent sessions.

Warmup & Cool Down Exercises

Warm-Up (choose 1-4):

  • Resistance band pull-aparts (30 sec)
  • Light cable rows (30 sec)
  • Shoulder circles (30 sec)
  • Arm swings (30 sec)

Cool-Down (choose 1-3, at the end of your training session)

  • Cross-body shoulder stretch (30 sec)
  • Upper-back stretch (30 sec)
  • Gentle neck circles (30 sec)

Muscle Groups Targeted

The reverse cable fly works several muscles. That includes the rear or posterior deltoids, followed by several upper-back muscles like the rhomboids and traps.

A reverse cable fly can also activate certain smaller back muscles that help your shoulder blades glide smoothly and support upright posture.

Over time, activating these muscles in a coordinated, loaded pull can assist with balanced shoulder function alongside complementing pressing and more anterior (front) muscle-dominant exercises.

Equipment Used for Reverse Cable Fly

You'll need access to the following to perform standard cable reverse flys:

Optional equipment:

  • Bench for light support if balance is an issue
  • Very light starter weights or resistance bands, for those completely brand new to shoulder/rear delt work

Who This Workout is Most Effective For
  • Office workers who work on computers and laptops who notice their shoulders rounding throughout the day and want a practical way to strengthen the muscles that gently pull the shoulder blades back into a more neutral position.
  • Lifters whose workouts lean heavily toward pressing movements (e.g. bench press, push-ups, overhead presses) and want something that deliberately trains the back side of the shoulders for symmetry and balance.
  • Lifters who “feel everything in their traps” during back workouts and need an exercise that teaches them to spread effort across the rear delts and shrug less through reps.
  • People who use resistance training to make everyday lifting and reaching feel smoother, regardless of their lifestyles and daily activities.

Answers to FAQs about Reverse Cable Fly

For most, a slight bend in the elbows is usually the most comfortable and sustainable fly position. Completely straight arms tend to overload the joints and make it harder to direct tension into the rear delts and upper back. Think of your arms as levers, not rigid sticks.

Standing reverse flies tend to be the default. Standing gives your body more freedom to find a natural position, plus can help you learn how to stabilize your legs and core.

Seated fly versions remove some of that core and leg stabilization demand, yet often feel more controlled for beginners especially.

Neither is “better.” The right choice is the one that lets you move smoothly without shrugging, jerking, or straining.

Both are valuable and with proper form fire up those rear delts. But do note some slight difference.

Face pulls generally involve more external-rotation and overall upper-back work, while the reverse cable fly emphasizes the rear delts through generally a wider arc. Many people use both across the same training week, letting each pattern cover a different aspect of shoulder and upper-back function.

Generally, the most common mistake for beginners in particular is turning the movement into a shrug (lifting the shoulders toward the ears) which can influence how the rear delts lead.

Others include using too much weight to start, which encourages swinging or jerking, or yanking your hands too far behind the body at the fly's concentric pulling phase.

Staying within a comfortable load range, maintaining proper full-body form, and focusing on a soft elbow bend with a relaxed neck are good options to explore fixing these mistakes, should you find yourself feeling them.

Concluding words on Reverse Cable Fly

Instead of chasing heavy weights, the reverse cable fly lets you practice smooth and controlled movements that still scratch a resistance training itch. They're part of a bigger picture: building strength that feels practical, repeatable, and supportive to ways you move every day.

Many even compare it to a backside "wake-up" with how much it targets the often-overlooked and unnoticed rear delts, especially if most of your training so far has focused on the front of your body. (It's okay, we get the appeal.)

Variations in pulley height, torso angle, and crossover path also give you some room to fine-tune the exercise to your structure and preferences.

And if you find yourself wanting to understand why a movement feels the way it does — not just how to do it — Tonal’s Resource Hub offers more than 60+ free guides keeping you well educated and well motivated, even at home.

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