could someone tell me what this does...

[ged]

can someone please tell me which particular back muscles this exercise works.

ok, the best way i can describe it is like bent over dumbbell row, except the arm is not bent, all movement is in the shoulder.

eg, a bent-over dumbbell row is kind of the same as an upright row, and this exercise im curious about would be like a shoulder shrug, except you're facing the ground.

hopefully ive explained it well enough, if not, let me know and ill try again.

is this exercise useful? is it best used instead of bent-over dumbbell rows, or in conjunction with them?

thanks.

[ElPietro]

Which direction is the arm going? If I'm understanding you, you're saying that it's bent over with a dumbell and your arm is moving with your elbow locked?

With resistance going downward, aka gravity I think it would be the shoulder but if you could explain it better that would be great.

If the arm is going away from the body you are working your rear delts (shoulders).

[IronFist]

::stands up in front of a mirror and tries it::

Sounds and looks like it would work the rhomboids or one of the other muscles in the center below the traps, and maybe the traps a bit, too. It doesn't work the rear delts, however, unless you swing your arms up (like you're making a "T").

I don't know if it might **** with your shoulders or not, tho... with too heavy of weights, any slip in form might cause too much force to be applied to your shoulder sockets, or something. Ok, I can't explain it well, but look at how hunched forward your shoulders are during the movment and you might see what I'm talking about.

Iron

[ged]

yup elpietro, your first description was about it - resistance is gravity pulling your arm away from your body, you're tugging the weight up towards your chest.

not too happy to hear about the damage that can be caused..... im doing a back workout tomorrow, ill try it out with light weights then.

while im on the subject, consider the opposite of this exercise - elpietro, the one where you said ( if i understand you correctly) your rear delts would be worked. this is a way we do pushups at kung fu classes - at the top of the exercise, your arms are vertical, elbows are locked. then your lower your body (but your shoulders and arms remain as they are), then push yourself back up. theyre called shoulder pushups. ive been considering trying these with weights, eg benchpress without bending my arms....... the only thing thats stopped me is that it might be damaging?

[IronFist]

rear delts are only worked when the arms are pulled back. Put your arms out in front of you like you just pushed someone. Now, pull them back keeping the horizontal so your body makes a "T" That's what your rear delts do, for the most part.

You can also work rear delts with other things like pullups, pull over machines (IMO one of the few machines worth using).

Rear delts are a pretty hard to hit muscle, but they look cool if you build them up :) hehehe.

You can also do reverse pec-decs for them.

Iron

[ElPietro]

Ged to work your rear delts it would be a motion away from your chest, not towards. Like iron said, if you think of flies on a pec dec, rear delts is the opposite motion to that.