Prone T Raise

The prone T raise is performed lying face down on a bench with the arms hanging, raising them out to the sides until the body forms a T shape. That shape is the exercise: raising the arms straight out to the sides, rather than up toward the head or back toward the hips, targets the rear deltoids and the middle trapezius specifically. Lying on the bench makes cheating impossible, since there is no hip drive and no torso swing available to help the weights up. The loads here are genuinely small, and that is not a failure of strength. The rear deltoid is a small muscle working at the end of a long lever, and light dumbbells moved through a clean range produce far more than heavier ones heaved with a shrug. Keep the shoulders down and the neck relaxed.