Sit, spread, and blast the rear delts.
Lead with the elbows and squeeze the rear delts. Keep your chest pinned to the pad.
Most pressing-heavy programmes leave the rear delts starving, and this machine fixes that with zero setup fuss. With your chest pinned to the pad, the handles sweep out and back through pure horizontal abduction, so the rear delts do the moving while the back assists by drawing the shoulder blades together. It earns its slot as the simplest way to overload the back of the shoulder without momentum sneaking in.
The machine keeps tension on the rear delts through the whole arc and removes the balance demand, so it is easier to push close to failure cleanly. Free-weight raises lose tension near the bottom of every rep. Use the machine as your main rear delt work and save other variations for when the seat is taken.
You are shrugging as you pull, which hands the work to your upper traps. Drop the weight, keep your shoulders pulled down away from your ears, and think about pushing the handles apart in a wide arc rather than pinching hard.
Set a soft bend in the elbows and keep it fixed for the whole set. Bending more as you fatigue shortens the lever and quietly makes the weight easier, which is just cheating in slow motion.
