Chest Fly
Arms out wide with a slight bend in the elbows, you sweep your hands together in front of your chest, using a cable crossover or dumbbells on a flat bench.
Equipment
- Primary muscles
- Upper chest, Middle chest, Lower chest
- Secondary
- Front delts, Biceps
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Logged as
- Weight × reps
- Primary muscles
- Upper chest, Middle chest, Lower chest
- Secondary
- Front delts, Biceps
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Logged as
- Weight × reps
Loads from YouTube only when you press play. The video is by an independent creator.
Why do it
The chest fly isolates your chest by bringing your arms together while the triceps stay mostly out of it, so it fits after your presses. The two versions load it differently. Dumbbells on a flat bench are hardest in the stretch and nearly weightless at the top. The standing cable fly keeps tension through the whole arc, lets you squeeze where your hands meet, and is easy to adjust in small steps. Choose dumbbells for a deep stretch, cables for steady tension.
How to do it (Cable)
Set both pulleys of a cable crossover to chest height and attach a handle to each.
Stand in the middle, take a handle in each hand and step forward until the cables are under tension, arms out to the sides with a slight bend in your elbows.
Bring your hands together in front of your chest in a wide arc, keeping the elbow angle fixed.
Let your arms open back out slowly until you feel a stretch. Lean forward slightly and let your chest, not your arms, close the arc.
Lie flat on a bench with your feet on the floor and hold the dumbbells above your chest, palms facing each other.
With a slight, fixed bend in your elbows, lower the dumbbells out to the sides in a wide arc until you feel a stretch across your chest.
Bring them back up along the same arc, pulling with your chest rather than bending your arms.
Stop lowering at the point where your shoulders start to feel strained rather than stretched.
Common mistakes
Lowering the dumbbells too deep
Dropping your elbows well below the bench puts the strain on your shoulders. Stop when you feel a stretch across your chest, not in the front of your shoulder.
Locking your elbows straight
Fully straight arms make a long lever that loads your elbows and shoulders. Keep a slight, fixed bend from the first rep to the last.
A weight you can only press
If you have to bend your arms to move it, the weight is too heavy for a fly. Pick a load you can move in a wide arc.
Cable handles meeting too high
With the pulleys at chest height, your hands should meet in front of your chest. Letting them drift toward your face shifts the work to your shoulders.
Sets, reps and progression
How many sets you do and how close to failure you take them depend on your goal and your week, not on the exercise. These guides cover it:
Alternatives that train the same thing
Same movement, a different angle or piece of equipment.
