Dumbbell Fly
Trains the Pecs.
- Equipment
- Dumbbells and either a flat bench or an adjustable bench
- Mechanic
- Isolation
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Sit on the end of a flat bench with a light dumbbell on each thigh, then lie back and bring them up over your chest with your palms facing each other.
- Squeeze your shoulder blades down into the bench and keep your feet flat on the floor.
- Set a soft bend in your elbows — maybe twenty degrees — and keep that same angle for the whole set. The elbows should not open and close; this is a movement at the shoulder, not the elbow.
- Lower the dumbbells out to your sides in a wide arc, as though hugging a barrel in reverse, until you feel a stretch across your chest.
- Stop when your upper arms are roughly level with the bench. Going deeper adds range the shoulder rather than the chest has to absorb.
- Bring the dumbbells back up along the same arc until they are over your chest, stopping just short of touching so the tension stays on.
Common mistakes
- Bending and straightening the elbows, which turns the fly into a clumsy press. Fix the elbow angle at the start and hold it — if the weight can only move with the elbows helping, it is too heavy for a fly.
- Going far too heavy. This is the movement that trains the chest's defining action, bringing the arm across the body, and it works at a fraction of a pressing weight. A fly done heavy becomes a press done badly.
- Letting the dumbbells drift down toward the hips rather than out to the sides. The arc should stay at chest level; travelling toward the waist takes the load off the pectoralis major.
- Only ever pressing. Pressing loads the chest where it is strongest, near lockout, and gives it least to do where the arms are furthest apart. A chest session with no movement that closes the hands across the body has left the muscle's defining action untrained.