Flat Bench Cable Fly
Trains the Pecs.
- Equipment
- A cable station and either a flat bench or an adjustable bench
- Mechanic
- Isolation
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Set a flat bench between two low pulleys and set both to the lowest setting.
- Take a handle in each hand and lie back on the bench.
- Press both hands up over your chest with the palms facing each other.
- Set a small bend at the elbow and hold it for the whole set.
- Open your arms out to the sides in a wide arc until you feel a stretch across the chest.
- Bring them back together over your chest along the same arc.
Common mistakes
- Letting the elbows straighten and re-bend. The fixed elbow is what makes it a fly; once it opens and closes, the triceps have joined in and it is a clumsy press.
- Setting the bench off-centre. The two cables should pull evenly; a bench out of line means one arm works through a longer arc than the other for the whole set.
- Going as low as the cables allow. A cable keeps pulling where a dumbbell has gone slack, which is useful at the top and is why the bottom needs a limit — the stretch, not the floor.
- Loading it like a dumbbell fly. The cable is hardest at the top of the arc where a dumbbell is easiest, so the number that works is different rather than comparable.