Incline Cable Fly

How to do it

1. Set an incline bench to about thirty degrees between two low pulleys.
2. Take a handle in each hand and sit back against the pad.
3. Press both hands up over your upper chest, palms facing each other.
4. Set a small bend at the elbow and hold it.
5. Open the arms out and slightly down in a wide arc until the chest stretches.
6. Bring them back together over the upper chest along the same arc.

Common mistakes

• Setting the bench steep. Past about forty-five degrees the arc becomes a front raise and the front of the shoulder takes most of it.
• Letting the hands drift toward the hips at the top. The arc finishes over the upper chest, which is where the incline aimed it — finishing low turns it into a flat fly done awkwardly.
• Bending the elbows to get the hands closer. The arc comes from the shoulder; a bending elbow shortens it at the joint that is not being trained.
• Going heavy. The elbow is open, which makes the lever long, and a cable holds tension through the part of the arc where a dumbbell would have stopped pulling.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Clavicular HeadPecs

Secondary

• Shoulders