Incline Dumbbell Fly

How to do it

1. Set an incline bench to about thirty degrees and lie back with a dumbbell in each hand.
2. Press the dumbbells up over your chest, palms facing each other.
3. Set a small bend at the elbow and hold that bend for the whole set.
4. Open your arms out to the sides in a wide arc, lowering the dumbbells until you feel a stretch across the upper chest.
5. Bring them back together along the same arc, leading with the upper arms rather than the hands.
6. Stop the arc where the tension drops off, which is before the dumbbells touch.

Common mistakes

• Letting the elbows straighten and bend through the arc. That turns the fly into a clumsy press and moves the work to the triceps; the elbow angle is set once and held.
• 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.
• Going heavy. A fly loads the chest through a long lever with the elbow open, which is the least mechanically favourable way to hold a weight, so the usable load is a fraction of a press.
• Dropping the dumbbells below the point where the chest is still under tension. The bottom of the range is where the shoulder is most vulnerable and where the chest has the least to offer, so the depth is set by the stretch, not by the floor.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Clavicular HeadPecs

Secondary

• Shoulders