Dumbbell Flys: Exercise For Finishing Your Chest Routine

Dumbbell Flys: Finishing Your Chest Routine

Dumbbell Flys are a great exercise for finishing your chest routine. After doing compound exercises, like bench press and incline press, you want to finish with an isolated chest exercise.

Dumbbell Flys are considered the perfect isolated chest exercise. As a finishing move, you want to make this the last part of your chest routine. Dumbbell Flys can be used with dumbbells, or you can use kettlebells as a variation. Flys are a great way to focus on your chest, after a lot of pressing.

• Main Muscle Used: Pectoral Muscle – Chest
• Secondary Muscles: Shoulders
  
• Equipment Required: Dumbbell or Kettlebell
  
• Movement: Isolated
• Exercise Type: Push

Here is a great video explanation of how to do the Dumbbell Fly:

To do the Dumbbell Flys Exercise:

1. Lie down on a bench.
2. Start with the dumbbells or kettlebells extended outward (shown below), elbows bent 90 degrees.
3. Raise the weights until they clasp above your head, while inhaling, and squeezing your shoulders and chest.
4. Exhale, and lower the weight back down slowly to starting position.

Standing Cable Flys

Standing Cable Flys are the most common variation of the Dumbbell Flys exercise. Standing Cable Flys are done with one foot slightly in front of the other. Use a full range of motion, while making sure you’re body weight is balanced. Here’s a video illustrating proper technique for the Standing Cable Fly:

Popular Dumbbell Flys Workouts:

• Brad Pitt used Cable Flys to transform himself and chisel his body down during the Tyler Durden Workout in the movie Fight Club.
• The Rock workout, aka Dwayne Johnson does dumbbell flys in a pyramid routine. In a pyramid routine, you go up in weight and down in reps each week. The Rock alternates between bench dumbbell flys, and standing mid cable flys.
• The Kim Kardashian Workout uses dumbbell flys to work her chest. Strong pectoral muscles gives her a more shapely figure.
• The James Bond Workout uses Incline Dumbbell Flys. Just use an incline bench, instead of a bench press. This works the shoulders, and upper pecs more than the bulkier part of the chest. The result is more definition in your chest, and less bulk.
• Dumbbell Flys are a staple of most body builders like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ronnie Coleman, and Mr. Olympia Phil Heath.
• The Joe Manganiello Werewolf Workout for True Blood uses a unique variation. He does dumbbell flys on the ground, rolling them back and forth. This trains his core, in addition to his chest and shoulders. Then, he does cable flys after that.
• The Jennifer Garner workout includes circuit training. She does Bent-Over Rows, Dumbbell Bench Press, Two Arm Row, Dumbbell Flys, Shoulder Press, and Triceps Kickbacks.
• The Aaron Rodgers Workout and the Drew Brees Workout both use Kettlebell Flys instead of the traditional dumbbells. Kettlebell Flys improve the emphasis on joint strength and flexibility that a quarterback, or any NFL player, needs.
• The Jessica Alba Workout uses Dumbbell Flys, mixed in with cardio circuits, as part of her 40-minute 3-2-1 workouts.

Share the Dumbbell Flys Exercise

Know anyone who can benefit from this exercise? Or anyone that wants to develop the outer area of their chest?

Share the Dumbbell Flys exercise with them.