cable crossover alternative with dumbbells

#Cable crossover alternative with dumbbells full#

Let’s go over these purported problems one by one. It isn’t challenging at the top of the range of motion.It’s disproportionately hard at the bottom of the range of motion.The only real difference is that it’s lighter, making it less metabolically taxing and easier to recover from, and it puts even more emphasis on our chest, making it more of an isolation lift.Įven so, the dumbbell fly is criticized for a few different reasons: It works the chest hard in a deep stretch. In Defence of The Dumbbell FlyĪs we’ve just covered, the dumbbell fly is very similar to the wide-grip bench press.

#Cable crossover alternative with dumbbells full#

It’s often said to be the most optimal variation because it allows our chests to work freely through a full range of motion, and it allows us to get a full contraction of our pecs at the top.Īt first glance, it may seem like the cable fly is the best variation, the machine fly is the next-best, and the dumbbell fly is the worst- and may even be dangerous! But a few principles of muscle growth are being overlooked.

The cable fly: this variation of the fly is done by standing between two cable stacks.

These are usually made to have a fairly flat strength curve, making it equally challenging throughout the entire range of motion.

The machine fly: this variation of the fly is done using an exercise machine specifically designed for the chest fly.

It’s hardest at the bottom of the range of motion, which raises questions about whether it’s safe on the shoulder joint and whether it has a good strength curve for building muscle.

The dumbbell fly: this is most classic chest fly variation, and it’s done with a simple pair of dumbbells.There are a few popular variations of chest fly: And because the fly is done with the arms going out to the side, it mirrors the technique of the wide-grip bench press, prioritizing the chest over the shoulders: But unlike the bench press, the triceps aren’t engaged at all. Just like the bench press, it trains the chest with a deep range of motion. The chest fly is the most common isolation lift for the chest, and with good reason, too. And besides, even if our chests are growing just fine, we might want to raise our training volume even higher, speeding up growth even more. Whatever the reason, it’s fairly common for people to struggle with lagging chests (or lagging upper chests). Fortunately, thanks to the dumbbell fly, my chest developed just fine, even before I was able to bench press properly. In my own case, I gained a good thirty pounds before I was able to bring the barbell down to my chest without my shoulders losing their positioning. It’s the bottom of the bench press that stimulates by far the most chest growth, so if we’re skipping that portion, our chests can lag behind. This can put us in a position where we’re doing the bench press with a partial range of motion and our shoulders are losing stability at the bottom. It’s also fairly common for skinny guys with shallow ribcages to have trouble bringing the barbell all the way down to their chests when doing the bench press. That’s more common when using a narrow grip (which makes the bench press harder on the shoulders) or if they shorten the range of motion (which reduces the stretch on the chest). Sometimes people fail the bench press because their shoulders or triceps aren’t strong enough. The Overhead Triceps Extension.īut that’s not always the case. You might do just fine by doing the bench press, push-ups, and dips, and then maybe adding in some overhead triceps extensions to catch your triceps up. So before we compare different types of chest fly, keep in mind that you might not need them. If we look at what happens when we add triceps extensions to the bench press, we see muscle growth even out between the chest and triceps, like so: The dumbbell bench press is even more chest-dominant than the barbell bench press. This is especially true if you use dumbbells. So for the average person, the chest grows quite well from doing the big compound lifts, and it’s their triceps that need the isolation lifts. Plus, most people fail at the bottom of the lift, when their chests are in a deep stretch, meaning that their chests get an incredibly large growth stimulus.Īs a result, if we look at the average muscle growth from the bench press ( study), the chest grows at full speed and the triceps lag behind, like so: An important thing to note is that most people fail the bench press because their chests give out, meaning that their chests get more than their fair share of the growth stimulus compared to the other muscles.

There are quite a few compound lifts that train the chest, ranging from push-ups to the bench press to weighted dips. Should we Train Our Chests With Different Strength Curves?.