This blog is all about educating and teaching people to do things correctly. Arming people with information so they can make an educated decision based on their circumstances. I want to give people information at the beginning so from the off they know what to do. This can be with regards diet, training or overall health. Some topics may not specifically apply to you but understanding some of the points will better equip you if you need to help others.
This time I want to delve into the training remit again and look at an exercise that could be improved or gotten rid of completely in place of something better. The exercise is the dumbbell fly.
It’s an exercise that works the chest, the chest has strands moving in different directions which is why you’ll see people do incline/flat/decline bench so that they can fully develop their chest muscles. The dumbbell fly attempts to target the stands that are more horizontally driven (attaching to your shoulder). You lay on a bench with dumbbells in each hand extend your arms out to the side and then bring your arms together (whilst keeping them extended) until the dumbbells are positioned directly above you. That’s the bio mechanics behind it, now let's get rid of it.
So why’s it bad for you? Well, 1 it cuts the range of motion short, the chest need abduction (where your arms cross over) and dumbbells prevent you from doing this. 2 your shoulders, trust me its an area you need to look after. Being on a bench leaves your shoulders unsupported especially at the bottom, this will increase your chance of injury because it causes excess stress to the front of the shoulder. What you’ll find as well is people lighten the weight so that they can handle it, this means they aren’t properly giving their chest the right load. Finally 3 when you’re working a muscle you want the weight to be the most effective at the point of peak contraction. This doesn’t happen because peak contraction is when your arms are out in front crossed over. On a bench this is reverse, it's the hardest when the chest is open and easiest when at the top.
So the alternatives, well the movement is not the wrong thing here you need the fly movement but ditch the dumbbells or the bench. Ideally you want a machine, by standing up your shoulders aren’t at a vulnerable position, the way you stand will mean the hardest part of the movement will be when the chest is at peak contraction and you can get the abduction movement. You can also create all this using resistance bands as well if you can’t get to the gym and want to do some home workouts. They’re not expensive and you get a lot of variety with them, a useful tool to just have at home.
Now for some reason you can’t get to the gym, you don’t have resistance bands available or people are using all the machines at the gym and you need to do them. Get rid of the bench and do them on the floor, at the very least what you’ll be doing is protecting your shoulders. Got that? Great.
You’ll probably see big guys lifting and doing this exercise but now you know, if you make these changes you’ll be guaranteed to be more effective and improve your training.
Thats it for today, have a good day!
Cameron
Additional Sources:
Athlean X - Stop Doing Chest Flys - I'm Begging You!!
Comments