Patriot Health Digest
Chest training, for many men, is simply about strength and size. Pressing is all about doing as much weight as you can, and you will build plenty of strength and size as you progress. But if you are hoping to carve out your pecs, you will need to add some other exercises into your routine. That is where moves like the cable machine chest fly come in.
This exercise is more subtle than getting a pair of cables and going at it. You need to focus on movement, positioning, and more to get the most out of the incredible cable fly.
How to Correctly Do the Cable Chest Fly
Get Set Up
The placement of your cables is crucial. While other variations may have you keeping the cables in other spots, this one needs the handles right over your shoulders. You want them somewhat over your shoulders, but not high enough that you have to bend your torso forward to hit the position.
How you hold the handles is also important. Don’t use a death grip, instead keep the handle in the middle of your palm and loosen up. What you want to do is have the cable close to the base of your palm, so you don’t really need to grip to keep it in your hand.
Squeeze Your Blades
Once you are ready for action, one of the most crucial points of focus should be your shoulder blades. Think about a pencil between your shoulder blades that you are squeezing, and keep this feeling for as long as you can for each rep.
No Crossover
You might have seen some gym bros doing flys like a cable crossover, pulling their hands over one another to overemphasize the last phase of the move. Don’t do that. When you do that you are just bringing your shoulders forward. And you are not getting that much more flex to your chest. Instead, stop when your hands are almost touching, then emphasize your chest squeeze.
Lead With Your Pinkies
To emphasize chest activation, you want to do a lot more with your hands than just having your palms out. At the end of the move, rotate and bring your hands up into the ending squeeze, starting with your pinky fingers. That will help magnify your upper chest squeeze and your middle chest squeeze, which is what we want to get to with these flys.
Author: Blake Ambrose
