are flies underratted ?

[jon cole]

i'm on my 5 week cutting cycle and started flies at the beginning of the cycle, just to change the routine.
believe or not my pec gain a lot of mass, and appreciable strength on bench press although i'm cutting.
i gain strength on the "take off" phase of the bp, which was my weak point.

for the last 10 years i've heard that "flies are for sissy" etc etc...
they are not in fact.

[Meso_z]

i'm on my 5 week cutting cycle and started flies at the beginning of the cycle, just to change the routine.
believe or not my pec gain a lot of mass, and appreciable strength on bench press although i'm cutting.
i gain strength on the "take off" phase of the bp, which was my weak point.

for the last 10 years i've heard that "flies are for sissy" etc etc...
they are not in fact.

Now who the fuck told you that???

Flies are one of the best exersices for chest, incline or flat.

[webcake]

Now who the fuck told you that???

Flies are one of the best exersices for chest, incline or flat.

x2

Great exercise.

[jon cole]

Now who the fuck told you that???

Flies are one of the best exersices for chest, incline or flat.

yes, now flies seems better for me than dumbell or barbell press, i've got big tri and delt but weak chest.
although i will continue bp and incline press for general mass.
i 've lost ten years.

[jon cole]

flies hurt the chest directly, without the help of tri and delt.

[webcake]

flies hurt the chest directly, without the help of tri and delt.

It is one of the few isolation exercises you can do for chest.

It will still work your delts a bit.....but not as much as pretty much any other chest exercise.

[jpm101]

DB fly's are a good exercise but there comes a time when it morf's into a semi wide DB press. Usually when 50lbs or more are used in the movement the elbows must be bent to adjust to the extra weight. This tends to bring in more delts. In any case, bent elbows or not, a very productive movement for the pec's; flat, incline or decline. Not a sissy exercise. Great as a preexhaustion movement right before BP's (BB/DB).

Most guy's can get a better bang for their buck when using a pec deck, with the elbows on the pads, not with the hands gripping the handles way out. Better direct focus/leverage on the pec's themselves. Good Luck.

[pumpster]

DB fly's are a good exercise but there comes a time when it morf's into a semi wide DB press. Usually when 50lbs or more are used in the movement the elbows must be bent to adjust to the extra weight. This tends to bring in more delts. In any case, bent elbows or not, a very productive movement for the pec's; flat, incline or decline. Not a sissy exercise. Great as a preexhaustion movement right before BP's (BB/DB).

Most guy's can get a better bang for their buck when using a pec deck, with the elbows on the pads, not with the hands gripping the handles way out. Better direct focus/leverage on the pec's themselves. Good Luck.

The elbows are not bent in order to accomodate the weight, they are bent to lessen the negative effect on the shoulder joints and do not involve more delts if done properly.

Pec deck can be good but what he neglected to mention is that they can because of their fixed ROM be very tough on the shoulders in many designs, and be less than ideal for the chest. Depends on the machine. The old ones from the 70s were the best.

I do believe that flys are under-rated and are arguably the best single chest exercise. The best of all of them are cable flys and 70s pec deck.

[tonymctones]

True that they are tougher on the shoulders but i think DB flys are a great exercise, i never did DB until a yr ago or so and i noticed a decent difference in shape and definition of my chest until i hurt my shoulder...LOL more then likely due to wear and tear and it was benching.

[Bobby]

i always do flies with cables.

flat bench, or incline, or standing...never with dumbells

[nodeal]

i love flies, gets my chest noticeably more sore compared to when i do all presses.

[mademan80]

flies are "sissy" compared to what?  look at those who told u that and see what kind of bullshit movements they are doing to replace flies...you cant beat doing flies....one the best chest exercises

[tbombz]

flies work much better for me when i start with the dumbells down by my hips.

[jon cole]

flies are "sissy" compared to what?  look at those who told u that and see what kind of bullshit movements they are doing to replace flies...you cant beat doing flies....one the best chest exercises

my classical train was bp/incline barbell/dumbell press etc etc ...and my bp stale for years, and my chest are still weak= OVERTRAINING.

no i do bp/flies/incline since only two weeks and my bp increase, my chest are in better shape.

[jon cole]

sometime it's so simple.

[JasonH]

Come to think of it I don't think I've ever done a chest workout in my life that hasn't included some form of flyes. Excellent exercise.

[SuperMike3288]

Does anyone not do flat bench and just do flies? Or does anyone make their main exercise flies? ...I know when I do flat bench press it usually hurts my shoulder and I don't see a lot of good results from it so I was predominately doing incline, but should I switch to making flies my main movement? Thanks!

[pumpster]

Does anyone not do flat bench and just do flies? Or does anyone make their main exercise flies? ...I know when I do flat bench press it usually hurts my shoulder and I don't see a lot of good results from it so I was predominately doing incline, but should I switch to making flies my main movement? Thanks!

I switched from presses to just flys decades ago, for both reasons you've mentioned-development or lack thereof, and shoulder probs from BB. Felt strange to leave them out, but only for a very short time, and was definitely better for me in terms of development and reduced/nonexistent shoulder stress.

Before giving up on presses it's worth trying alternatives that can be easier on the joints and arguably better on the muscle-machine or DB presses or even pushups. I make flys the main course but then sometimes include some of these after, or just leave it at flys only-flat, incline, decline. I believe Bob Chick also does something like this, for the same reasons.

And of course take the time to always ensure a good warmup including a couple of minutes of windmills coupled with light sets and no more than a minute between sets to keep the area warm.

[wild willie]

Arnold loved db flyes and look at his chest.......

[mademan80]

Arnold loved db flyes and look at his chest.......

arnold was a genetic freak...

[pumpster]

arnold was a genetic freak...

That's not a compelling reason to think they're not great.

[jon cole]

no polemic on my post.

[tbombz]

arnold was a genetic freak...

wheres the proof that he has better genetics than any other bodybuilder? you know what drugs he took in  what doseages for what lengths? you know what his diet was on a daily basis? you know whatevery other bodybuilder takes and for how long?

fact= arnold was on dbol since he was around 14-15 years old. fact= steroids were legal cheap and legit and easy access to arnold. fact= arnold had the goal of becoming the best bb'er in the world and set his mind to the fact he would do ANYTHING to attain that.

  hink about it

[mademan80]

That's not a compelling reason to think they're not great.

no not saying that at all...flies are a must when it comes to good chest development

[NoCalBbEr]

your chest main job is to bring the arms in i.e. the same ROM  of a flye. I