Chest compounder: add a press after you finish dumbbell flyes to magnify the results

Muscle & Fitness/Hers, Oct, 2004 by Sheila M. Clancy

IF YOU'RE WORKING TO BUILD a strong, shapely chest, you know isolating the pectoral muscles safely can be tough. The multijoint dumbbell press, which usually comes first in a chest routine, recruits the deltoids and triceps to assist in the movement, allowing you to train with fairly heavy weights. After your pressing moves you'd typically do single-joint flye exercises, like the dumb-bell flye, with lighter weights to thoroughly target the pecs. Ladies, a change is in order--literally. Simply swapping the order of these two classic moves in your routine and performing them as a compound set turns the flye into a pre-exhaustion exercise, so you can immediately follow up with the press to push your chest to failure.

START POSITION

Dumbbell Flye (photo 1A)

* Lie faceup on a flat bench with your feet flat on the floor.

* Slowly press the dumbbells up over your chest, palms facing each other.

* Keep your lower back in a neutral position.

* Push your shoulder blades into the bench.

* Keep a slight bend in your elbows and lock it there.

* Your shoulders, elbows and wrists should all be in a relatively straight line.

EXECUTION

Dumbbell Flye (photo 1B)

* Slowly lower the weights out to your sides in a wide arc.

* Keep the slight bend in your elbows throughout the movement. Don't bend and straighten your elbows as you would during a press.

* Lower the dumbbells until they're about even with your body and smoothly reverse the motion to return to the start.

* Repeat until you can't keep your form.

Dumbbell Press Start (photo 2A)

* At the end of your last rep, with arms fully extended, rotate your wrists so your palms face your knees to begin your presses.

Dumbbell Press Execution (photo 2B)

* Since you can normally press more weight than you can flye, you should still be able to complete several reps.

* Keep your elbows under your wrists and bring the dumbbells straight down toward your chest until they almost touch your armpits.

* Press the weights straight back up to just short of locking out your elbows.

* Continue this exercise until failure.

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

The biggest difference between these flye and press exercises is muscle involvement, elbow position and motion. The dumbbell flye isolates the pectoralis muscles, while the press recruits the deltoids and triceps to assist the pectoralis. When you perform the press after the flye (as opposed to just the flye), the involvement of the delts and tri's allows you to continue working the already-exhausted chest muscles, pushing them to more complete muscle failure.

RELATED ARTICLE: TRAINING TIPS

* Keep your head on the bench and your neck relaxed throughout both movements.

* Ask a spotter to help you maintain your form, especially as you near failure.

* Don't allow the weights to move lower than the plane of your body during the flye or lower than your armpits during the press.

* Your shoulder blades should remain flat against the bench to help stabilize your upper body. Once you master this combination on a flat bench, you can try it in the incline and decline positions as well.

BY SHEILA M. CLANCY, MS, CHES

Sheila Clancy, an ACE-certified personal trainer, is currently a program and area manager for Health Fitness Corporation, a management company that runs 385 corporate fitness centers across the U.S.