Exercise Instruction for Proper Form: Chest Exercises: Fly, Dip, Push-Up, and Pullover

This post continues the series instructing about the proper way to perform the most common exercises. It follows up with the chapter dedicated to chest exercises. Although bench press and its variations are the main exercises for working this body-part, some alternatives can be used as a complement to them. In particular, this post focuses on the fly, dip, push-up, and pullover.

There are countless variations of the fly exercise. Pec Deck Fly (a.k.a. Butterfly) starts by sitting at the peck deck machine with your back flat on the pad. Place your forearms on pads. Position your upper arms slightly below parallel to the ground. Push levers together slowly and squeeze your chest in the middle. Breathe out during this part of the motion and hold the contraction for a second. Return to the starting position as you inhale until chest muscles are stretched. Some machines allow you to directly grasp the handles instead of placing the forearms on the pads. The biomechanics is the same, though (see here).

To do the Cable Standing Fly (a.k.a. Cable Crossover), you stand in middle and perpendicular to both high pulleys with your feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent, and your torso leaning a bit forward. Alternatively, you can also put one foot in front of the other, with front knee slightly bent, for better balance. Grasp the two handles attached to the high pulleys so that your palms face towards the floor with your arms slightly bent. Bring the handles together in front of your midsection in hugging motion with fixed elbows and shoulders internally rotated so elbows are to the sides. Focus on using just your chest muscles. Return to starting position until chest muscles are stretched.

In the Dumbbell Fly, you lie supine on a flat bench and hold a dumbbell in each hand over your chest by extending your arms with the palms of your hands facing each other. Maintain a slight bend in your elbows during the whole movement to prevent stress at the biceps tendon. Lower your arms out at both sides in a wide arc until you feel a stretch on your chest. Slowly return your arms back to the starting position as you squeeze your chest muscles. Elbows should stay locked throughout the exercise. This exercise can also be done on an incline (Incline Dumbbell Fly) or decline bench (Decline Dumbbell Fly).

Additionally, these dumbbell flyes can also be performed in the cable station, instead of using dumbbells. You have only to position the bench between two low pulleys so that when you are laying on it, your chest is lined up with the cables. Grab each stirrup attachment with palms up grip. Again, it can also be done on a flat (Cable Fly), incline (Incline Cable Fly) or decline bench (Cable Decline Fly).

Some authors have referred flyes as potentially dangerous for the shoulders (see “The Dangers of Dumbbell Flyes” by Matt Danielsson). Whereas this highly depends on each person, you can reduce the risk by using strict form (elbows slightly bent and locked during the whole movement) and avoiding overstretching in the bottom part.

Dips exercise also presents a variation for targeting the chest (Dips (Chest Version)). You mount in a parallel bar station with a parallel grip, hold the bars so that your palms face inward and keep your body at arm’s length above the bars while leaning forward around 30º. If the machine allows this, you can also hold the bar with an oblique grip (bar diagonal under palms). Bend knees and hips slightly. Lower yourself slowly by bending arms allowing elbows to flare out to sides until you feel a slight stretch in the chest. Do not descend on a deflated chest. Inhale before you descend, hold it, and then exhale during the ascent. This will help to keep your shoulders pulled back and safe. Without bouncing, use the chest strength to slowly raise yourself back to the starting position. You can increase resistance by adding weight using a dip belt or placing a dumbbell between your ankles.

The well-known Push-Up is also a great chest exercise. Lie on the floor face down and place your hands slightly wider than shoulder width apart while holding your torso up at arm’s length and touching the floor with your toes. Narrower hands positioning will involve more the triceps. At this point, your body should form a straight line from your shoulders to your ankles. Your body should remain straight throughout this exercise. Keep your head and neck in line with your body so that you are looking down toward the floor. In a controlled fashion, lower your body downward, bending your elbows, until your body is nearly touching the floor. Then, press your upper body back up to the starting position while squeezing your chest. You can add more difficulty to the exercise by placing additional weight on your back (Weighted Push-Up) or by putting your feet on top of a flat bench (Push-Up with Feet Elevated) or an exercise ball (Push-Up with Feet on an Exercise Ball). The latter involves more the stabilizer muscles. In any case, the higher the feet elevation is, the higher the resistance of the exercise is.

Finally, whereas previous exercises target mainly the pectoralis major, Dumbbell Pullover directly targets the pectoralis minor. You have to lie perpendicular on a bench with only your shoulder blades/traps resting on the bench. Your feet should be flat on the floor, knees bent, butt hanging low. You can also lie along the bench, though this position is more prone to spine hyperextension, especially when your back flexibility is scarce. Grab a dumbbell with your hands flat against the inside plate of the dumbbell and hold it at arms' length above your face with elbows slightly bent. Lower the dumbbell in semicircular motion behind the head, going as far as possible without pain while keeping elbows locked. Return the weight back, and in order to work the pectoralis minor, stop after 30º degrees (six to eight inches). If you go further this point and bring the weight until it is straight above the chest, the pectoralis minor is no longer involved and other muscles (basically the pectoralis major) take over the main role.

Basic guidelines for performing these and other exercises for developing your chest can be found in the article “Champion Chest Development” and in the chest exercise guides at Bodybuilding.com.

Exercise Instruction for Proper Form: Chest Exercises: Bench Press

This post continues the series instructing about the proper way to perform the most common exercises by moving to a new body-part, namely the chest. The main exercise for working this body-part is the popular bench press, which also presents several variations.

The bench press is a compound, push-type exercise, which mainly targets the sternal head of the pectoralis major muscle, though it also involves largely the clavicular head, the anterior deltoid, and the triceps. There are different versions (it may be performed with a bar or with dumbbells; the bench may be flat, inclined, or declined), being the Barbell Bench Press the most common.

The exercise starts by positioning properly on a flat bench. This means lying on the bench with your eyes in line with the bar and firmly positioning your feet flat on the floor for better balance. You should also squeeze your shoulder blades together and keep them in this retracted position during the whole movement. This will increase your stability, thus increasing your power, and will add a measure of safety to the lift. In addition, you must maintain a flat back (or slightly arched) and the chest raised and expanded during the whole exercise. Do not arch excessively or thrust your hips in the air at any moment. Despite this enhances leverage, it also places the lower back into hyperextension, in a position prone to injury.

At this point, grab the bar tightly, with the low part of the palm and wrapping your thumbs around the bar. This will keep your wrists straight. Thumbless grip should be avoided, since it does not allow your wrists to be in a straight position and it reduces the control over the bar, which can lead you to a serious injury if the bar slips out of your hands. Hands positioning should be wider than shoulder width apart. In particular, you should place your hands in such a way that, when the upper arms are parallel to the body, the forearms are perpendicular to the floor.

Once positioned, unrack the bar from the supports, pause until it is steady at arm length above your chest, and then lower it under control, keeping your elbows directly under the bar at all times, to a point even with the nipples or slightly below them. If you lower the bar too high on the chest, your arms tend to rotate externally, putting a dangerous strain on your shoulder joints. You should stop the descent just before the bar touches the chest (approx. 1 cm). During the whole movement, the forearms should be vertical when viewed from the side. Never bounce the bar off your chest. This not only can cause an injury, but the involved momentum alleviates the pressure on the muscle, which makes the work less productive.

At this point, you must drive the barbell up again until your arms are straight (but elbows are not locked). The first part of this ascent should be vertical (or slightly back towards your face), but never moving away towards your feet. Two options are being commonly used for the rest of the ascent. In the first one, the bar continues in a straight line directly following the first phase just described. In the second option (known as the "J-curve"), the bar moves in a diagonal line to finish the movement just above your upper chest. Both variations have defenders and detractors. In the first one, the travelled distance is shorter and the triceps are more involved, while the second one involves more the anterior deltoid.

Two final remarks regarding tempo and breath control. The eccentric phase should always be tight and controlled, especially when training for hypertrophy. As a rule of thumb, this means around two seconds to lower the bar. When training for strength, you can use a faster eccentric speed, but always controlling the weight. Proper breath control is also important in your technique. Inhale deeply as you begin to lower the bar, hold the breath at the last part of the descent, and continue holding until you have pushed upward through the sticking point. Then exhale during the rest of the ascent.

The bench press presents several variations. The Incline Barbell Bench Press is used to target the clavicular head of the pectoralis major. This variant shares the same biomechanics than the regular bench press, but it is performed in an incline bench at about 30-45 degree angle. As a main difference, you should lower the bar to the upper chest, instead of the nipple level used in the regular version. Due to the inclination of the bench, the latter would lead to excessive and unsafe extension of your shoulders. You should also avoid lowering the bar to your neck, since that positioning is also very dangerous for the shoulders.

The Decline Barbell Bench Press is performed in a decline bench no more than 30 degrees. In this variation, lower the bar to your lower chest well below your nipples (on the side of your abs). Use this exercise with special caution. It can be very severe on the shoulders if you lower the bar to the mid chest or, even worse, to the clavicles.

All the bench press variations described up to now can be also performed with dumbbells. Dumbbell versions include the Dumbbell Bench Press, Dumbbell Incline Bench Press, and Dumbbell Decline Bench Press, which share basically the same biomechanics than their barbell counterparts (obviously adapted to the fact that your forearms are not locked and you are moving two dumbbells instead of a barbell). Using dumbbells presents some advantages that encourage to alternate these exercises with their counterparts using a barbell. They involve supportive muscles that are not activated too much in the barbell versions. Both sides of the pectoral are trained equally and independently. You can go further down, though you should be careful not to overstretch. They have also some drawbacks that should be considered. For instance, it could be difficult to get into position when working with heavy dumbbells. It is also easier to lose the proper form, which can bring to injuries.

More details about bench press technique and useful tips for increasing your bench press performance can be found in the articles “How Much Ya Bench?” by Charles Staley and “Bench Press Blastoff!” by Tom Venuto, and the book “The Insider’s Tell-All Handbook On Weight-Training Technique” by Stuart McRobert.