Lagging Chest...do fly's before pressing movements?

[Blkout]

Good for a lot more than shoulder injuries...if done properly.

B True

Bfold, almost everyone I have ever known in time will either develop rotator cuff injuries or pec tears from doing heavy bench presses. Its well known that mechanically, the bench press is not good for you shoulders like behind the neck presses. Yes some people are fortunate enough to never have problems with these excercises but the majority in time will develop injuries form the excercises.

I am not arguing that good pecs cannot be built by bench presses, many bodybuilders have proven that. But on the same token many bodybuilders have had rotator cuff surgeries and/or pec tears to go along with it. Its also been proven that a slight incline or decline from flat is much better on the cuffs.

There are many alternatives to barbell bench presses than can provide equal or better results without the high risk of injury.

 

[b fold the truth]

I believe that flyes injure rotator cuffs. I have never done flyes for more than a couple of weeks without a sore shoulder or rotator cuff problem.

Spatterson could not do the bench press because of shoulder problems...Hannibal fixed the problem...which fixed the shoulder.

I see your point though...for a lot of people...that is true. They also do not put the time into making the flat bench press a safer exercise.

B True

 

[FitnessFrk]

flys are a stretch muscle movement, perform them last. hold in the stretch position for 4-6 seconds.

 

[Vortexx]

There are two ways to put more stress on a muscle:

- use a heavy weight, like benchpress, using an exercise that targets multiple joints, hopefully the muscle you want to target gets the brunt of the stress (pec instead of the arms(if they are too strong links)) and you have no weak links (delts that prevent a big bench).

- using an isolation exercise like kickbacks for triceps. However more precise, you cannot use much weight.

However nobody has built big arms on triceps kickbacks and concentration curls alone.

Ideally we want to use exercises that AND allow for a challenging weight AND targets the muscle we want to train for optimum intensity.

Depending on your built/ biomechanics etc.. it might mean that FLAT BENCHPRESSES are not specific enough or that FLYES not allow for enough weight for stimulus.

HOWEVER I think allmost anybody can good a workout out of solely DUMBELL PRESSES for chest, it's a the marriage of relatively heavy weight and decent isolation that render the results:

- 12-10-8-6 incline dumbell press
- 12-10-8-6 flat dumbell press
- 12-10-8-6 decline dumbell press

Using dumbell presses for incline/flat/decline, you built stabilizing muscle/neural pathways fast and soon you become a dumbell pressing specialist that kicks around serious weight with 10 reps

Other Exercises I have found to be a good middleground between raw power and isolation exercises are:

BICEPS:
- seated alternate dumbell curls (instead of barbell curls or pullup)
- larry scott curls

TRICEPS:
- lying dumbell extension
- weighted dips between benches

QUADS
- front squats (instead of back squats)

UPPER BACK
- dumbell row
- medium grip pulldown to front


HAMSTRINGS LOWERBACK
- stld (instead of normal deadlift)

DELTS
- arnold presses


This doesn't mean that you should avoid the BIG movements like backsquat, bench, millitary press, t-bar, barbell row,

However If you feel that one of these exercise does not work for you because of:

- not specific enough (bad form or unfavourable biumechanics, weak links)
- injuries (rotator curve, lower back)
- big butt (back squat)
- etc...

Than it might be a good idea to go with these exercises

 

[Blkout]

I believe that flyes injure rotator cuffs. I have never done flyes for more than a couple of weeks without a sore shoulder or rotator cuff problem.

Spatterson could not do the bench press because of shoulder problems...Hannibal fixed the problem...which fixed the shoulder.

I see your point though...for a lot of people...that is true. They also do not put the time into making the flat bench press a safer exercise.

B True

I see your point as well, I do know a few people who have problems with flyes too, but it seems far more people have problems with bench presses than flyes. I think its the fact that with flyes your using dumbells instead of a bar.

I often find that any excercise with a bar that causes pain for an individual can almost always be remedied by doing a dumbell equivalent.

 

[The Shadow]

JG - roll those shoulder blades down and back b-4 you bench - this throws the chest into proper position for PEC stimulation. Widen grip slightly - I put my middle finger on the rings....

 

[Y_lifter]

Light-Medium Weighed Fly's are my Desert for Chest Tri day.

I do them real real slow and lower the DB down until I feel the good Stretch in my chest.

I as well do very little heavy flat BB Bench's.
I prefer Decline, Incline DB done real slow..

I may not get the high weights others are doing, but doing them real slow works very well for me. Especially on the Negative.

 

[Blkout]

JG - roll those shoulder blades down and back b-4 you bench - this throws the chest into proper position for PEC stimulation. Widen grip slightly - I put my middle finger on the rings....

I have heard to try to bring you shoulder blades down also and even try to pinch them together somewhat. I agree that this works chest better, but they still hurt my cuffs.

 

[spatts]

I actually had no trouble with seated flyes. It was laying down that they would bother me, but only if I had just benched. It all went back to my bench form. Once I started benching correctly (NOT WITH MY CHEST) it stopped hurting. I have merged from doing strictly AR work for the external rot.cuff to actually doing strength moves for it JUST this week. I'm going to try a 12 week program for them:
http://testosterone.net/html/52balan.html

 

[The Shadow]

Once I started benching correctly (NOT WITH MY CHEST)

Explain that please ma'am....