Just curious what you all think about the ideas of chest development. I don't want to start a fight, but I'm curious what the folks here on the forum think about the idea of doing all pressing lifts, vs fly type movements for chest development. I have read many times that some folks swear pressing movements are all that is needed, and of course, just as many times, that the finishing type movements of flys and cables are the way to go, to squeeze out that last little bit of stimulation.

Has anybody experiments with a long trial of each, and had different results?

Thanks,..>>>--->

Just curious what you all think about the ideas of chest development. I don't want to start a fight, but I'm curious what the folks here on the forum think about the idea of doing all pressing lifts, vs fly type movements for chest development. I have read many times that some folks swear pressing movements are all that is needed, and of course, just as many times, that the finishing type movements of flys and cables are the way to go, to squeeze out that last little bit of stimulation.

Has anybody experiments with a long trial of each, and had different results?

Thanks,..>>>--->

I've always found flyes and cables to be fairly useless -- My entire chest routine consists of two work sets flat BB bench press and two sets weighted dips. It has worked quite well for me, but everybody is different. Experiment and see what works.

flies and cable work are isolation exercises working directly on the pec muscles. The bench press is a compound exercise affecting more muscles like shoulders and tricep.

The fly or pec deck is a good pre-exhaustion exercise to work into the press where you can use more weight but usually the tricep gives out first if you haven't attacked the pecs with the lighter fly.

To use only the lighter weights that can be used with fly alone would not allow a full workout for the pecs.


So I see them as always together rather than alone. Also the fly first followed by press. That is my opinion.:tucool:

I have to agree with rtestes! Every time I've put flies into my routine in place of bench press, I've not felt any progess in my pecs...the very centre of attention...supposedly! IMHO, BP is much more useful if you are to do one or the other. Both have their place.

Think of it this way...

A gun, a bullet and a trigger finger are pretty well useless individually.

But combine them....and....BLAM!!

If you were going for straight power you could do benchpress only.

But we're bodybuilding.

Which is why certain ex's when combined produce a better result than any of those ex's alone for lots of people.

So..are flyes a good pec ex?

By themselves...negligable...

DB incline Presses?

By themselves....so-so

Cable work?

by themselves....so-so

But when you combine ex's where you're hitting outer,inner,upper, lower pecs you're farther ahead.

The function of the pecs? it is to move the upper arms down and across the front of torso. Right?

How do you do this with a bench press? You could do it best with a decline press. But it is too hard to get into for me. That is why we have machines like the hammer strength decline press.

An experiment that those with home gym can check out in a few minutes, right now, just 2 sets. Drop 5-10 pounds off your fly, now do as many as you can, 3/3 cadence with shoulder blades pinched, moving across and down slowly so elbows are slightly below shoulders. Contract at point where pecs nearly touch, squeeze for a sec. return to beginning. Feel it in pecs, not arms, they are hooks with elbows frozen in a slight bend. go to Momentary Muscular failure. Stop when you can't keep form. Don't count reps. when finished move to press.

You should have BB ready and waiting, using 20 lbs off your bench press, shoulder width grip, shoulder blades contracted. do your reps slow and controlled. Think and focus on pecs. Do reps, go to point where you can't keep form and stop.

Did you feel pecs more with BP, why did you stop? was pecs burning and made you? Or was it more your shoulders and triceps that stopped you? Sure you feel bench press more, but in relatively small pecs or just pushing more weight up with other muscles?

For future, you might superset the two, alternating between sets if you do muti-sets.

I agree with rtestes and hevy regarding the importance of isolating the chest for further chest development. I don't see cables and flys as a substitute for the big heavy movements (presses and dips), nor should be overly utilized by beginners, but by adding volume to chest isolation will no doubt help with chest development.

Thanks for the input guys,...Same for shoulder moves then? Overhead presses vs flys and various raises, or is this a different senario?

I have used routines that differ greatly on both chest and shoulder work. One has a lot of flys and lateral raises,a nd the other has mostly pressing lifts,...Just thought I would see what you all thought about things,...

I personally agree that the isolation moves should accompany the compound pressing moves. The subject of pre or post compound lift is another topic as well,...I have always liked doing my heavy lifting first,...Maybe it's because I'm a sissy,...:), and wanting to feel better about the poundage lifted. I'm not sure,...

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Low cable pulley bench press works awesome for chest development and strength. I would do these a lot more often if I had my own cables.