by
healthy_blogging
Women are immediately drawn to men who have powerful looking chest muscles. Why? Because they are a visual indicator of confidence, health and vitality. This elevates a man's sexual value immensely. So it's important that we regularly work these muscles to make them stronger and more attractive. And amongst the variety of chest building exercise, dumbbell flyes is at the top of the list. To keep my exercises interesting I occasionally perform them as an alternative to bench presses. In this article I'm going to focus on flat bench dumbbell flys because this is probably one of the trickier and even more dangerous chest exercises that you may see performed in your gym or fitness center. This exercise is great because it does wonders for the chest and shoulders, but if done improperly dumbbell flyes can lead to injury and setbacks.
What You Will Need For This Exercise
You'll need for two dumbbells and a flat bench to perform this exercise. I will point out that these can be done using a decline or incline bench depending on which parts of the chest you wish to emphasize most. While lying flat on your back you will hold a dumbbell in each hand. ***Safety first!!*** When doing dumbbell flys do not use heavy weights, the reason for this is that excessive weight can damage the rotator cuff which is a group of muscles and tendons that stabilize the shoulder (1). Damage to this area is not only painful but can interfere with your ability to lift objects and properly move your arms. If you're a novice to the exercise you may want to start out with 5 - 10 pound dumbbells.
How To Perform Flat Bench Dumbbell Flyes
Lie flat on your back, your arms extended from your sides with your palms facing each other. Make sure that your elbows are slightly bent. You should feel a mild stretching in your chest. Now using your chest, slowly bring the weights together in an arcing fashion but do not allow them to touch. Now, hold for a second squeezing the chest together. Then slowly lower your arms until you've returned to your initial position. Perform 10 repetitions of the dumbbell flye exercise, rest for 30 seconds then perform another set of 10 repetitions. Depending on your strength and fitness level you may perform several sets of the exercise. If you're new to the exercise ask someone to spot you, he/she should stand at the head of the bench and follow you through the movement, and, if necessary, help you lower the weights to a safe position. As you become stronger and more proficient at the exercise, you may lift more weight but remember not to overdo it. There's nothing to be gained from a debilitating injury.
This covers the flat bench dumbbell flye exercise. Look forward to more articles on the Great Chest Workouts website. Thanks for reading.
References
Rotator Cuff. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Rotator_cuff
"Do Dumbbell Flyes For A Great Chest Workout" copyright Great Chest Workouts 2010. All rights reserved.
