Dumbbell Fly

1. Lie back on a flat bench holding two light dumbbells pressed together above your chest, palms facing each other.
2. Set your shoulder blades back and keep a soft bend in your elbows of about 10 to 20 degrees.
3. Open your arms in a wide arc, lowering the dumbbells out to your sides until you feel a strong stretch across the chest.
4. Keep the elbow bend constant through the descent; the movement happens at the shoulder, not the elbow.
5. Stop when your upper arms are roughly level with your torso, or slightly below if your shoulders allow it.
6. Reverse the arc by squeezing your chest, imagining you are hugging a barrel, and exhale on the way up.
7. Bring the dumbbells together at the top without banging them and repeat.

Common Mistakes

• Going too heavy: the fly puts the pec under load at long muscle length, and weights you can press easily can still tear a pec at the bottom of a fly.
• Bending the elbows during the rep: letting the elbows fold turns the fly into a weak press and removes the stretch that makes the exercise worth doing.
• Lowering too deep too soon: forcing an extreme stretch before your shoulders adapt is the most common way this exercise causes injury.
• Losing scapular position: letting the shoulders roll forward at the bottom shifts stress from the pecs onto the front of the shoulder joint.