Chest 03 May 2007 08:58 pm
May
WARNING: THIS CHEST EXERCISE IS KNOWN TO LEAD TO INCREASES IN MUSCLE TONE, DEFINITION AND STRENGTH. PERFORM AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Today, we have pectoral flies for working the chest. You’ll need some weight for this exercise. Lay on the floor on your back and pick your weights up in your hands. Extend your arms upward; the palms of your hands should be facing each other. Slowly extend your arms outward until your hands are about a foot off the ground. If you can go down further and still feel comfortable, do so. Bring your arms back together until they are straight up again.
DO SOMETHIN’!
on 22 Aug 2009 at 2:42 am 1.Harry said …
Hey Martin,
Some people say that I should put my shoulder blades together while doing this exercise, which naturally arches my back; and have my knees bent and feet on the ground instead of heels to support my lower back.
Yet, I also hear people say that arching my back is a no-no in all cases, even if it is needed to have my shoulder blades put together.
What do you think? Should I have my shoulder blades put together?
on 30 Aug 2009 at 6:41 pm 2.Martin said …
Harry,
thanks for your comments; good questions!
For this exercise, I believe a neutral position is important: one that doesn’t cause pain, discomfort or strain especially in areas that aren’t targeted by the exercises.
Legs up can be a matter of preference depending on how one performs the exercise. On the floor, legs up would be fine for me since the floor provides a steady base under my entire body. Sometimes, when on the floor, I keep my legs up and flex my abs as I do this exercise in order to work another muscle group. But on a bench, having my legs up makes me uncomfortable (increased risk of falling if off balance) as the weight gets heavier even though legs up helps to keep the back from arching. On a bench, I keep my feet firmly planted on the floor; and when I flex my abs, it helps to reduce arching.
In general, I avoid arching my back. From my experience, it doesn’t enhance the exercise (enhance as in make my pecs to work harder thereby making the exercise more intense) and doing so seems like it can cause lower back pain. If you like physics, you can do a free body diagram of both positions to get an understanding of how the dissipation of the force applied on the body by the weight changes with the 2 positions. I believe that arching the back creates high force concentrations and strains in parts of the back that are not optimally designed for such loads.
I’ve never tried this exercise with my shoulder blades together, but I just tried it and my back arched too. I don’t see value in keeping the shoulder blades together, especially since it arches the back.
Typically, I listen to my body and go with the form that feels natural, stable and less likely to lead to an injury.
Net, my reco:
1) listen to your body
2) keep the body in neutral positions when exercising (well supported, focused on working the target muscles with other muscles relaxed unless you intentionally want to work them)
3) DO SOMETHIN’!
Hope this helped.
Martin