Standing Cable Fly

Directions:

Preperation/body position

1. Find a cable station with two towers.
2. Set pin to correct resistance on both weight stacks.
3. Grasp high pulley ‘D’ handles from both sides of the towers.
4. Position yourself in the centre of the two towers, perpendicular to the pulleys.
5. Keep back straight, slight bend in knees, and lean torso forward slightly.
6. Bring handles and arms down so that upper arms are parallel to the ground, and there is a slight bend in the elbow joint.

Excution/Movement

1. Bring the two handles together in front of your body, similar to if you were hugging a tree.
2. Maintain bend in elbow throughout movement.
3. Slowly return back to starting position, following the same motion as during the concentric phrase.
4. Repeat for desired number repetitions.

Comments

The standing cable fly is an effective exercise to stimulate the sternal head of the pectoralis major via transverse flexion of the shoulder.

The exercise will directly stimulate the sternal head fibres effectively, whilst minimising involvement of other muscles to aid the lift.

A benefit of using the cables is that it will supply continuous tension to the muscle throughout the exercise. This is an important factor with a fly movement. The dumbbell variation of the fly will only be most effective for the lower phrase of the movement where the chest is contracting to over come gravity. Once the dumbbell moves higher through the arc however, the stimulus to the chest is reduced as a lot of the stress of the weight is just transferred down the bones in the arms. This is not the case with the cable version of the fly however, where the chest is contracting throughout the exercise to bring the handles together.

An exercise such as the standing cable fly is an effective choice for those who wish to pre-exhaust their chest, before moving onto pressing exercises. Pre-exhausting allows for the chest fibres to be isolated and exhausted, before moving onto compound exercises that requires more muscles to aid the execution of the lift. The desired effect of this is that the chest will fail on the pressing exercises before the secondary muscles, such as the triceps brachii and deltoids.

For hypertrophy 6-12 reps will likely yield the best results, providing optimal time under tension. This will provide adequate stimulation for sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, and acute response to anabolic hormone concentrations, compared to that of lower rep ranges. Lower rep ranges will likely not suit this exercise due to excessive stress placed on joints.