maratoolFlat Bench Cable Flyes
How to do the flat bench cable flyes
- Position a flat bench between two low pulleys so that when you are laying on it, your chest will be lined up with the cable pulleys.
- Lay flat on the bench and keep your feet on the ground.
- Have someone hand you the handles on each hand. You will grab each single handle attachment with a palms up grip.
- Extend your arms by your side with a slight bend on your elbows. Tip: You will keep this bend constant through the whole movement. Your arms should be parallel to the floor. This is your starting position.
- Now start lifting the arms in a semi-circle motion directly in front of you by pulling the cables together until both hands meet at the top of the movement. Squeeze your chest as you perform this motion and breathe out during this movement. Also, hold the contraction for a second at the top. Tip: When performed correctly, at the top position of this movement, your arms should be perpendicular to your torso and the floor touching above your chest.
- Slowly come back to the starting position.
- Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
Muscles worked
The prime mover is the pectoralis major, which drives the upper arm forward and across the body.
Every exercise for:Chest
How this movement works
One joint moves, and it moves the load away from the body. With nothing recruited to assist, the target muscle reaches its own limit rather than the limit of the weakest link in a chain — which makes this useful for adding volume after the heavy compound work, not for opening a session.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
A cable holds tension for the whole range, including the point where a free weight would go slack. Moving the pulley changes the angle the resistance arrives from without changing the movement.
Every exercise using:Cable
These train the chest too, using equipment this one does not:
- Hammer Grip Incline Bench Pressdumbbell + bench
- Incline Bench Pressbench + barbell
- Incline Bench Press with Bandsband + bench
- Incline Push-Upbody only
- Leg-Over Floor Presskettlebell
Difficulty
Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.
Of the 105 chest exercises in this database, 22 are listed at intermediate level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.