STOP Doing Chest Flys Like This (5 Mistakes Slowing Your Chest Gains)

Chest flys are one of the most effective exercises for building your chest. But if you don’t do them correctly, they’ll end up working other muscles like your shoulders instead of your chest. There’s 5 common form mistakes almost everyone makes on the chest flyes exercise. They’re easy to fix but will make a massive difference when applied to your chest workout in terms of your chest growth. There are generally 3 different types of chest flys you can do. Dumbbell chest flyes, cable chest flyes, and machine chest flyes like the pec deck. Some of these options are better than others. But for now, as we go through the mistakes and fixes, I’ll make sure to show you how they apply to each one of these variations.
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The first mistake has to do with the bend in your elbows when performing chest flys. I’ll use the dumbbell fly to illustrate this. At the bottom position, the straighter your arm is, the more tension will be applied to your chest. However, the straighter your arms go, the more your biceps also get involved. Eventually, there comes a point where your biceps work harder than your chest is and will become the limiting factor in the movement. The same is true with cable fly or pec deck. So, instead, at the bottom position you’ll want to keep a slight bend in your elbows such that your hands are just slightly outside your elbows. However, once you get to the top position, the opposite is now true. Straighten your arms and think about squeezing your elbows together as you approach the end position.
The next common mistake on the chest flyes exercise has to do with something called the line of force. Let’s explain this with a cable fly. During this exercise, the direction of the cable will determine where on your body the force is being placed. To maximize chest activation, the direction of the cable needs to be aligned with the direction of your arms. You can play around with the cable height and your arm position until you get this right. And the same applies for the pec deck or even the dumbbell fly. In this case however, since you can’t adjust the line of force like you can with cables, you’ll simply want to keep your elbows up such that your hands and shoulders are always at the same height rather than letting your elbows drop down.
Next mistake: given that many of us are stuck in a hunched over posture, your shoulders will have a natural tendency to want to take over as you’re going through your chest workout. To ensure the tension is being placed on the chest, first bring your shoulders down and away from your ears and then stick your chest up and out. Focus on squeezing your biceps into the sides of your chest. Your chest should remain up and out throughout this rather than letting your shoulders come forward and takeover.
The next mistake has to do with how you’re setting up your fly. During the regular dumbbell chest flyes, cable chest flyes, or pec deck flyes, the main area targeted is the mid-chest. If you’re already doing a lot of flat bench press and flat dumbbell press which already target the mid-chest, I’d recommend adjusting the setup of your flys to work more of your upper and lower chest. The pec deck can’t be adjusted much because of the fixed bench. But for a cable fly, to target the lower chest you’d want to bring the pulleys up higher and perform a high to low fly. To target the upper chest, you’d want to use a bench set up at a slight incline. The same can be done with dumbbells by using a slight incline to emphasize the upper chest and a slight decline by putting a plate under one end of the bench to emphasize the lower chest.
The last mistake has to do with the type of chest fly you choose to do. Dumbbell flys' main limitation is they’re only really hard and challenge your chest at the bottom position. Most of you are likely already doing either a dumbbell press, bench press, or machine chest press before you get to your chest flyes. These exercises already challenge your chest the most in the fully stretched position. So doing a dumbbell fly afterwards can be redundant. Instead, to potentially maximize growth, your workout should challenge your chest throughout the whole range of motion, especially in that end position when your arms are brought in together.
How? Simple, with properly executed cable chest flyes or machine chest flyes, with cables having a slight advantage because you can easily adjust them to target the different areas of the chest like we went through.

[@JeremyEthier]

What exercise do you want to see next? Comment below! Hope you enjoyed this one!

[@angelpeep4888]

Lu raises

[@Briaaanz]

Dumbbell shoulder press. Do you want elbows at 180 degrees from each other, or a lesser angle? Do you want to lower elbows to shoulder height, or should you go further and lower dumbbells to your shoulder height?

[@L.I.T.H.I.U.M]

Cable Triceps Extensions. I'm so fkn confused about that exercise and no one has a great tutorial about it's details on YT. You gotta do it.

[@suranjanyoutuber]

Bicep triceps super set

[@manavjoshi8423]

Lat puul down

[@iamtheslumlordmusic6767]

Super crazy that i was feeling like my full arm extension cable flies weren’t really engaging my pecs. Instead they felt like shoulder/bicep workouts. Once i had my arms in a 90-100 degree angle at rest point, and then full extension on flexion, i felt my pecs engage more. So for anyone who hasn’t tried this yet, can confirm for you haha

[@592Johno]

Yep the pec dec kills my chest after I figure out the form. Especially the full extension on the front.

[@ap3xls329]

@@592Johno🧢

[@richardcarter5314]

I use dumbbells, and I find that in moving the fully extended arm from horizontal through to vertical: the 1st 45º involve the deltoids and the last 45º is done by the pecs. So I move my fully extended arm from vertical down through about 45º and then back up again. I can't comment on results because I have been doing this for only about a week now, but that is the feeling.

[@bravicai5602]

@@richardcarter5314 how is it now?

[@brilliancewinz81]

Also, I that cables or resistance band flys are best using much lower weight to failure so that you don't engage your shoulder at all...

[@beccacertifiedpersonaltrai3636]

As a certified personal trainer, I very much appreciate the scientific, professional, articulations and demonstrations presented in your videos. I give every one of your videos I view a like.

[@komicsreviewer8505]

Celebrate Trans Pride!

[@juliafloridausa]

00:35 Mistake 1: Elbow bend: bend your elbows slightly at the start of a rep, then straighen you arms as you complete the rep 02:06 Mistake 2: Line of force: Align the direction of you arms with the direction of your arms 03:35 Mistake 3: Letting you shoulders take over 04:27 Mistake 4: Not targeting different portions of the chest: make sure you're using the correct setup 05:26 Mistake 5: Relying only on dumbbells

[@boraradicevic1911]

Thanks. Great job, mate.

[@liamoneil7984]

You’re a g

[@shuriken8314]

Thank you!! 🎉

[@omarmayar5923]

Honestly bro you’re my favorite YT fitness guru. I think you should start taking out excerpts from your previous vids and use them to make TikToks/YT shorts. I think it’ll definitely up your exposure 💪

[@mathswithlincoln6994]

Your videos are amazing. The special effects to differentiate and target specific areas of stimulation. One of the best workout channels on youtube.

[@TruePhil]

1. arms less bent up bottom, arms straight at top 2. direction of cable and arms aligned 3. keep shoulder down and back 4. adjust pully or bench to target different parts of chest (15-30 degrees) 5. Use cables and dumbbells and machine

[@dorianon2673]

Love these videos Jeremy! I really appreciate you making these type of videos!

[@mariusmarius4832]

Your videos are spot on and the "illustrated" bits are very helpful.

[@YT-User1013]

Once again, a great video. Thank you Jeremy!

[@BIGPUN4EVER]

How have I not subscribed to this dude yet!! Thanks for the video, this is exactly what I was looking for!🙏

[@iosebdzamukashvili5360]

Amazing video as always. Thank you!

[@jcanning07]

Fantastic video and breakdown of the chest fly. Some amazing tips in there.

[@k.scuind]

The most detailed with excellent visualization ever

[@ridzuangotze7723]

Excellent Explanation here, much aprpeciated!

[@BELLSOFSTEEL]

Super informative! Thanks for this one

[@asadkhokhar9651]

good job i was waiting for it.

[@PHNX0]

Top tips as usual, Thanks Jezza! 😎💪🏼

[@tiiiefff2011]

Very helpful. Thanks Jeremy.👌👍

[@JoaoSantos-oy9qo]

Learned alot thanks!

[@joseph.r1122]

Great instruction video. Thanks, bro! 🙏

[@raulabarca1513]

awesome video Jeremy , always paying the close attention every move so i could do the proper way of movement to get the best benefit . Actually could feel the difference in the way I exercise. Thank you so much for the awesome videos.

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@rayahzoulou592]

So well explained. Thank you, I'll try to avoid these mistakes henceforth.

[@masteremjay2617]

Best fitness channel by far!!!

[@LLAWREN]

great content Jeremy! 😊

[@sterlingmiles1948]

Great video!! thank you.

[@dannydenilson8662]

Thanks! Great vid

[@yuvrajj_0115]

Thankyou , very informative and simple video 👍

[@joseadolfovazquezluna9087]

Great video! Keep it up

[@edixionz8758]

Keep cable in line with forearms (not above nor below) Keep hands slightly outside your elbows (dont keep arms too straight or else you'll recruit biceps) at start of the motion but as you end the motion make sure to straighten out the arms imaging squeezing your elbows together Keep shoulders down and away from ears, proceeding to stick the chest up & out You can recruit different parts of the pecs by positioning the cable in different ways (ex: setup cables higher on the station making sure to keep forearms still in line with cable)

[@bronzamedia]

Your videos are very informative and helpful 🙏😇 thank you soo much !

[@hayden3946]

I never thought about straightening my arms at the end of each rep, thanks for the tip!

[@BASSER81]

I am trying to figure out how you can straighten your arms on a pecfly machine. Your hands are gripped onto the bar!?

[@hayden3946]

@@BASSER81 the peck deck isn't fixed in place. By that I mean you can push the handles away from you at the end of the concentric.

[@kalaiarasimohan5625]

Very good video Ethier

[@sajjadabouei6721]

The best Channel for learning correct way of workout another great thing is the graphics on top of video makes it really easy and effective to understand what exactly you mean

[@johngabriel23]

Great content. Thanks

[@alanmorris8784]

Awesome video thanks heaps

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Amazing production quality. Great video

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@liv4gsus61]

Very helpful as always. Thanks, Jeremy.

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[@brocklanders1984]

Quality content. Thank you.

[@AbnerNut]

That is a very good content! Thanks!

[@Darrentime]

Thanks a lot!

[@dawnjohnson8739]

Thank you!

[@rishijai]

Great animation and sound effects

[@paddle_smith]

great explanation! the line of force thing is an immediate change I'll make

[@hankkingsley9183]

Really well presented info here, the GFX are excellent

[@James-if4zw]

Thanks Jeremy I love your videos ❤️

[@anthonycook4297]

Great ! Thanks 🙌🏽

[@L.I.T.H.I.U.M]

Jeremy is an important subscription for everyone to have, even after following and consuming Jeff & Jeff, he brings completely different and never though about details for us. True value.

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BEST CHANNEL EVER 💪💪HELOOO FROM GREECE! KEEP POSTING!!

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[@MohamedTarek-un5ls]

perfect discussion and perfect demonstration go on ..

[@DebStewart-zu4jh]

Ty for the info. I'm a newbie

[@raulparavisini1381]

Excellent video. Thank you!

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@ozianmarickson1116]

AWESOME!!!

[@ErikEPS]

Greatly appreciate this video man. I hope this helps me out as gaining chest muscle has been an issue for me since birth.

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@amalgamal2889]

perfect explanation

[@gaipulanremei4371]

Again wow To OP illustration !!! 🔥

[@bigmanliam]

dont feel anything on my chest when doing dumbell chest flys and ive done like 500 different forms. it just feels like an arm workout

[@kaimenm4579]

Thinking about the squeeze of the pecs is imperative to their growth. Also bringing my arms back further on flys really helped me focus on the squeeze

[@hafsanoor7556]

Same here

[@CrazyMonkey-wm5hz]

Idunno your build but maybe that just means you need to work on your arm more. Just like how I can't do much lat pull downs cause my forearms get tired first

[@Themaskplague]

Swap dumbbell flys for cable flys . Way better and you can change up the angles to hit the upper and middle chest more depending what you are looking to do

[@samratsingh3096]

You need chest and body adjustment at any ciropracticar

[@davidpenberthy4276]

Great video bro!! Just worked these today.

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@gin702]

Best details ❤

[@marwanfaraa2642]

Thanks so much ❤

[@sickwilly1171]

Been following you for a while. Always great informative videos. Great presentation. Appreciate it. 👍

[@NoirMorter]

One issue I've faced is when I get done with an exercise I sometimes feel it in other areas that should not be as effected with chest day being a top contender. I've tweaked with all the other muscle groups to refine those hopefully this will help improve chest day.

[@jaysysumakaRatMaster3]

Great video Jeremy… much appreciated 👍🏼

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

fascinating!

[@1922johnboy]

Outstanding ❤😮😊

[@rounaksubramanian1686]

Very well said bro about this topic and about the stop doing mistakes in chest fly and keep it up and keep training hard and be strong always and stay healthy and be positive and happy always but never give up on your dreams and take care of yourself

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@umartdagnir]

Superb video editing.

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@arnoldasskulskis9276]

its so amazing how he explains every detail.. and I feel dumb after all those years in the gym,still so much I dont know 😅

[@joshuaybarra701]

Bro thank you so much for this information 🙏

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@travisbicklejr]

Thanks, Jeremy!

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@G._-]

Great job as always! I'd like to see more variations with bands as a replacement for cables or machines. Home gyms use more basic and varied equipment. For example, I have a squat rack, bench, barbell, dumbbells, and bands. It would be nice to show the techniques with bands too.

[@arildhildeman5181]

I second that. A video with resistance bands would awesome

[@sickwilly1171]

I third it 🤣

[@GIGASHAGGY-ZOINKS.]

Thanks goat I'm looking to add these to my upper workout

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@Humfrie1989]

Fantastic content, thx

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@servantofthelord8147]

Thank you

[@boogeyshorts2345]

Huge respect to Jeremy bro ❣️ 🙌🏼 always taking "next level" to the next level 🔥🤩

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@aqibmughal9714]

But if he know all right techniques then why he doesn't have a prominent chest? Can anyone tell me the reason

[@aminedella]

You're the best 💪

[@emre_bozdas]

Dude you point out to very important tips that no one talks about. Hats off!

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@stephenreiss7181]

SOLID advice as these are the 5 mistakes I make! Great video!

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@jenlvjim]

Great tips

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@damonj.8417]

Excellent content.

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@LifengLiu]

thank you

[@Kuma_Cordova]

Great video... Thank you I needed this. 👏👏👏👏

[@zacharysmith903]

I use bands, & the arm tips have made a huge difference in the mind muscle connection during the move. Great tip.

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@Haruyuki_Art]

awesome thank you😀😄😆

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[@iharshgarg]

its really unbelivable that such superb content is available for free

[@trumpdonald4395]

Very good! Number one, the best world( you).

[@fochoalagos]

I have been working out for more than 20 years and I have been doing it wrong. Thank you so much for such a clear explanation. Keep up with the good work 👍🏾

[@aqibmughal9714]

But if he know all right techniques then why he doesn't have a prominent chest? Can anyone tell me the reason

[@snaht1]

learned something new

[@1922johnboy]

Excellent ❤😮😊

[@christucker7279]

Q

[@bekyves]

This video was very insightful. Now I understand why I feel so sore on my shoulders on chest days. Will work on these suggestions

[@aqibmughal9714]

No sore no gain? Does it make sense? Just a question

[@3RTracing]

wow what a great treatise on the physics and correct linearity when addressing musculo skeletal arrays of motion to address specific muscle group development and strength workout disciplines. This has just become one of my favorite instructional video. Very Good. I love that you include those classic films of Arnold working out. He is a good example to all of us of a balanced physique and a very good technique.

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@Lbyt21]

This is some top tier video production/editing.

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@sumedhkhochikar8537]

Very helpful

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@jamesjulson9710]

Very true.

[@user-ow9jy8ss8u]

very helpfull!

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@PabloGarcia-pl8yy]

Thanks

[@scrolllifeafter441]

bro you are best

[@user-bg4oj7ne7z]

Ty man. I was so confused why my shoulders were on fire! Turns out today I was bending at the top when usually I keep my arms straight. I'll go back to straight arms!

[@Xelt4]

great editing - really helpful to illustrate your points!

[@luuliiquiinteroo3017]

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[@subh__]

Too information 👍