< u style='color: blue'>DumbbellIsolation movements such as flyes and chest clamping with equipment are the most popular chest muscle training movements in the gym! Because only one joint is involved, it is easier to find the feeling of exerting force on the chest muscles than with compound movements such as bench presses! It is a very good choice for novices or as an auxiliary training for chest muscles!
However, many people tend to ignore some details when doing exercises such as flying birds and chest clamping, which results in the inability to better train the chest muscles and also increases the risk of injury!
Today I am going to share with you an important technique for practicing flyes and chest-clamping movements: the position of the elbows!
You may have heard many coaches or experienced people say that when performing chest training, the elbows should not be straightened, but should be kept slightly bent and always fixed, so as to reduce the strain on the shoulders. Pressure, while better isolating the chest muscles!
That’s right! This statement is okay, but it is not comprehensive!
First of all! The action of clamping the chest is divided into two stages
1. Falling stage!
If your elbow angle is too large at this time (close to straightening your arm), the moment arm (the horizontal distance from the dumbbell to the shoulder joint) will increase, which will increase the torque. Along with this, the pressure on the elbow and shoulder joints will increase a lot.
Therefore, during eccentric contraction, the elbow must be kept bent, and the bending angle is not recommended to be too small, and it is recommended to be around 130°. And make surethat your elbows point directly behind your body!
When our angle is too small (such as when the elbow joint is 90°) our moment arm will be reduced a lot, which means the training effect will be smaller. Moreover, this situation can easily cause us to use the flying bird as a dumbbell bench press during training.
2. The rising stage!
Does the elbow also need to remain bent during the ascending phase (concentric contraction)?
The answer is: No!
Many people often bend their elbows when doing flyes. This is unnecessary and will cost you better opportunities to train your chest muscles!
During concentric contraction, if your elbows are always bent, this will prevent your shoulders from moving inward, resulting in insufficient horizontal shoulder adduction! Your pectoralis major muscles cannot contract together more completely!
What do you do?
As you move upward, gradually straighten your bent elbows, and fully straighten your arms at the top of the movement, so that your two big arms work hard to get closer, so as to complete the larger shoulder lift. The horizontal adduction range of motion will also squeeze the chest muscles better!