Dumbbell Fly

Upper Body Dumbbell Workout Video Series

The dumbbell fly is the last of the upper body workout exercise video series. This is another great move for building strength in the chest muscles.

The chest, known as the pectoralis muscle, is the broad muscle that covers your chest.

Both the pectoralis major and minor are used during this workout. In addition to the pecs, the deltoids are strengthened with this workout.

You can do this one on a flat bench, incline or decline bench depending on what area of the pecs you want to focus on.

With an incline bench, the focus is on the upper pectoral muscles while a decline would focus on the lower area.

A flat bench would give a all over workout for the chest muscles.

In addition to the pecs, the deltoids are strengthened during this exercise. The deltoids are the muscles in your shoulders.

The above mentioned muscles are the primary focus for this dumbell exercise. However, additional muscles are involved.

These include muscles in the back and arms like the rhomboid muscle located between your spine and shoulder.

Other muscles include the rotator cuff and the serratus anterior muscle.

Exercise #8 - Dumbbell Fly

The instructions below are for a flat bench. If you use an incline or decline, the steps are exactly the same, your body is just at a different angle.
  1. Sit down on an exercise bench with a dumbbell in each hand.
  2. Lie down on the bench while using the thighs to help lift up the dumbbells up shoulder width apart with palms facing away from you.
  3. Bring your arms up in front of your chest keeping the elbows slightly bent to where the dumbbells are almost touching. This is your starting position.
  4. Bring your arms out and down in a large arc until you feel the stretch in your chest.
  5. As you exhale, bring your arms back to the starting position.
  6. Repeat this move for several repititions.

Tip: If you don't have an exercise bench, you can modify this and do it standing up. Watch the video below to ensure you are doing the this move correctly. 


Not all mobile devices will display the video correctly. If you are not seeing the full video (or it's not displaying at all), click here to view the dumbbell fly on youtube.

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