A trainer shows Jason three dumbbell fly variations and explains how elbow bend changes tension on your chest. The key is end-range tension and keeping your shoulders safe while maximizing pec activation.
Dumbbell flies and its variations. Some things to note on a fly at that end position, that's where most of the tension is and where Jason is right here, that's where the least amount of tension is. So just show us that variation. And if you need to bend the elbows and up again we go. So the reason why we bend the elbows is obviously the lever point. As we bend the elbows, there's going to be less tension at the pec, but we'll let Jason go through as he does. And depends on your range of motion. Jason's doing this pretty well as he goes through. That's a pretty nice looking fly. And again, if I'm training Jason, I can stand through, and as he comes up, I'm going to put my hands there to give him a little bit of resistance and go straight in. So there's no easy spot of the fly. So that's where the most attention is, and I just give him that. Let's do a variation of what some people turn it into, which is the press fly. So we're still bending the elbows, but there's nowhere near as much lever point. This is a really nice stretch. I really do like this one as well because it does give that stretch, and you can use— it's a lot more forgiving, but the shoulder is in a much nicer position in this. The pec is a lot more understretched, a lot more under tension. So it's a nice one to use. The last one is the pec fly. So we're going to go in a pronated position. We're not going to go into a neutral position. We're going to stay in a pronated position. So we want it to be even more so through this range here. So we're really hitting that pec minor. You want to start with this one at a fairly light to moderate weight. Obviously you can go heavy if you've got the range of motion, but most people just aren't strong in this range of motion here. So especially when it comes to that shoulder, that bicep tendon, that end range strength that's required for this exercise. But you will find that your pec minor, it's placed under a lot of load. If you've got the range of motion, Jason, you would then flip your elbows that way, which would create even more of a stretch. And then you come back that way and come— that's called unrolling grip pec fly, which again, just as you unroll, it creates more of a stretch at that end position. And this again is about creating strength at end range position. So there are the 3 main variations. And of course, you know, You can add another variation where you simply put it on an incline, or even, even go a slight more incline, and that's just going to create even more of a stretch and strain and really hit those fibers in the upper chest more if we do create the incline. But same principles remain of what we've just shown you there.
