Question about Fly....

[reefpicker]

Anyone knows if flyes done on incline are less stressful to the rotator cuff than flat chest flyes?

[Phil2009]

How much of an incline are you talking about, the higher the incline the more stress on the shoulder. But the more important thing when looking at flyes is that the weight shouldnt be too heavy, because even really heavy flat flyes are bad for the shoulder.

[reefpicker]

45 degrees I think


I do not have pain in my shoulder but I do have a bit of weird crackling noise when I rotate my shoulder (both) in certain ways.

So, I was thinking maybe its my rotator cuffs....

I changed my routine a few months ago, and one of the things I did is that I switched from incline to flat flies....

The last time I did a lot of flat flies in my routine, I used to get some pain sometimes, but I was always careful with how much weight I did.

But honestly it could be so many things... I also added overhead tricep extensions (standing).... And I also do now a cable back fly for my back/shoulders...

I am not sure what could be causing this problem, specially because there is no pain involved....

[Vitruvian]

A slight to medium level of incline would be best. Flat DB flies make it very tough to position the arm properly throughout the full ROM.

[JOHN GARGANI]

a better question to ask here , is: HOW ARE YOUR DOING THESE FLYES???

are you very straight armed, and are you going way out and down??

Flyes need a more limited ROM when done for bodybuilding purposes, because the type of weights we need to make them effective for growth, will cause injury unless you make adjustments to the form, to lessen stress on the shoulder girdle.....

[Hengman]

Flat flyes seem a tad bit heavier to me.

But other than that, I don't really see a difference.

[Jsin.]

I also have popping shoulders, without the pain. Have had em for quite a while, but it doesn't seem to be from flyes, which I have just started.

[reefpicker]

Originally Posted by Vitruvian

A slight to medium level of incline would be best. Flat DB flies make it very tough to position the arm properly throughout the full ROM.

I agree. Maybe this is exactly my problem or maybe the problem is with other exercises (such as the triceps overhead press or the kickback => Both put some strain on my shoulder)

Originally Posted by JOHN GARGANI

a better question to ask here , is: HOW ARE YOUR DOING THESE FLYES???

are you very straight armed, and are you going way out and down??

Flyes need a more limited ROM when done for bodybuilding purposes, because the type of weights we need to make them effective for growth, will cause injury unless you make adjustments to the form, to lessen stress on the shoulder girdle.....

I consider myself experienced enough to know that this is not the problem. I do them with my elbows slightly bent. I have been doing them for a long time, but I usually do them on incline...

The only thing I do which is a bit different is that I rotate my forearms sometimes to change the angle of the weight. But that does not put any pressure in my shoulder.

I know it is something I am doing, I just have to figure out which exercise is (this is a relatively new routine with a few exercises that I have not done ever or not in a long time).

I am doing external and internal rotations with 12 and 15 pound dumbells.... Could that be a problem too? (Since this directly affect the rotator cuff muscles)

PD It feels as thought I have "marbles" in my shoulder joint. Today I found out that it is mostly when I move my arm going in the axis perpendicular to the long axis of my body (i.e. back to forward and vice versa)

[KuruptLifter]

Originally Posted by JOHN GARGANI

a better question to ask here , is: HOW ARE YOUR DOING THESE FLYES???

are you very straight armed, and are you going way out and down??

Flyes need a more limited ROM when done for bodybuilding purposes, because the type of weights we need to make them effective for growth, will cause injury unless you make adjustments to the form, to lessen stress on the shoulder girdle.....

Weight doesn't necessarily have to correlate with growth..

I think it differs from person to person, you should be able to 'feel' the movement where your shoulder is under the least amount of stress.

I would also argue that flies should have a pretty decent ROM especially for BBing purposes. Stretching the fascia is especially important IMHO, so lighter weight can sometimes be ideal.

what are you using weight wise on flies that is hurting your shoulder girdle?

[JOHN GARGANI]

KURUPT: I have to disagree, it has everything to do with weight, in the sense that, there has to be some sort of progressive resistance....

if you never increase a weight on a certain movement, then, you can never get past a certain point of development from that movement....

even if you have a super strict form, accenuating all aspects of the movements, concentric, contraction, eccentric, shorter rest periods, etc and so on: STILL: at some point you MUST increase in weight to get bigger.

and the weight increase doesn't have to be a lot, in fact, there is a lot to be said with very small increments of increases.....

let me put it in this way:

say, for example, you are doing a TOTALLY PERFECT barbell curl, every aspect, as mentioned, before, and you are in total control of the weight, and you are using 70 pounds.....

if, when you are doing the same exact thing, in the same IDENTICAL amount of control, with 90 pounds, YOUR ARMS WILL BE BIGGER!

don't ever doubt that the amount of weight matters, but see, it matters in a RELATIVE sense, in that, we must be getting progressively stronger FOR US:

meaning this: one person can simply not be as "good" a bench presser as another person, however: if his bench, under perfect form, goes up, say from 150 pound to 200 pounds, he may very well add as much muscle in that period of time, as a person whose bench goes up from 200 to 250.......


so: if you look at the person who benches the 250 perfectly, you might then say: HEY! He is lifting 50 pounds more than this other guy, but they both made the same gains, this is to exemplify the RELATIVITY of it all....

but in any case, we make gains by PROGRESSIVE RESISTANCE....

now: if one should hit a wall, so to speak, on a certain movement, where, he is no longer able to add more weight and still be in total control of the exercise, and just stays at the weight forever, he will NOT make more progress......

so what do we do: this is where advanced "tricks" come in: we play around with time ( rest between sets ), with negative resistance with the aid of workout partners, , forced negative, etc and so on.....

but the concept is the same: if the weight cannot go up, SOMETHING has to go up, progressively, so to speak, and so we come up with these other little ditties........