Understanding which exercise targets which body part is an important aspect of bodybuilding, but when you throw in opposing angles like inclines and declines, the concept can make things feel more complicated. Fortunately, Dana Lynn Bailey won Women’s Physique Title at Olympia 2013is happy to pass on wisdom with difficulty when it comes to hooking you up in a humble cable fly.
The cable fly is primarily a chest builder, hitting the pecs as you drive the handles together. If you perform the movement as an intermediate cable fly, the pulleys are placed at chest height and work the pectorals in both the upper and lower regions. But what happens when the angle of the cable trajectory changes?
What is the difference between incline and decline cable flights?
The Decline Fly
“The drop fly is when the cable is in the highest position and you pull to the lowest position,” explains the cannabis trainer. “When you do this, you’re going to target that lower chest, just like if you were lowering your chair.”
So, fly reduction = pectoralis major (lower)
The Incline Fly
“The incline or decline fly targets the upper chest,” says Bailey of the opposite angle, which takes us up and up. “So, just like we change benches, we do a flat bench, we do an incline bench, and we do a decline bench, you do the same thing with cable flies.”
So incline fly = pectoralis major (upper)
Is it? OK.
But why not just do the average flight? “It will target different areas of your chest,” reiterates Bailey, for those of a curious nature. In fact, a middle crunch can exhaust the entire chest area, but if you need to work on a specific aspect of the chest, such as building upper lats for this top shelf look or adding mass to the lower chest to improve definition, knowing how to properly target specific areas of the muscle by hitting your butt is the key to success.
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