Are cable flies superior to DB flies?

[ABNAK]

IMHO yes. At a certain point in the fly movement with DB's you beat gravity and the movement ceases to provide resistance. With cables the resistance is there throughout the entire range of motion.

Reason I throw this out there is that recently I've been having some triceps tendonitis in my left arm and pressing hurts right at and above the elbow "bone" on the back of my arm (obviously triceps exercises do too). So to continue to work the chest muscles without pressing I've been playing with an all fly motion workout. Will I get huge from it? No, but it will have to do until the pain of pressing subsides. I actually do get sore (the good kind of sore) from it. Fly motion exercises don't hurt fortunately.

I have a set of gymnastic rings that I suspend at shoulder width and do weighted (30lbs) "ring flies". Basically you're facing down instead of up and spreading your arms out as wide as possible thereby lowering your body, then pulling yourself back up. A few sets with feet up on a bench then a few more with feet on the ground....changes angles and thus the area of the chest you're working. Then it's off to the opposing cable machine for various angles and sets of more flies. Tried DB flies but just didn't get the muscular stress I do from the cable's constant resistance. Actually, DB flies seem to hurt the shoulders more too.

[brickboy240]

I also tend to think cable flies are more productive. The tension throughout the movement makes them harder if you ask me.

I too suffered from tendonitis - got it from getting too crazy with rows using the ex curl bar. LOL

Cable flies never seemed to bother my elbow while it was healing. However hammer curls and a skull crushers were painful and I had to stop them for a while.

The stretching exercises some here told me about, along with icing really helped my pain go away. Lesson learned: don't go too nuts with the weight while doing rows with the ex curl bar.

Have you tried curls on the cables? Those too are also pretty effective. Step out a bit and increase the tension....it will work you out! LOL

[ABNAK]

I also tend to think cable flies are more productive. The tension throughout the movement makes them harder if you ask me.

I too suffered from tendonitis - got it from getting too crazy with rows using the ex curl bar. LOL

Cable flies never seemed to bother my elbow while it was healing. However hammer curls and a skull crushers were painful and I had to stop them for a while.

The stretching exercises some here told me about, along with icing really helped my pain go away. Lesson learned: don't go too nuts with the weight while doing rows with the ex curl bar.

Have you tried curls on the cables? Those too are also pretty effective. Step out a bit and increase the tension....it will work you out! LOL

I've started icing it with a frozen bag of peas which allows it to conform better to the back of my arm/elbow area. Seems to be helping (knock on wood).

On occasion I have dragged the preacher curl bench into the opposing cable space and did preacher curls with the cable. Same constant tension as with the cable flies (i.e. GOOD!). And yeah, you have to move the preacher bench back a tad or you don't get consistent resistance during the curl motion.

[brickboy240]

Odd thing is that I used to be a fairly regular tennis player, then I stopped for most of my 30s and early 40s, now I am back on the court now and then (my daughter is on the JV team at high school).

I never got "tennis elbow" while playing...ever. The only bout I had was about 8 months ago when I got too crazy with the weights doing standing rows with the ez-curl bar.

It took a good 2 months to get me totally over it. During that time I still did upper body but worked around it. No hammer curls, skull crushers, etc. Yeowch!

Ice and the stretching exercises that many here told me to do really, really helped.

As far as cable curls go...the two arm double bicep curl is what I am doing regularly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xEPQwUDNuI&list=UU27RJnerJdcZIAXQayT01Kw&feature=c4-overview


-brickboy240

[edvin70]

There is a simple exercise ball called the handmaster plus (I think) that is great for treating TE and GE symptoms. It helps improve blood flow to the effected area and promotes healing of any micro tears. Best $7 I ever spent

[Griz22]

Both are great isolation exercises. Each will use different stabilization muscles more than the other so its good to change it up every training cycle. Glad to hear you guys aren't doing the machine fly!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk