For Dorian Yates, it was light work — 120-pound dumbbell flyes, a chest isolation exercise most people perform rather delicately, were a staple of “the Shadow’s” high-iron diet in his heyday.
- Yates won six Mr. Olympia titles throughout the 1990s, relying upon his high-intensity “blood and guts” training style to maintain a vice grip on bodybuilding’s most competitive division.
“I had to steer away from incline dumbbell bench presses,” Yates explained, citing the danger of getting even heavier dumbbells into place wasn’t worth the risk. “Too strong for my own safety” seems like a good problem for a Mr. Olympia winner to have.
Here’s why Yates endorses the incline dumbbell flye to this day, and how he perfected it.
Dorian Yates on the Incline Dumbbell Flye
“After two pressing exercises, this was my first flye movement,” Yates wrote on Nov. 5, 2024. “The idea is to stretch the pecs and avoid bringing the delts into it too much.”
Here are some of Yates’ technique tips for mastering the incline dumbbell flye:
- Exercise Order: Yates placed his flye exercises after his heavy presses, when his supporting muscles were already fatigued.
- Range of Motion: Yates regards flye range of motion as individual. He preferred to keep his elbows bent and not touch the weights together at the top.
- Bench Height: Go for a low incline to avoid engaging your deltoids and triceps.
- Cues: “Think about hugging a big tree,” Yates said.
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Yates may have skipped out on the dumbbell bench press due to practicality concerns, but should you? If you need to use 150-plus-pound weights just to get a good chest workout, it might be a good idea.
For us mere mortals, don’t get it twisted — the flye should complement your pressing exercises on chest day, not replace them altogether.
- A 2020 study comparing the two exercises found that the bench press leads to greater muscle activation in the pecs, shoulders, and triceps (but the biceps worked harder during flyes). (1)
Take a page out of Yates’ playbook and perform two pressing variations (ideally using different equipment, such as a machine chest press and the incline dumbbell bench press), and then finish your pecs off with a few sets of incline flyes.
You’ll be eyeballing the 120s in no time.
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References
- Solstad TE, Andersen V, Shaw M, Hoel EM, Vonheim A, Saeterbakken AH. A Comparison of Muscle Activation between Barbell Bench Press and Dumbbell Flyes in Resistance-Trained Males. J Sports Sci Med. 2020 Nov 19;19(4):645-651. PMID: 33239937; PMCID: PMC7675616.
Featured Image: @thedorianyates / Instagram
