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Exercise library · Chest

Incline dumbbell fly

Fly for the chest with dumbbells.

How to do it

1 of 3

Incline bench, dumbbells above your chest

  1. Starting position

    Lie on an incline bench with your feet on the floor and hold the dumbbells above your chest with your palms facing each other.

  2. The movement

    Lower the dumbbells out to the sides with slightly bent elbows, then bring them together above your upper chest.

Most common mistake

Don't turn the movement into a press, keep the same slight bend in your elbows throughout.

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Muscle group
Chest
Equipment
Dumbbells
Where
Home or gym
Logged as
Weight × reps

Muscles worked

The incline dumbbell fly trains your chest with the emphasis on the upper part, close to the collarbones. The front of your shoulders helps more than in a flat fly, and your biceps hold your elbows in the same slight bend. Your triceps have almost nothing to do. The dumbbells feel heaviest with your arms spread wide and almost weightless as they meet, so the lower half of the movement is where the work happens. The steeper the backrest, the more of the work goes to your shoulders.

Common mistakes

  • The backrest is almost upright. With a steep bench the exercise turns mostly into shoulder work. A low incline is usually enough to feel your upper chest.
  • The dumbbells meet over your stomach. If the path drifts down towards your body, you lose the angle that makes it an incline fly. Let the dumbbells travel up and meet above your upper chest.
  • Your shoulders lift off the backrest at the top. As the dumbbells come together, your shoulders tend to follow. Keep your shoulder blades pinned to the pad all the way up.

Variations and alternatives

  • The dumbbell fly is done on a flat bench and works the whole chest more evenly.
  • Cable flyes with low pulleys and an upward pull give the same emphasis, with resistance even as your hands meet.
  • The incline dumbbell press on the same bench when you want to load your upper chest more heavily.

Sets and reps

Do it after a heavier press, such as an incline dumbbell or barbell press. Two to three sets of 10 to 15 reps suit most people looking to build muscle, and heavy, low-rep sets rarely add anything. End each set with a couple of reps still in the tank, so the angle at your elbows holds until the final rep. There is more in the guides to reps in reserve and sets and reps.

The jump to the next pair of dumbbells feels big in a fly, as the weight is held far from your body. So add reps first, and try a slower three-second descent before you move up. That is progressive overload too. Should your shoulder hurt in the stretched position, rather than simply feel strained, drop the exercise and let a doctor or physiotherapist examine it.

Also called

  • incline fly

Swap for

Taken, or missing the equipment? The same movement with something else.

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