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Rippetoe on chest exercises
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billfred
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Just because Arnold did flyes does not mean that it is an effective exercise. And I know you're probably going to say "Look at Arnold!!! How can you criticize his routine???" Arnold no doubt built his chest through heavy pressing, and he probably assumed (along with many people still to this day) that flyes were more of a sculpting exercise. We now know scientifically that you can not change the shape of your muscles. You can only increase the size. Flyes will not achieve that goal. And for all I know, he was just warming up for his pressing...billfred said:
PS - what's up with the name calling? Dumb fucker? Come on...
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billfred said:
LOL
The fly is a good excercise IMO. I enjoy doing it, and I can only acheive a solid pump in the middle of my chest where it divides (sternum) only by doing flys. I feel it is a beneficial excercise that everyone should include. Now, it is not the mass builder a press is by any means, but there is added benefit for sure.
If you acknowledge that it isn't a mass builder, then why do it? Maybe I'm missing something here, but if the goal of lifting weights isn't to add more muscle, then why are we doing it? After throwing up 315 lbs on the bench, I wouldn't see any possible benefit to following that up by grabbing a pair of 50 lb dumbbells to do flyes. Maybe it gives a great pump. So what? Almost any isolation exercise will. I want the movements that will actually build muscle.dabuffguy said:
I can't believe I just read all of this. You guys are like a bunch of girls.
Tweakle
New member
No, it most certainly is not.
You would be very hard pressed (pun intended) to find someone above the intermediate level who trains for size and doesn't do some degree of isolation work, which should always be done for many sets of high reps imo to prevent overstressing already weary joints and tendons.
Flyes I don't personally do (beyond the DC extreme stretch for chest), but rear delt work, biceps, calves, abs, hams, laterals, pushdowns all have a place. Not to mention all kinds of pre-rehab work for adductors, hips, glutes which you have to do if you don't want to crumble under a heavy workload.
I would venture to say that most people doing the basic 'squat three times a week' are probably not lifting enough to grind them down if they tried to train on compound only.
You would be very hard pressed (pun intended) to find someone above the intermediate level who trains for size and doesn't do some degree of isolation work, which should always be done for many sets of high reps imo to prevent overstressing already weary joints and tendons.
Flyes I don't personally do (beyond the DC extreme stretch for chest), but rear delt work, biceps, calves, abs, hams, laterals, pushdowns all have a place. Not to mention all kinds of pre-rehab work for adductors, hips, glutes which you have to do if you don't want to crumble under a heavy workload.
I would venture to say that most people doing the basic 'squat three times a week' are probably not lifting enough to grind them down if they tried to train on compound only.
