Single Arm Band Floor Chest Fly
How to Do the Laying Down One Arm Cable Chest Fly Alternative w/ Band | In-Depth Guide [VISUAL LEARNERS] Beginner
Proper Form & Common Mistakes | Home Resistance Training
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE?
QUICK DEMO
QUICK DEMO
MUSCLES THIS WORKS
MUSCLES
MAIN MUSCLES WORKED IN the Single Arm Floor Band Chest Fly
PECTORALIS MAJOR
OTHER MUSCLES WORKED:
- Coracobrachialis
- Anterior deltoid
STARTING POINTERS
Starting Pointers
WHAT WE'RE DOING TODAY
This variation of the band chest fly can be done almost anywhere. The single-arm version allows you to move the arm through a larger range of motion - not just bringing the arm to midline (of the chest) but crossing over midline.
This exercise is done on the floor. Heavier resistance bands can be used because this is a much more stable position, the torso is supported by the floor. The muscles on the sides of the torso (obliques and quadratus lumborum) will need to work to prevent the spine from side bending or rotating.
HOW TO DO THE EXERCISE
LOOKS
HOW Single Arm Floor Band Chest Flys SHAPE OUR BODY
Tones and defines the chest muscle.
PROPER FORM
PROPER FORM: Single Arm Floor Band Chest Flys
EQUIPMENT, SETS & REPS
EQUIPMENT
Main set (3: Light/Med/Heavy)
X-Heavy Band (I recommend getting this too if you plan to use resistance bands frequently).
SUGGESTED STARTING WEIGHT FOR WOMEN:
Moderate resistance.
SETS & REPS:
2 sets of 8-10 reps.
PACE:
Bring the arm in a moderately quick, slow return to the starting position.
BODY POSITION
BODY POSITION FOR THE Single Arm Floor Band Chest Fly
BAND: The band is anchored low, a few inches from the floor works best. Mid chest level when lying down, band on side of your working arm.
BODY STANCE: Lying face up on the floor. Knees bent, feet flat on the floor. Stabilize your upper body by pulling your shoulder blades together and down your back. This provides a good stable base to work off of. Neutral spine - You should be able to slide a hand between your lower back and the floor.
ARM POSITION: Arm out to the side, a little lower than shoulder level (abducted approximately 70 degrees), so that your hand is in line with the middle of your chest. Elbows slightly (10 degrees) bent. The band should be taut in the beginning position.
HAND/GRIP: With your arm out, your thumb is pointed up. The band across the palm of your hand - from thumb side to little finger side (the band pulling into external and the muscles will need to prevent this).
HOW TO DO
HOW TO DO Single Arm Floor Band Chest Flys
CUE: Keep your torso still - even weight distribution on both shoulders and sides of pelvis.
Pull your upper arm in towards the midline of your body.
Pull as far across the midline as is comfortable (and controlled).
Pause at the end of the movement.
Slowly move your arm back out to the side.
HOW TO SAFELY GET OUT OF THE EXERCISE
From the starting position, release the band. Roll on to your side and push up to sitting.
COMMON MISTAKES
COMMON MISTAKES
WHAT TO AVOID WITH THE Single Arm Floor Band Chest Flys
KEY TIP:
Guess what? Good news! Many avoids are the same for most movements. Once you learn the basics, there's really only a few extra avoids for each individual movement.
1. Avoid Locked Out Elbow
AVOID: Avoid straightening the elbows.
WHY NOT?
- This puts too much force through the joint and may result in long-term damage over time.
WHAT TO DO:
- Keep the elbows just slightly bent throughout the movement.
2. Avoid Bending Wrists
AVOID: Avoid bending at your wrists.
WHY NOT?
- Poor alignment (bent forward or backward) or repetitive movement through the wrist can lead to joint and/or soft tissue irritation or injury over time.
WHAT TO DO:
- Your wrists should be in line with your forearm and should be still throughout the exercise.
3. Avoid Rotating the Torso off the Floor
AVOID: Avoid rotating your upper body when you pull the arm in.
WHY NOT?
- This would indicate you are moving through your spine as opposed to through the shoulder joint.
- Repetitive spinal movement under load can cause soft tissue/joint irritation or damage over time. Sometimes people will rotate/turn their torso as opposed to using the chest muscle to pull the arm in.
WHAT TO DO:
- Don’t let the upper body move with the arm.
- Keep the shoulders squared to the front.
WHAT WE'RE DOING TODAY
WHAT & WHY
BENEFITS OF TRAINING THE Pectoralis major
WHAT
SKIP THE PUSHUPS & DO THIS INSTEAD.
If it’s one thing women hate, it's pushups. Am I right? They are like the ultimate self-esteem killer. If you are feeling out of shape and want to feel really bad about yourself, try doing a pushup. Seriously, who needs that?
Chest flys work our chest muscles without having to do a single pushup. Not only that, your self-image can actually rise instead of a tank as you see yourself capably doing these types of exercises. Pushups have their place, let's be honest, but how about something doing 1 rep of doesn’t just about kill us?
THE AWESOME SAUCE OF DOING BANDED CHEST FLYS (ESCAPING THE HORRIBLE DANGERS OF DUMBBELL CHEST FLYS)
Chest Flys are a popular exercise but if they are done incorrectly they can be tough on the shoulder joints. When you use dumbbells you need to lie down on your back, the arms can get pulled back too far in the beginning position. This can put a lot of strain on the front of the shoulder joint and pull on the chest muscles. This is an exercise that is notorious for ruptures of the chest muscle. The position also allows the head of the upper arm bone (humerus) to glide forward in the socket (on the shoulder blade). This can stretch or tear the front part of the joint capsule - which is a sleeve of connective tissue that runs around the joint and helps to support it. The use of a band helps to eliminate these concerns.
The use of a band for the chest fly is a good option because the resistance of the band lets you challenge the pectoralis muscle in a safer way. At the beginning of the movement, when the shoulders are in a vulnerable position and the pectoralis major is at its weakest, there is the least amount of resistance from the band. As you pull the arms up and the shoulders are in a more stable position, and the pectoralis major gets stronger, the resistance from the band increases. produce force increases. If a dumbbell were used, when the arm is straight out to the side, the lever arm is the longest so the strain on the pectoralis major is the greatest in the position where the pectoralis major is the weakest. As the arm is brought in, the lever arm shortens, and the torque on the shoulder decreases, but the muscle is moving into a position of greater strength.
WHY BOTHER DOING IT?
WHY
WHY DO WE EVEN CARE?
NOT THE MAIN GIG IN OUR WORKOUTS
To be honest, we don’t include a lot of chest-focused work in the Inspireful Women workout program. In general, most women’s chest muscles are strong enough to do their job. More frequently the muscles on the back of the upper body are the ones that need attention. And functionally speaking, we get more benefits from focusing our training a bit more on the backside of our bodies. This seems to help create better balance in our bodies - better posture and healthier shoulder movement, at least this is what I have noticed in my own life. Much of what we do in everyday life tends to use our front side more, so using more of our training time to work our backside can help even things out. On top of that, visually speaking, most of us ladies are not after super-developed pec muscles like the dudes are.
SEEKING BALANCE
Still, strong pectoralis major muscles can help to provide a nice stable base for your arms to work off of. Keeping the muscles that cross the shoulder joint healthy and balanced is important for lifting, pushing, and carrying. Strengthening the biceps and triceps (which we do in the Inspireful Women workouts) without including exercises for the muscles that support and stabilize the shoulder joint can set you up for injury.
STRETCH THE CHEST & MOVE THROUGH THE FULL RANGE OF MOTION
There are not that many exercises that focus on the chest muscles. That could be due to the fact that we do use them a lot in everyday activities, they don’t tend to be weak. But, they do tend to get tight - most likely due to how much we do with our arms in front of us and poor posture. Our everyday life activities tend to keep our arms in a small range, which means we don’t use our joints & muscles through what they can really do.
Something like the band chest fly counteracts this a bit as the band pulls our arm out nice and wide and stretches & elongates the pec muscles. It’s like scratching an itch - it can feel good to move into places our bodies are designed for, but that we don’t do very often in our modern way of life.
Keeping the muscles healthy by including exercises for the pectoralis major that involve taking the arms out to the side - where the muscle is in a lengthened position can help to decrease the tightness or restriction in this muscle.
Pectoralis major also plays a role in breathing. The muscle is spread out across your chest like a fan, attaching to the collar bone, breast bone, and ribs.
EVERYDAY LIFE
EVERYDAY LIFE &
MUSCLE FUNCTION
HOW WE USE OUR pectoralis major IN EVERYDAY LIFE
1. HORIZONTAL ADDUCTION- BRINGING THE ARM TOWARDS THE MIDLINE OF THE BODY
- Enclosing someone in a hug
- Reaching across to fasten a seatbelt
- Putting a belt into pants
- Lifting objects in front of the body
- Carrying heavy objects in front: grocery bag, child
- Picking up your pet chicken 😃
2. UPPER FIBERS BRING THE ARM UP AND ACROSS
- Touching the opposite ear - putting on an earring
- Using a blow dryer on the opposite side of the head as a hand
3. LOWER FIBERS BRING THE ARM DOWN AND ACROSS
- Reaching the opposite hip
4. MEDIAL (INTERNAL) ROTATION OF THE ARM (ROTATING THE UPPER ARM INWARDS)
- Rotating arm down to empty a can
5. CAN ASSIST IN DEPRESSION (MOVE DOWN THE SPINE), DOWNWARD ROTATION, AND PROTRACTION (MOVING FORWARD AROUND THE RIBCAGE, AND STABILIZATION OF THE SHOULDER BLADE AND STABILIZATION OF THE SHOULDER JOINT
- Control during all arm and hand activities that require strength and/or precision - writing, knitting, using a screwdriver
HOW TO FEEL WHAT MUSCLE IS WORKING
How to Feel What Muscle is Working
Place your right hand over your left chest. Straighten your left arm and pull it across your body. You should feel your pectoralis major muscle under your hand. Try pulling the arm across and up - you should feel the muscle activation close to your collarbone. Pull across and down and you should feel the lower part of the muscle contract.
SCIENCY STUFF
SCIENCY STUFF
SPIFFILICIOUS FACTS ABOUT MUSCLES & MOVES
The pectoralis major muscle is a large fan-shaped muscle on the chest. It attaches to the collarbone, sternum (breast bone), the cartilage of the first 6 ribs, and the upper arm.
ALLLL MUSCLES & WHEN
ALL MUSCLES WORKING & WHEN DURING THE Single Arm Floor Band Chest Fly
The muscles of the torso and legs work to hold the body stable. The muscles of the working arm stabilize the wrist, elbow, and shoulder joints.
The pectoralis major is the prime mover, acting concentrically to pull the upper arm inward towards the midline. The coracobrachialis contributes, and possibly the anterior deltoid, depending on how much resistance is being used.
The biceps works to hold the elbow is a slight amount of flexion as the force of the band acts to pull the forearm back (into extension). This will be true for moving the arm in and controlling the out - the biceps is just holding the elbow still.
As the arm is pulled across the quadratus lumborum and obliques will work to hold against the uneven loading on the torso.
The pectoralis major and coracobrachialis work eccentrically to control the return to the starting position.
PIN IT FOR LATER!
