Decline Cable Fly Guide : How To, Mistakes, Benefits, variations

After each compound exercise for the chest, you often carry the towel and go to the mirror to watch the emergence of your muscles and you like your look at that moment, but what do you think about doing an isolation exercise for the chest muscles such as the Decline Cable Fly before the mirror phase ? (funny). 

When you isolate your muscles after compound exercises, I am sure that you will stand in front of the mirror and your chest muscles are still burning.

Athletes rely on this exercise to target the chest muscles, especially the lower chest muscles, so that they are less targeted with compound exercises. Therefore, athletes take advantage of the activity gained by the muscles in order to interact more with isolation exercises and exploit the remaining energy to target the muscles in isolation.

In this post, we will learn about a wonderful exercise that stimulates your muscles to grow in a safe and enjoyable way, so that we will learn the correct way to do it and how we can get the most benefit from it.

As well as we will learn about the mistakes that you must avoid and the benefits that you will get, with mentioning some Variables so you don’t confine yourself with the same routine over and over again.

Let’s continue together!

What is a decline cable fly ?

It is an isolation exercise for the lower chest muscles, as it is performed on an inclined bench and the cable fists are pulled from a low position on the sides with semi-straight arms directly above the chest, and the lower chest muscles are squeezed by contracting the front deltoids.

This exercise is relied on secondarily to press the muscles, isolate them, and stimulate them to activity and growth. 

The same exercise can be done using dumbbells and get the same result, except that the cable provides you with a firm grip and a stable path of movement.

• Utility : Auxiliary

• Mechanics : Isolated

• Force : Push

Cable decline fly muscle worked

As we have already mentioned, the Decline exercise is an isolation exercise because it occupies one joint and isolates the lower chest muscles and targets them mainly, and it also occupies other muscles in a secondary way, which we will discover soon.

According to the exrx, the Decline Cable Fly exercise works the following muscles: 

Target : 

• Pectoralis Major, Sternal

Synergists : 

• Pecs Major, Clavicular

• Anterior Delts

• Biceps Brachii, Short Head

Stabilizers : 

• Triceps Brachii

• Biceps Brachii

• Wrist Flexors

• Brachialis

When to use a cable decline fly ?

If you want to target the lower chest muscles, this exercise will be perfect and will do the trick. You can count on it at the end of your upper body training.

You can rely on isolation exercises immediately after the compound exercises, you may train the chest muscles two or three times a week, so doing the Decline Cable Fly exercise after the bench press exercise or one of the other compound exercises will be a good and more useful option.

How to do a decline cable fly correctly

You can do the Decline Cable Fly professionally after doing only a few attempts. It is not a difficult exercise as long as you do what is in line with your fitness level. You do not make some mistakes that may prevent you from obtaining results or expose you to injury.

So here is the correct way that you should follow to do this exercise, it is provided by specialized trainers who are familiar with how the muscles work and how to target them safely.

How to do perform decline cable fly

• Adjust the bench tilted at an angle of 40 to 45 degrees.

• Determine the weight that you will go with on the cable machine, make sure that it matches your physical fitness.

• Adjust the cable machine to a low position on both sides so that the grips are on either side of your shoulders.

• Sit on the upper end of the bench, fixing your ankles on the cushion in order to prevent your body from sliding down.

• Lie on the bench, extend your arms to the sides, and grab both cable grips with a neutral grip.

• Squeeze the glutes and upper back muscles, then leave some space between the lower back and the bench.

• Start by pulling your arms almost straight towards each other as if you were doing a hug, but do not bend them throughout the exercise.

• Squeeze your front deltoids inward, squeezing your chest muscles toward each other with each repetition.

• Let your arms slowly spread out to the sides and stop when they are straight with your shoulders at the sides, then do another repetition.

Pro tip to improve your performance with the decline cable fly

It is important to keep the pulling angle intact so that if you use the dumbbells on an inclined you may face a problem while maintaining the trajectory of the pulling while the cable provides you with a proper angle, also try to squeeze your chest muscles internally and bring the cable stirrups together over the upper part of the abdomen instead of this chest It makes you engage the lower chest muscles well.

You should also keep the shoulders rounded internally so that the elbows are parallel to the ground while extending the arms to the side (i.e. in the lower position), and they must also point outward in the upper position.

Keeping the angle of the elbows at a fixed angle with a little bending, this breaks the benefit of the front delts from benefiting from the exercise and makes them slightly targeted.

Decline cable fly common mistakes

The quality of the exercises and the results that you want to obtain are related to not making mistakes, because many mistakes and making movements incorrectly will not help you enjoy the results and see the fruits of the effort you always make, and making some mistakes can expose you to injury or feel pain and muscle stiffness after The end of the exercises.

Try to avoid the following mistakes when doing the Decline Cable Fly exercise:

1- You pull heavy weights.

The lower chest muscles are small and do not need heavy weights, so you can get a good workout using moderate or light weights.

2- Do not keep track of movement.

Try to make your trajectory as accurate as possible, keep your focus on the lower muscles of the chest, you should not pull your arms to a position above your face or the upper chest muscles excessively, try to have the trajectory of pulling over the lower chest muscles or the upper abdomen in order to squeeze the lower muscles well.

3- Keeping your wrist relaxed.

This is also a mistake that you should pay attention to. When pulling the cable or extending your arms to the sides, try to keep your wrist neutral and stable. Do not bend your wrist outward. Keep it as a fixed part with the forearm, because bending the wrist may expose you to injury in the same area.

4- Do not squeeze your muscles too well.

It is not only about pulling the arms up to the lower muscles of the chest, but you should bring your fists closer together and squeeze the chest muscles inward and feel the tension of the muscles, and you should also be slow when extending your arms to the sides.

5- Excessive flexion or overextension of the elbow.

You must distribute the weight in the ideal way. Whenever you overextend the elbow, all that weight goes to the biceps muscles, and the lower chest muscles do not benefit from that tension. Also, when you overextend your elbows, you increase the targeting of the front deltoids.

Try to keep your elbows slightly bent or semi-straight. 

The important thing is that there is some bending there. You should keep your chest muscles the most benefit from the exercises.

Cable decline fly benefits

• Increase the size of the lower chest muscles and the appearance of the chest muscles more consistent.

• Improving the mobility of the shoulder joints, and improving their functions as well.

• It helps isolate the lower chest muscles safely and effectively.

• Increase muscle strength.

• Build a good grip in order to improve your performance with other cable machine exercises.

What are the best 2 variations of decline cable fly ?

There are some variants of the Decline Cable Fly exercise that you can rely on if the inclined bench is not available, or you start to feel bored with this exercise, as it will add some challenge and variation, and this may help stimulate the muscles to be more active.

1- Cable standing decline fly

This exercise is one of the best variables that you can rely on in the event that you do not have the bench, or you are tired of doing the same exercise over and over again.

The standing cable fly exercise offers you a similar exercise that targets almost the same muscles and performs the same role. It is also an isolation exercise for the lower chest muscles that also presses the lateral muscles.

2- Seated cable fly

This is another exercise that you can rely on greatly because it allows you to focus on more muscles and is more challenging compared to the rest of the other exercises, so that during the sitting position you exclude the lower part of the body from the exercise and focus only on the chest muscles.

Also, you can get the same results and target the same muscles, but in a different way. It is one of the exercises that stimulate the muscles to grow and gain mass and strength.

Useful Links

If you want to get more chest exercises using other equipment and different exercises, these links can help you learn more about more upper body muscle exercises, how you can build muscle mass, the correct ways to do them, and the mistakes that must be avoided.

10 Best decline bench press alternatives

The most powerful howrizontal pull exercises to target all back muscles

Dumbbell hex press guide to target the inner and lower chest

Best chest press alternatives at home (No Machine Required)