Quick question on dumbbell flys.

G

GeorgeL

0
When I perform flat-bench dumbbell flys I always feel my forearms and wrists working (and burning) rather than my chest. It almost feels like my chest is doing no work. I'm a beginner weight-lifter but I've spent time researching on the internet and feel like I'm doing them with decent form - could it be that I'm lifting too heavy (I know it won't mean much to you guys but I'm using 8kg and have only just started weightlifting and am pretty skinny) or is there a specific error in form that might cause this?

Appreciate any insight guys.
 
It sounds like your forearms might be the weak link and the strength has not caught up to the weight that you're using. How long have you been doing dumbbell flys? And did you start at 8 kg or at a lower weight?
 
Oh right so it might simply be an imbalance in strength between my chest and forearms? Hadn't even thought of that. If this is the case, should I work some forearm-specific exercises into my workout (if there are any) or just persist and wait for my forearms to gradually catch up? Like I said I feel them working in dumbbell flys as well as some of the other exercises so I assume they will naturally do so?

As I say, i've pretty much just started, a couple of weeks ago in fact, and I started at 8kg for dumbbell flys because that was the weight I could do where I could just about complete the 8th rep of my 3rd set (the way I gather you're meant to gauge a weight to use).
 
How much do your forearms burn when doing flyes? Does it prevent you from completing your sets? Do you feel like you can't hold on to the weight?

What other exercises do you do on the days you do flys and what order do you do the exercises in?

Sorry for all the questions :)
 
No problem bro, I appreciate the help.

So I do them on my chest/triceps day which looks like this and i think i've done it in this order so far:

bench press
triceps kickback
dumbbell fly
lying triceps extension
dumbbell pullover
french press
machine chest press

When I say burn, I don't mean they feel as if there's something wrong with them, just you know the feeling that comes towards the end of sets (I'm basically just a bit confused as to why its my forearms and wrists and not my chest feeling it lol). As I said I can just about complete my 3 sets but it feels like it IS my forearms that are struggling to complete the movement. 8kg is not really that heavy so I'm obviously fine maneuvering the weight into position and holding it above my chest, it doesn't seem too heavy, its just the fly movement that my forearms (and wrists) struggle with.

Need to know anything else, just ask and I'll do my best, cheers.
 
It doesn't really sound like anything to worry about. If you keep the same weight, eventually your forearm strength should catch up. Once it does, you can increase the weight, and eventually you'll get to a weight that will challenge your chest.

I think you might want to cut down on the number of exercises that you're doing... it looks like you're going a bit overboard for a beginner on the chest/tris... You have 5 exercises that heavily involve the triceps and one that somewhat involves the triceps (dumbell pullover). I hope others will have some input here, but for beginners, I usually recommend starting with 3 days per week full-body routine focusing more on compound exercises, then gradually adjusting your program depending on your goals...
 
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