I’m trying to find some alternative ways to hit my chest beside flyes. A few years ago one of my horses flipped on top of me while I was riding and slid on my side, resulting in tearing ligaments in one shoulder. 6 months later I went head first through a jump off the same horse, slid on other shoulder and ripped all the ligaments in that one!!
The result is I’ve never been able to do flye’s without severe pain in the joint. I had a coach from school evaluate my form with very light weights, and even with him guiding me on the correct path, I can’t do them without sharp pain. This limits me when I’m training my chest.
Currently I do flat and incline presses, and the occasional decline. I’m going to try assisted dips, but that will depend on how my shoulder handles them. What other ways can I train my chest without flyes?
[quote]intent wrote:
You do both barbell and dumbbell bench presses, am I reading that right?
Do you do them both in the same workout, or as a way of adding variety?[/quote]
I do them all in the same work out
I always work the same muscles more then once varying either Barbell or DB or machine, or a different exercise in general that works those muscle groups.
I’ve played around alot with shoulder workouts to find things that are comfortable. It seems like it’s easier to find variety there then with chest.
Right now, I do DB overhead presses, upright rows, and what my coach called 21’s, 7 front raises, 7 lateral raises, and 7 bent over side raises to hit the rear deltoid, all in a row.
With lateral raises I find there’s a certain point where I just can’t lift beyond, no matter how light the weight. Also, with overhead and arnold presses (I alternate those out), I am very, very slow to put on muscle, much slower than with any other body part.
Mostly, I don’t train if I’m hurting, and if I start hurting I’m willing to take it easy. I’ve unfortunately had various joint problems for a few years, but it has made me more in tune with pain in my body, what’s ok and what’s not.
