Maybe this is the wrong way to think about it, but I’ve always looked at isolation exercises in terms of their mechanics.
With a dumbbell fly, main goal is to move the elbow from the side of the body to the front of the body. You primarily use the pecs and deltoid to do that. With the squeeze press, it’s doing the same thing, using the pecs as the primary mover.
So they’re interchangeable in my mind.
In contrast, a standard dumbbell press, you don’t really move the elbow across the body. It happens a little, but it’s not the main thing.
Also with a fly, the straighter your arm, the more work the pecs have to do because of the leverage. You can use much lighter weights and get the same stress on the muscle.
Hah yeah I guess I read that wrong. Thought you were saying whomever is reading this is probably doing this exercise wrong rather than the voice in your head saying “man, you are doing this wrong”.
I could definitely see either being the case as DB fly is one of those movements I don’t do real often but always wonder if the form police are going to come after me on it.
I could see the reasoning someone may think ultra strict form, with straight arms, light weights, and slower technique being the superior way to train this movement but also see the other side too…as in purposely going heavy with a slight elbow bend and sort of cheating the movement and going faster but still feeling the stretch.
Somewhat recently I started doing these as a DB Fly/Press with heavier weights after watching Seth Feroce videos. I liked his pragmatic approach to why he does them that way.
I prefer the latter approach to DB flys and BB Rows (Cheat Rows instead of Pendlay Row for instance). I think there is always a trade off between super strict form and doing a little more “cheat” but with more weight. There seems to be a definite point of diminishing returns on either end of that spectrum if you ask me. I also think this can be different for different people.
