Alex Personal Training I Online Coaching

Cable fly with a small twist: Sitting

Personally this is one of my favorite chest exercises.

It’s one of those I get the most contraction & pump into the muscle.
Especially as a beginner it can be very useful to perform it in a sitting and not standing position. The bench provides additional stability and therefore decreases the risk of swinging which would lead to a wrong lifting technique.

Once you progress and master the technique, it can be beneficial to perform it standing as you will active your core more which benefits overall muscle growth.

Some of you might ask ‘Oh and what about by split routine where I train every muscle just once a week?’. This is indeed a valid question & at least worth to re-evaluate whether your routine is as efficient as it could be if you have the goal of hypertrophy.

Studies suggest that training muscle groups at least twice a week promotes more growth than training them just once a week.
What has not been determined yet is whether training a muscle three times a week is superior to twice a week.

So if you do three sets of a chest exercise on Monday & on Thursday, you will likely grow bigger muscles compared to doing six sets on Monday only.

The theory behind this is that lifting weights opens a window of about 48 hours for muscle growth. After that, your muscles no longer grow (or just minimally).

Remember that not only the frequency determines how efficient your muscles grow. There are more factors to take into consideration such as training volume per week, load (weights), resting periods and exercise selection.

I will post about those in detail soon. To get an idea how those factors play a role here, check out below:

Load (weights):
Weights should be challenging to complete the set CLOSE to failure with correct form

Volume:
The more volume you do, without exceeding your capacity to recover, the more you grow.
Volume for beginners: ~ 10 sets per week, close to failure
Volume for experienced lifters: ~ 15 - 20 sets per week, close to failure

Resting periods:
Depends on intensity and goal of the session, between 1 - 3 minutes

Exercise selection:
Good mix of isolated & compound as well as as machine and free weight exercises

Check out the research if you want to dive deeper into this topic:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27102172/

https://journal.iusca.org/index.php/Journal/article/view/81/140

Time for a small introduction:

I’m Alex, a certified personal trainer from Hamburg, Germany, with 16+ years of personal experience in the gym.

With science based training and diet programs I teach you how to reach YOUR goals in the best way possible.

You need help to grow some serious muscles, lose weight or boost your confidence? Then let me guide and support you on this journey, step by step.
With the right mindset, approach and support, I truly believe that EVERYONE can achieve their goals!

Let’s get started 💪🏼

Check my bio for more info about online coaching! 🔥

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In need of guidance on workouts & nutrition? Want to grow muscle or lose fat?

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