Have You Ever Tried Push Up Flies?

The thing I like most about bodyweight training is that you can take three simple moves and modify them so that any fitness level will be challenged.  The three simple moves are push ups, pull ups, and squats ( you can add in planks as well).  No matter where you are on your fitness journey each of those moves will be incorporated into your bodyweight workout to some degree.  Push up flies are a great way to increase the intensity, blast your chest and shoulder muscles, and up the scale on muscle confusion.  In this post I will show you what push up flies are, how to do them, and give you a quick chest workout to do using them so keep on reading…

The Rundown On Push Up Flies

I first did push up flies long ago actually when I use to go to the gym.  I was a heavy doer of dumbbell chest flies for years and I eventually began to super set dumbbell chest flies with push up flies to obliterate my chest muscles during my chest and back days.  Now I primarily stick to push up flies.  They are challenging, but can give you great results in terms definition and strength.  You can do push up flies a few different ways but the base of them is getting your body in a standard push up position.  Once there you can choose to do one arm at a time or both arms at a time.  Check out the video below to see how the guy doing push ups flies does both arms at the same time and has a weighted vest on.  I strapped on my weighted vest to try what he did and it packed a nice punch.

If you choose to do push up flies as shown in the video I recommend using paper plates.  They are cheap and work on hardwood floors, carpet, and most surfaces.  If you have never done push ups flies I highly recommend that you start with one arm at a time.  So instead of having both of your arms extend out, keep one arm in a  fixed position and slide the other arm out as you go down.  Once you get the hang of push up flies on this level, then try to do both arms at the same time.  Once that gets easier, try to do them with a weighted vest.  To add in extra core work, put paper plates under your feet as well and widen both your feet and hands while going down to make it even more difficult (see who needs a gym to get fit).

A Quick Chest Workout Using Push Up Flies

As promised here is a quick chest workout that will have you do a total of  200 push ups in no time at all.  Do all the reps and exercises straight through and take no rest if you can.  If rest is needed rest no more than 15 seconds.  Here is the quick workout

1. Do 25 double arm push up flies (or one arm 10 flies per arm).
2. Do 25 Dive Bomber push ups
3. Do 25 narrow grip push ups (arms hugging your sides)
4. Do 25 standard push ups
5. Repeat exercises 1-4 and reps to get to 200 total reps

Final Thoughts On Push Up Flies

I like them to be honest and use them incorporated with isometric and plyometric training.  Just like all exercises it is well worth your time to try them at least once.  I say it often the more variety you have in your fitness regimen the more fun and challenging it is.  Give push up flies a try and let me know how they go