Cable Chest Exercises

Great chest exercises you can do using a cable pulley machine. Using a cable machine to train your chest muscles is a great way to get results.

Illustration of chest exercise using a cable machine.

Cables help you to do a variety of exercises to hit different angles of your chest. When you add these exercises to your routine, it allows you to really target those muscles with constant resistance because of the cable. This constant resistances allows you to tone, add strength and size to your chest if desired. The traditional cable crossover station is the most popular and effective equipment for cable exercises. Cable exercises for your chest adds the icing to the cake when your training your chest. 

 

Top 5 Cable Chest Exercises

Cable Chest Exercises

There are 5 cable exercises that will give you a well shaped chest area.

1. Single-Arm Cable Chest press

With your right hand, grab the high pulley handle of a cable station and face away from the weight stack.

Stagger your feet and hold the handle at shoulder height, with your right arm bent and parallel to the floor.

Push the handle forward and straighten your right arm in front of you.

Then slowly bend your right elbow to return to the starting position.

Complete the prescribed number of reps with your right arm, then switch hands and do the same number with your left.

2. Standing Cable Fly

Attach two stirrup handles to the high-pulley cables of a cable-crossover station.

Grab a handle with each hand, and stand in a staggered stance in the middle of the station.

Without changing the angle of your elbows, pull the handles down ad together, until they cross in front of your body.

Pause, then return to the starting position.

3. Cable Crossover Fly

Place and incline bench between two cable machine uprights.

Grasp a handle in each hand, with your palms facing each other and your elbows slightly bent (as if you are hugging a big tree).

Bring the cables I to meet each other above your chest.

Lower the cables back to starting position. Repeat.

4. Cable Decline Fly

Adjust two cables so they are set on highest setting. Grasp one handle, and then reach out for the other handle.

Center yourself between the cable uprights. Stand with your fee placed shoulder width apart, your knees slightly bent.

With your elbows slightly bent and your palms facing downward, pull your arms down at an angle to meet in front of your body.

Lower the weights to starting position, and repeat.

5. Cable Machine Decline Raise

Stand between two high cable machine uprights, your feet shoulder width apart and your pelvis tucked in. Pick up handle grips one at a time.

Center yourself between the cable uprights.

Start with your arms at the sides of your body, your elbows posting to the wall behind you and your palms facing forward. You should feel a slight stretch in the chest.

Bring the cables up into a pyramid position, the handles coming together just above your naval and continuing to slightly above your chest.

Lower the weight back to the starting position. Repeat. 

Cable Chest Fly

Cable Chest Exercises

Start: Attach stirrups handles to the low pulleys of a cable crossover machine. Put a bench between the columns and lie on it. Grab the handles and hold them directly over the middle of your chest, with just a slight bend in your elbows.

Finish: Lower your arms down and back toward your ears until your elbows are about even with the bench. Pause before bringing the handles up in a wide, arcing motion. 

Swiss-Ball Decline Cable Fly

Cable Chest Exercises

Hook your insteps beneath some heavy dumbbells on the floor as you lie far enough back on the ball that your chest is slightly lower than your hips. Keep your back flat and your neck in line with your spine. Then do the decline-fly variation.

Swiss-Ball Incline Cable Fly

Cable Chest Exercises

Start with your head and neck raised off the ball and your back completely in contact with it so that your back is slightly arched. Keep your feet flat on the floor, and bend your knees as you lower you're his until you're stimulating the incline-bench position. You're ready to fly.

Swiss-Ball Unilateral Cable Fly

Cable Chest Exercises

Place the ball in front of a stirrup handle attached to the low pulley. Position yourself sideways to the weight stack and lie on the ball, getting into either the flat position pictured on the opposite page, or the incline or decline variations just described. Grab the handle with your inside hand, and hold your outside thigh with your outside had for stability. Then do a standard cable fly with your working are, taking care not to turn on the ball to help get the weight moving.