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. 

 

Dumbbell Cable Press

Cable Chest Exercises

Start: You need ankle straps, dumbbells, a cable-crossover machine, a bench, and a little bit of patience as you get yourself into position. Put the bench between the pulleys. Select fairly light weights on the stacks. Fasten the straps to your wrists, hook the straps to the low pulleys, pick up two light to moderate dumbbells, lie on the bench and hold the dumbbells at the sides of your chest.

Finish: Execute a standard dumbbell press, as described. The extra challenge, of course, is the simultaneous vertical resistance from the dumbbells and horizontal resistance from the cables. Pause, then slowly lower the weights to the starting position.

Swiss-Ball Cable Fly

Cable Chest Exercises

Place a Swiss ball between the columns of the crossover station, grab the low-cable stirrup handles, then lie o the ball with only your shoulder blades touching it. Your knees should be bent 90 degrees, and your torso and thighs should be parallel to the floor. Then do a standard cable fly.

Staggered Unilateral High Cable Fly

Cable Chest Exercises

Start: Attach a stirrup hand to the high pulley and stand sideways to the weight stack. Grab the handle with your inside hand. Take a couple steps away from the stack and perhaps a step back; you want to start with tension in the cable so there's resistance throughout the movement. Pull your shoulders back, and place your free hand on your hip. Keep a slight bend your working elbow. For better balance, stand with the foot that's farthest from the weight stack slightly in front of the foot that's closer. Then bend your forward leg. It also helps to use your free hand to hold the opposite thigh.

Finish: Bring the cable handle down and across your body in a wide, arching motion, without changing the angle in your elbow, Stop before your working shoulder pulls forward-you want your shoulders and hips to stay in the same position throughout. Pause, then slowly return to the starting position. Finish the reps with that arm, then turn around and repeat with the other.

Unilateral High Cable Fly

Cable Chest Exercises

Start: Attach a stirrup hand to the high pulley and stand sideways to the weight stack. Grab the handle with your inside hand. Take a couple steps away from the stack and perhaps a step back; you want to start with tension in the cable so there's resistance throughout the movement. Pull your shoulders back, and place your free hand on your hip. Keep a slight bend your working elbow.

Finish: Bring the cable handle down and across your body in a wide, arching motion, without changing the angle in your elbow, Stop before your working shoulder pulls forward-you want your shoulders and hips to stay in the same position throughout. Pause, then slowly return to the starting position. Finish the reps with that arm, then turn around and repeat with the other.

Unilateral Low Cable Fly

Cable Chest Exercises

Stand aside a cable station with a stirrup handle attached to a low pulley. With your nee slightly bent, reach down and grasp the pulley handle as you use your chest to bring the weight up in an arcing motion across your body. Once you reach the point where your arm is across the midline of your body, pause for a second and then return the weight to the starting position.