The 8 Best Chest Fly Alternatives (2026)

The chest fly trains your pecs almost entirely through horizontal adduction, pulling your arms from an outstretched position across your body while a machine, cable, or dumbbell keeps tension on the muscle the whole way. Unlike a bench press, which shares the load with your triceps and front delts, a fly asks your chest to do nearly all of the work. That isolation, plus the deep stretch you get at the bottom of the rep, is what makes flyes worth keeping in your program even if you already press heavy.

You might need a swap for a few reasons. Maybe your gym doesn’t have a pec deck or a cable station, maybe the stretched position bothers your shoulders, maybe you train at home with nothing but a resistance band, or maybe you’ve run the same fly for months and want a new angle. Whatever the reason, the substitute still needs to load your pecs through a real stretch and a hard peak squeeze, or you lose the point of doing a fly instead of a press.

I picked these 8 alternatives for how closely they reproduce that stretch-and-squeeze pattern, how comfortable they are on the shoulder joint, and what equipment they actually need. Keep reading and I’ll tell you when to use each one and exactly how to perform it.

Table of Contents

1 The 8 Best Chest Fly Alternatives
2 Reasons to Choose a Chest Fly Alternative
3 Muscles Worked by the Chest Fly
4 FAQs
5 Key Takeaways
6 Other Alternative Exercises

The 8 Best Chest Fly Alternatives

Pec Deck (Machine Fly)
Incline Dumbbell Fly
Cable Crossover
Low-to-High Cable Fly
Single-Arm Cable Fly
Flat Dumbbell Fly
Banded Fly
Svend Press

Pick the alternative that matches what your gym or home setup already has, then match the angle to whichever part of your chest needs the most work. Flat and high-to-low variations spread the load evenly, and incline and low-to-high variations bias the upper chest. If you’re fixing an imbalance or training around a cranky shoulder, the single-arm cable fly or the banded fly are your best bets.

1. Pec Deck (Machine Fly)

When to Perform the Pec Deck Fly

This is the closest swap there is if your gym doesn’t have a bench free or you just want the safest version of a fly. The machine fixes your bar path for you, so there’s no stabilizing to worry about and no way to drift into a shoulder position that hurts. I use it as a finisher after pressing, or as the main chest isolation exercise on a day when I want to load the pecs hard without any setup.

It’s also the safest place on this list to train close to failure. The fixed handles won’t let your shoulders roll out of position the way a heavy dumbbell fly can when your grip or stabilizers give out first.

How to Perform the Pec Deck Fly

Set the seat height so the handles sit level with the middle of your chest.
Sit back with your shoulder blades pinned to the pad and grab a handle in each hand.
Squeeze your chest to bring your arms together in front of you, pausing for a second at the peak.
Control the return until you feel a stretch across your chest, without letting the weight stack bang on the way back.

Equipment: pec deck or chest fly machine.

This video from HASfit shows how to perform the pec deck fly.

Chest Fly - Pec Fly Machine - Pec Deck - - HASfit Machine Exercises - Machine Exercise

Watch this video on YouTube.

Tips for the Pec Deck Fly

Keep the same slight bend in your elbows the whole set instead of straightening them out.
Adjust the seat lower to bias the upper chest, or higher to bias the lower chest.
Squeeze and hold for a full second at the peak instead of just tapping the handles together.
Let the weight stack pull your arms back under control rather than muscling them there yourself.

The pec deck trades some range of motion for total safety. If your gym’s machine has a shallow stretch position, pair it later in the week with a free-weight fly like the incline or flat dumbbell version below to get a deeper stretch somewhere in your training.

Want more machine options for chest day? See our roundup of the best gym machines for chest.

2. Incline Dumbbell Fly

When to Perform the Incline Dumbbell Fly

Reach for this one when you want the upper chest emphasis of an incline press but without your shoulders and triceps taking over. Setting the bench to 30 to 45 degrees changes the angle of the stretch so more of the load lands on the clavicular head, the part of your pecs right under your collarbone. It’s my favorite free-weight option for anyone chasing upper chest size.

I usually place it second in a chest session, right after the main press, when the upper chest still has plenty left but my shoulders are already a little tired from heavier pressing.

How to Perform the Incline Dumbbell Fly

Set a bench to a 30 to 45 degree incline and lie back with a dumbbell in each hand.
Press the dumbbells up over your chest with your palms facing each other and a slight bend in your elbows.
Lower the dumbbells out to the sides in a wide arc until you feel a stretch across your upper chest.
Bring the dumbbells back together over your chest, stopping just short of touching them at the top.

Equipment: adjustable bench and a pair of dumbbells.

This video from ScottHermanFitness shows how to perform the incline dumbbell fly.

HOW TO: Incline Dumbbell Fly || PERFECT FORM (GROWTH & STRENGTH)

Watch this video on YouTube.

Tips for the Incline Dumbbell Fly

Keep the bench angle at 45 degrees or lower, since a steeper incline turns the fly into a shoulder exercise.
Don’t let the dumbbells drop below the level of your shoulders.
Start with lighter dumbbells than you think you need. The stretched bottom position is where most shoulder injuries happen.
Rotate your wrists slightly so your palms angle up toward the ceiling at the top for a harder peak squeeze.

Looking for more upper chest work? Check our incline bench press alternatives.

3. Cable Crossover

When to Perform the Cable Crossover

The cable crossover is the version I’d pick if your gym has a cable station but no pec deck. Cables keep tension on your chest through the entire range, including the top of the rep where dumbbells go slack, and you can angle the pulleys anywhere from high to low to change which part of the chest gets emphasized. It’s the most adjustable fly there is.

Run it standard from high to low as your main fly, or move the pulleys to a different height every few weeks to keep hitting the pecs from a fresh angle without switching exercises entirely.

How to Perform the Cable Crossover

Set both pulleys to the top position and attach a single handle to each side.
Grab a handle in each hand and step forward into the middle of the machine with a slight forward lean.
With a slight bend in your elbows, bring your hands down and together in front of your hips.
Control the return back out to the sides until you feel a stretch across your chest.

Equipment: dual cable station.

This video from PureGym shows how to perform the cable crossover.

How To Do A Cable Fly/ Cable Crossover

Watch this video on YouTube.

Tips for the Cable Crossover

Keep a consistent elbow bend throughout, so the movement stays a fly and doesn’t turn into a press.
Lean slightly forward from the hips to keep tension on your chest instead of your shoulders.
Cross your hands slightly past each other at the bottom for a harder peak squeeze.
Stagger your stance a little for a stable base, since you’re pulling against resistance from two directions at once.

For more cable-based chest work, see our full guide to cable chest exercises.

4. Low-to-High Cable Fly

When to Perform the Low-to-High Cable Fly

This is the cable version of the incline dumbbell fly, and it’s the one I use when I want upper chest work but my shoulders are worn out from pressing. Because the cable pulls up and across your body, your pecs stay under tension even at the top of the rep, which you don’t get from a dumbbell version.

It’s a good pick for the end of a session too, when you still want direct upper chest volume but don’t want to set up a bench.

How to Perform the Low-to-High Cable Fly

Set both pulleys to the lowest position and attach a handle to each side.
Grab a handle in each hand and step forward with a staggered stance.
With a slight bend in your elbows, sweep your hands up and together in front of your upper chest or face.
Control the return down to the starting position, letting your arms open back out to the sides.

Equipment: dual cable station.

This video from ScottHermanFitness shows how to perform the low-to-high cable fly.

HOW TO: Chest "Low-To-High" Cable Fly (BIGGER UPPER CHEST) || PERFECT FORM

Watch this video on YouTube.

Tips for the Low-to-High Cable Fly

Finish the movement in front of your face, not your waist, or you lose the upper chest emphasis.
Keep your torso still. The pull should come from your arms, not from rocking your body.
Use a staggered stance for more stability if the cables pull you off balance.
Slow the descent down on purpose. The stretch at the bottom is the whole point of this angle.

See our full breakdown of cable upper chest exercises for more angles like this one.

5. Single-Arm Cable Fly

When to Perform the Single-Arm Cable Fly

Use this one when you’ve got a side that’s noticeably weaker or when you want a longer stretch than a two-arm version gives you. Training one arm at a time means your stronger side can’t bail out the weaker one, and your torso has to resist rotation the whole set, which adds a real core demand on top of the chest work.

I also like it late in a workout when I’m too fatigued to control two cables at once but still want a clean, focused set on each side.

How to Perform the Single-Arm Cable Fly

Set one pulley to about shoulder height and grab the handle with the hand on the same side.
Stand sideways to the machine in a staggered stance, with a slight bend in your working elbow.
Pull your hand across your body until it reaches the center of your chest, squeezing at the peak.
Control the return until you feel a deep stretch, keeping your torso from twisting toward the machine.

Equipment: single cable station, or a resistance band anchored at shoulder height.

This video from OPEX Fitness shows how to perform the single-arm cable fly.

Single Arm Cable Fly High to Low

Watch this video on YouTube.

Tips for the Single-Arm Cable Fly

Brace your core hard. The single-arm pull wants to rotate your torso toward the cable.
Match your reps on both sides, and start with your weaker arm first.
Go lighter than you’d guess. One arm at a time is more demanding than it looks.
Hold onto the machine frame with your free hand only if your torso keeps twisting, not as a habit.

For more one-arm cable work, see our guide to single-cable chest exercises.

6. Flat Dumbbell Fly

When to Perform the Flat Dumbbell Fly

This is the classic version, and the one to use when all you’ve got is a flat bench and a pair of dumbbells. It hits your whole chest evenly rather than biasing the upper or lower portion, and it’s the easiest fly to load progressively since you just move up in dumbbell weight.

It’s also the version I’d teach a beginner first, before moving them onto cables, since the movement pattern carries over directly to the incline and single-arm versions once they’ve got it down.

How to Perform the Flat Dumbbell Fly

Lie on a flat bench with a dumbbell in each hand, pressed up over your chest with palms facing each other.
Keep a slight, fixed bend in your elbows for the entire set.
Lower the dumbbells out to the sides in a wide arc until you feel a stretch across your chest.
Bring the dumbbells back together over your chest without letting them touch or clink.

Equipment: flat bench and a pair of dumbbells.

This video from Buff Dudes Workouts shows how to perform the flat dumbbell fly.

How To Perform Dumbbell Flys on a Flat Bench | Chest Exercise Tutorial

Watch this video on YouTube.

Tips for the Flat Dumbbell Fly

Don’t let your elbows straighten out during the lift. That shifts the work into your elbow joints instead of your chest.
Stop the descent once your upper arms are roughly level with your torso, not lower.
Keep the dumbbells from touching at the top so your pecs stay under tension the whole set.
Plant your feet flat on the floor and keep your hips down for a stable base to press from.

7. Banded Fly

When to Perform the Banded Fly

Grab a band when you’re traveling, training at home without dumbbells, or just want a joint-friendly way to hit the same stretch-and-squeeze pattern. Bands load the top of the rep harder than the bottom, the opposite of a dumbbell fly, so it’s a genuinely different stimulus rather than just a worse version of the real thing.

It’s also the option I’d hand to someone coming back from a shoulder issue, since you can dial the resistance up or down in tiny increments just by adjusting your stance.

How to Perform the Banded Fly

Anchor a resistance band behind you at chest height, or loop it around a pole or rack upright.
Hold a handle in each hand and step forward until there’s tension on the band.
With a slight bend in your elbows, bring your hands together in front of your chest.
Control the return back out to the sides until your arms are level with your body.

Equipment: resistance band and an anchor point.

This video from Home Gym Fitness Channel shows how to perform the standing banded chest fly.

Standing Chest Fly Using Resistance Bands

Watch this video on YouTube.

Tips for the Banded Fly

Face away from the anchor so the band pulls your arms out to the sides, not straight back.
Step further from the anchor to add resistance instead of buying a heavier band.
Squeeze and hold for a full second at the peak, since the band alone won’t force a pause.
Check the band for nicks or wear before every set. A snapped band at full stretch is no joke.

8. Svend Press

When to Perform the Svend Press

This is the one I use as a warm-up before heavier chest work or as a finisher at the end of a session, since all it takes is a pair of weight plates. It’s more of an isometric squeeze than a full range fly, but that constant inward pressure lights up the inner chest in a way nothing else on this list does.

It’s also a good option if you’re dealing with a shoulder that doesn’t tolerate a deep stretch right now, since your arms barely move and the load stays light.

How to Perform the Svend Press

Hold two weight plates together at chest height with straight arms, squeezing them between your palms.
Press the plates straight out in front of you until your arms are extended, keeping them pinched together the whole time.
Pull the plates back to your chest without letting them separate at any point.
Repeat for reps, keeping the squeeze constant throughout.

Equipment: two weight plates.

This video from Bodybuilding.com shows how to perform the svend press.

Svend Press | Exercise Guide

Watch this video on YouTube.

Tips for the Svend Press

Use light plates. 5s or 10s are plenty, since the squeeze is what makes this hard, not the load.
Keep your palms pressed flat against the plates so they can’t shift or drop.
Exhale hard on the press out to reinforce the squeeze.
Slow the tempo down to two full seconds out and two back if the standard pace feels too easy.

Reasons to Choose a Chest Fly Alternative

There are a few good reasons to swap the chest fly for one of the options above, and most of them come down to what equipment you have access to and how your shoulders handle a deep stretch:

You don’t have a pec deck or cable station. The flat dumbbell fly, banded fly, and svend press cover you anywhere, including a hotel room or a garage gym.
Your shoulders don’t like the deep stretch. The pec deck and cable versions let you control the range so you never go past a comfortable stretch, and the svend press barely moves through a range at all.
You want constant tension. The cable crossover and banded fly keep your pecs loaded through the whole rep, unlike dumbbells, which go slack at the top of the movement.
One side is lagging. The single-arm cable fly trains each side independently so the weaker one catches up instead of riding along on the stronger side.
You’re also swapping a press. Check our bench press alternatives, incline bench press alternatives, and decline bench press alternatives guides for the pressing side of your chest work.

Muscles Worked by the Chest Fly

The chest fly and its alternatives all target the same muscles, just from slightly different angles depending on the equipment and the pulley height:

Pectoralis major, sternal head: the bulk of your chest, doing most of the work in a flat or high-to-low fly.
Pectoralis major, clavicular head: the upper chest fibers that take over more in an incline or low-to-high fly.
Pectoralis minor: a smaller muscle underneath the pec major that assists throughout the movement and helps stabilize your shoulder blade.
Anterior deltoid: the front of your shoulder, working as a secondary mover at the stretched bottom position.
Serratus anterior: braces your shoulder blade against your ribcage as your arms move through the arc. If you want a movement that trains it more directly, see our dumbbell pullover alternatives.

None of these exercises train your triceps to any real degree, since your elbows stay bent throughout instead of extending. That’s the trade-off for pure pec isolation, and it’s exactly why a fly works best alongside a press rather than in place of one.

The biceps and forearms get a small amount of stabilizing work too, mostly from gripping the handles or dumbbells and keeping your wrists locked, but that role is minor compared to the chest and shoulder work driving the movement.

FAQs

Is a chest fly enough without a bench press?

Flyes build chest size, but a fly alone won’t build much pressing strength since your triceps and shoulders barely get involved. Keep a press, whether that’s a barbell bench, dumbbell press, or machine press, as your main chest lift and use a fly to finish off the pecs.

What’s the best chest fly alternative for a home gym?

The banded fly or the flat dumbbell fly. Bands pack into a bag and dumbbells are the most common piece of home equipment there is, so either one covers you without a pec deck or a cable station. If you have an adjustable bench too, the incline dumbbell fly is worth adding for upper chest work.

Which chest fly alternative hits the upper chest hardest?

The incline dumbbell fly and the low-to-high cable fly. Both change the angle of the stretch so more of the load lands on the clavicular head under your collarbone instead of spreading evenly across your chest.

Which chest fly alternative hits the lower chest?

A high-to-low cable crossover, where the pulleys start above your head and finish near your hips, biases the lower chest the same way a decline press does. See our cable lower chest guide for more on that angle.

How many sets and reps work best for chest fly alternatives?

I’d stick to 3 to 4 sets of 10 to 15 reps. Flyes are an isolation exercise, so higher reps with a hard squeeze at the peak build more size than chasing heavy weight for low reps.

Can chest fly alternatives cause shoulder pain?

They can if you go too heavy or stretch past a comfortable range. Cut the range of motion a few inches short of where you feel any pinching, and build the weight up slowly instead of loading a fly like you would a press.

Should I do a chest fly before or after my bench press?

After. Your pressing strength depends on your triceps and shoulders having something left, and a set of heavy flyes first will pre-fatigue your chest and tank the weight you can press. Save the fly for the end of your session, once your main press is already done.

How often should I train chest fly alternatives?

Once or twice a week is plenty for most lifters. Your pecs are already getting stimulated on every pressing day, so a dedicated fly on top of that once or twice a week is enough to add size without piling on so much volume that recovery becomes the problem.

Key Takeaways

If your gym has a pec deck, that’s the closest swap to a bench-based fly and my first recommendation for anyone without a cable station. Training at home, the banded fly gets you the same constant tension with just an anchor point and no dumbbells required. If your goal is upper chest size specifically, run the incline dumbbell fly or the low-to-high cable fly instead of the flat version. Pick the one that matches your equipment and your shoulders, and keep the reps high. A fly earns its keep as a high-rep isolation exercise. Save the low-rep heavy loading for a press.

Other Alternative Exercises

If you enjoyed this post, check out our other roundups of the best alternatives for other exercises.

About Kyle Risley

Kyle Risley founded Lift Vault in 2016 to make finding great powerlifting programs easier. Since then, the site has grown to include hundreds of programs for strength, bodybuilding, Olympic weightlifting, and more. He currently lives in Massachusetts and continues to compete in powerlifting.