Friday Exercise: Reverse Flies

Last week, Stickie had so much fun doing flies that she decided to do reverse flies this week.  This balances the work she did on the front side of her body by giving the back muscles a turn.

The starting position is lying face down on a bench.  Most people prefer to have their heads sticking out over the end of the bench, and many women may find that putting the end of the bench just at the bra line is more comfortable.  Stickie has a dumbbell in each hand.  This exercise is challenging enough that she uses much smaller weights than she does for flies; do not feel bad if you need to use what seems like a silly light weight.

Keeping her arms in a slightly curved shape, Stickie lifts the weights out to her sides.  It looks like she is flapping her wings.  She thinks about drawing her shoulder blades toward the center of her back.  While it is tempting to bend her elbows more as she lifts the weights as if she were doing a row, she resists because she knows this is cheating.  Three sets of 10-12 reps is sufficient.