🏋️ 10 chest flye alternatives you need in your routine

Did you know that today is Random Acts of Kindness Day in the U.S.? If that inspires just one person to wipe down the leg extension machine after using it, it'll all be worth it.

The tried-and-true chest flye is hard to top, but we’ve got 10 alternatives that might just have it beat.

Want to build powerful legs like IFBB pro Dana Linn Bailey? Of course you do! Bailey recently offered up three tips to try during your next squat day.

The 2023 CrossFit season officially kicked off with the start of the CrossFit Open on February 16. And these 20 women are looking to make a big impact this year.

Exercises

Shake Up Your Routine

The chest flye is an old-school gem of an isolation (single-joint) exercise that has been included in bodybuilding training for decades — and for good reason. The move allows you to emphasize your chest while minimizing the involvement of supporting muscles like the shoulders or triceps.

But perhaps you’ve grown weary of doing the same exercise over and over again. If you’re itching for change, know that exercise variety has been proven efficient in promoting muscle growth. Incorporating a variation of the flye might offer a new hypertrophy stimulus, less joint strain, or simply more focus on the target body part.

Here are 10 chest flye variations and alternatives to bring your training to the next level.

Pro Tips

Bailey’s Squat Hacks

If you want to get better at the squat, sometimes you simply have to take advice from one of the modern masters of the move.

Dana Linn Bailey, the 2013 Women’s Physique Olympia winner, celebrated Valentine’s Day this year by posting a video on her YouTube channel detailing three tips she uses every time she’s under the bar. These tips include utilizing a “high-bar” position for greater knee flexion, elevated heels to achieve more depth, and the correct eye line you should maintain throughout the lift.

For a full walkthrough of Bailey’s tips, check out the video in the article below.

CrossFit

On the Comeback Trail

​The official start of the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games came during Thursday’s Open Workout 23.1 announcement. For most of the over 200,000 registered athletes around the world, their Games season will end after their final Open workout score is submitted on March 6. However, those who advance to the Quarterfinals will be one step closer to fulfilling their Games qualification dreams.

Among those people is a subset of athletes who previously competed at the Games but failed to qualify in 2022 due to injuries, underperformance, or competing in the Team division. Through this lens, the Individual women’s division includes a who’s-who of top names in the sport like Emma Cary, Jamie Simmonds, and Sara Sigmundsdóttir.

Can these athletes recapture their dream of competing under the lights of the Alliant Energy Center Coliseum in Madison, WI? Below is a breakdown of 20 Individual women athletes looking to make their Games return or debut in 2023.

Everything Else

Lunge 101

• Strength athletes of all levels would benefit from having the lunge in their routine. Here's how to do it.

• In more CrossFit news, PRVN Fitness just announced that Olivia Kerstetter, Thuri Helgadottir, and Sasha Nievas are now part of its 2023 CrossFit roster.

• We finally know the 13 athletes competing at the 2023 Europe’s Strongest Man contest in Leeds, England. The roster is highlighted by Oleksii Novikov, who is looking to defend his title.