The exercise of the butterfly counts next to the bench press and the fleece as a form of exercise for the development of the chest muscles and is especially used in bodybuilding. However, in contrast to bench press, in which the triceps (M. triceps brachii) and the deltoid muscle (M. deltoideus) take over part of the work, the pectoral muscle is stressed in a more isolated way in butterfly. Therefore, this variant is particularly suitable in the definition phase.
Especially the structure of the pectoral muscles can be optimized with the Butterfly. The Butterfly is a typical training exercise for pre exhaustion principle. Bench press for muscle building, butterfly and fleece for definition.
Trained muscles
- Large pectoral muscle (M. pectoralis mayor)
- Delta muscle (M. deltoideus)
Description
The exercise of the Butterfly can only be trained on the device. The athlete sits with an upright upper body and the spine touches the backrest. With both hands the guide is held firmly in the hand at chest height.
In the starting position, the arms are almost stretched out at a 180° angle. The chest muscles are stretched to the maximum at this point. As the arms are closed in front of the body, the muscles are increasingly contracted.
The arms remain approximately stretched. Special care must be taken to ensure that the upper body maintains contact with the backrest during the contraction phase. The training weight and number of repetitions vary depending on the training goal and performance requirements. If no equipment is available, the same adaptation effects of the musculature can be achieved with the “flying“.
Modifications
To train different parts of the chest muscles, the lever can be changed. If not only the hands, but the entire forearm is gripped by the guide, the inner parts of the chest muscles are trained more intensively. By using an expander the Butterfly can be used in a training at home.
