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Exercises

Cable pec exercises: every fly angle for upper, middle and lower chest

Published October 19, 2026

The best cable pec exercises are the high-to-low cable fly for the lower and middle chest, the low-to-high crossover and the incline cable fly for the upper chest, the flat-bench cable fly for the middle, and the single-arm cable fly when you have one pulley. The pulley height decides which part of your chest works: hands traveling down train the lower chest, hands traveling up train the upper chest. Cables keep tension on your pecs through the whole arc, so use them next to your presses, not instead of them.

  1. High-to-Low Cable Fly Chest
  2. Cable Fly Chest
  3. Incline Cable Fly Chest
  4. Flat-Bench Cable Fly Chest
  5. Single-Arm Cable Fly Chest

Standing cable crossovers: lower and upper chest

On a two-tower cable station, the pulley height picks the target. High pulleys pull your hands down toward your hips and work the lower chest; low pulleys pull your hands up toward your chin and work the upper chest. Do one of each in a week and the whole muscle gets trained from the same machine.

Lower and middle chest, downward crossover

High-to-Low Cable Fly

Chest

With the pulleys set above your head, the handles travel down and in toward your belt line, which is the line the lower chest fibers run along. It is the cable chest exercise most people mean when they say crossover, and the best single cable pick if you only do one.

How to do it

  1. Pin both pulleys at their highest notch, grab both handles and step forward to the middle with one foot in front of the other.
  2. Lean your torso slightly forward and let your arms open out to the sides and up, elbows soft, until you feel a stretch across your chest.
  3. Sweep the handles down and together in a big arc until they meet in front of your hips.
  4. Pause for a second with your chest squeezed, then let the cables pull your arms back open along the same path.

Cues

  • Hug a wide tree
  • Hands finish at belt height
  • Same elbow bend all set

Common mistakes

  • Bending the elbows more as you pull, which turns the fly into a press: lock the elbow angle in and lighten the stack.
  • Letting the stack slam between reps: stop the return when your hands are just behind your shoulders and keep tension on.

Swap for: Cable Fly, Single-Arm Cable Fly, Flat-Bench Cable Fly

Build a session with High-to-Low Cable Fly

Upper chest, rising crossover

Cable Fly

Chest

Flip the pulleys to the bottom and the arc reverses: your hands rise from beside your thighs to meet at chest or chin height, which shifts the work toward the collarbone part of the chest. Pair it with the high-to-low version and you have trained both ends of the pecs from one station.

How to do it

  1. Set both pulleys at the lowest notch, grab both handles and stand between the towers, feet at hip width, knees unlocked.
  2. Start with your arms down and slightly behind your body, palms turned forward, a small bend in each elbow.
  3. Raise both handles forward and up in a big arc until they meet in front of your upper chest.
  4. Lower them back down and out along the same arc, slowly, until you feel the stretch again.

Cues

  • Scoop up and in
  • Chest tall, ribs down
  • Meet at collarbone height

Common mistakes

  • Shrugging the shoulders toward your ears at the top: stop the hands at upper-chest height and keep your shoulders down.
  • Leaning back to heave the handles up: stand tall and drop a plate on the stack.

Swap for: Incline Cable Fly, Low-to-High Cable Fly, High-to-Low Cable Fly

Build a session with Cable Fly

Cable flies on a bench

Pull a bench between the towers and the fly gets stricter: your legs and balance stop mattering, so all the effort goes into the chest and you can take sets closer to failure. A flat bench aims at the middle of the chest, a low incline at the upper part.

Middle chest, lying cable fly

Flat-Bench Cable Fly

Chest

Lying flat with a low pulley on each side, the cables pull your arms out and down, so the chest is loaded hardest at the bottom where a dumbbell fly goes slack at the top. The bench also takes your legs and balance out of it, which makes it the cable fly you can push closest to failure.

How to do it

  1. Pull a flat bench into the middle of the station so its middle lines up with the pulleys, and set both pulleys at the bottom.
  2. Grab both handles, lie back with feet flat, and start with your arms open level with your chest, palms up and elbows soft.
  3. Sweep both handles up until they nearly touch above your chest.
  4. Lower them back out to the sides with control until your hands are level with the bench, then repeat.

Cues

  • Arms open like wings
  • Handles meet over the nipples
  • Shoulder blades pinned to the bench

Common mistakes

  • Lowering the hands below the bench: stop at bench level, where the stretch is already deep.
  • Clanking the handles together at the top: stop an inch apart so the cables keep pulling.

Swap for: Incline Cable Fly, High-to-Low Cable Fly, Single-Arm Cable Fly

Build a session with Flat-Bench Cable Fly

Upper chest, lying cable fly

Incline Cable Fly

Chest

An incline bench tilts the arc up toward your face, the same angle as an incline press, so the upper chest does the most work. Lying down keeps the shoulders quiet and lets you load it heavier than the standing low-to-high crossover.

How to do it

  1. Set an incline bench at about 30 degrees between the towers and put both pulleys at the middle height.
  2. Grab both handles, sit back with your head and upper back on the pad, and open your arms out to the sides, palms up.
  3. With your elbows slightly bent, raise both handles until they meet above your upper chest.
  4. Open your arms slowly back out until you feel a stretch near the shoulders, then repeat.

Cues

  • Low incline, about 30 degrees
  • Hands meet above your chin
  • Back flat on the pad

Common mistakes

  • Setting the bench too steep, which hands the work to the front of the shoulder: keep the incline low.
  • Arching off the pad to finish the rep: end the set when your back has to help.

Swap for: Cable Fly, Flat-Bench Cable Fly, Single-Arm Cable Fly

Build a session with Incline Cable Fly

Cable chest exercise with a single pulley

If your gym or home rack only has one adjustable cable, train one side at a time. Set the pulley at chest height for the middle of the pecs; move it high or low to copy the two standing crossovers, one arm at a time.

Whole chest, one side at a time

Single-Arm Cable Fly

Chest

Working one arm lets your hand cross past the middle of your body, a little further than a two-handed fly allows, and you can feel each side work separately. It is also the cable chest exercise for a gym with a single adjustable pulley instead of a full crossover.

How to do it

  1. Set one pulley at mid-chest height, take the handle in the hand farther from your free hand and step out until the cable is taut.
  2. Hinge forward a little at the hips with soft knees and rest your free hand on your knee.
  3. Start with the working arm open wide at shoulder level, elbow slightly bent, then sweep the handle across in front of your chest.
  4. Let the hand pass the middle of your body, pause, and return slowly until the arm is open again. Do all reps, then switch sides.

Cues

  • Reach across the midline
  • Torso stays still
  • Slow on the way back

Common mistakes

  • Twisting your torso to drag the handle across: brace your free hand on your knee and let only the arm move.
  • Going so heavy that the shoulder rolls forward at the start: pick a weight you can stretch with, not just finish with.

Swap for: Cable Fly, High-to-Low Cable Fly, Incline Cable Fly

Build a session with Single-Arm Cable Fly

Put them together: example sessions

Each session below picks from the exercises above for one situation, with the sets, reps, rest and RIR filled in. Open one in the session builder to change a pick, price it from a recent set, and add it to RIRLift.

Session 1

Crossover station, no free bench

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts2× a week
  • Working sets20 a week
  • Per workout~20 min
  • EquipmentCable Crossover

You train at a busy gym where you can claim the cable crossover for 20 minutes but the benches are taken.

Standing crossovers need nothing but the towers, so this session covers the lower chest first while you are freshest, then the upper chest, then a single-arm set that reaches across the midline. Flies are isolation work that recovers fast, so the sets end 1 rep short of failure and the last set of each goes to 0. It is 10 hard sets, a full chest day on its own if you skip presses, or half of one if you press first.

Cable Chest
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
High-to-Low Cable FlyPulleys at the top. Last set to 0 RIR. 4 × 10–15 1 75 s
Cable FlyPulleys at the bottom. Stop at chin height. 3 × 12–15 1 75 s
Single-Arm Cable FlyPer arm. Pulley at chest height. 3 × 12–20 0 1 min
How to run it
Do it twice a week, two or more days apart. Set the pulleys high for the first exercise, then drop them to the bottom for the second.
How to progress
Add reps until all sets reach 15 at the target RIR, then move the pin one plate down. Cable stacks jump in big steps, so expect the reps to fall back to 10 and climb again.
Open in the session builder

Session 2

Cable finisher after your presses

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts2× a week
  • Working sets10 a week
  • Per workout~10 min
  • EquipmentCable Crossover, Incline Bench

You already bench or dumbbell press on chest day and want the cables to finish the job in 10 to 12 minutes.

Presses train the chest well at the bottom of the rep, so the finisher picks two flies that keep tension high at full contraction and cover the angle your press missed: the incline fly for the upper chest after a flat press, and the high-to-low crossover for the lower chest. Five sets are enough after heavy pressing; they go to 0 to 1 reps in reserve because flies are safe to push and you have nothing left to save energy for.

Chest Finisher
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Incline Cable FlyBench at 30 degrees. Pulleys at the middle. 3 × 10–15 1 1 min
High-to-Low Cable FlyPause 1 s at the bottom. 2 × 12–15 0 1 min
How to run it
Add it to the end of the chest or push day you already run, twice a week. Rest a minute between sets.
How to progress
Keep the weight until every set reaches 15 reps, then go one plate up. If your press stalls, cut the finisher to one set each before you cut a pressing set.
Open in the session builder

Session 3

Crossover plus a free adjustable bench

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts2× a week
  • Working sets20 a week
  • Per workout~25 min
  • EquipmentCable Crossover, Incline Bench, Flat Bench

You have the crossover and an adjustable bench to yourself, and cables are your main chest work for a training block, for example while a shoulder dislikes heavy pressing.

With cables as the main stimulus, each session leads with a lying fly you can load heavier, then a standing crossover from the opposite height, then the single-arm fly. Day A tilts toward the upper chest, day B toward the middle and lower. The first exercise warms up with one light set and stops at 2 reps in reserve so you can keep adding weight week to week; the rest go to 1, and the last single-arm set to 0. Each day has 10 sets, 20 a week.

Cable Chest A
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Incline Cable Fly1 warm-up set first30 degree incline. Heaviest fly of the day. 4 × 8–12 2 90 s
High-to-Low Cable Fly 3 × 10–15 1 75 s
Single-Arm Cable FlyPer arm. Last set to 0 RIR. 3 × 12–15 1 1 min

Open Cable Chest A in the session builder

Cable Chest B
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Flat-Bench Cable Fly1 warm-up set firstHands stop at bench level. 4 × 8–12 2 90 s
Cable Fly 3 × 10–15 1 75 s
Single-Arm Cable FlyPer arm. Pulley set high. 3 × 12–15 1 1 min

Open Cable Chest B in the session builder

How to run it
Do A and B once each per week with at least two days between them. Set the bench on the incline for A, flat for B.
How to progress
Use double progression on every block: reach the top of the rep range on all sets at the target RIR, then add the smallest weight jump the stack allows.
Open in the session builder

Make it fit you

Questions

Which cable exercise works the lower chest?

The high-to-low cable fly. Set both pulleys at the top and bring your hands down to meet in front of your hips; that path follows the lower chest fibers. Keep a slight forward lean and stop the handles at belt height rather than pushing them down to your thighs.

What are the different variations of cable chest flies?

There are five worth doing: the high-to-low fly for the lower chest, the low-to-high crossover for the upper chest, the single-arm fly with the pulley at chest height, and the flat-bench and incline-bench cable flies, which put you on your back between the towers. The pulley height and the bench angle are the only things that change which part of the chest works hardest.

Are 4 exercises enough for chest day?

Yes, more than enough. Most people grow well on 10 to 20 hard sets of chest a week, which three or four exercises cover easily. If cables are your main chest work, two crossovers plus one bench fly is a complete session; if you press first, two cable flies are plenty.

What are the top 3 cable chest exercises?

The high-to-low cable fly, the incline cable fly and the single-arm cable fly. That trio covers the lower, upper and middle chest, and it still works if you only have one pulley, since all three can be done one arm at a time.

Can you build your chest with only cables?

Yes. Muscle grows from hard sets, and cable flies can be taken close to failure safely, set after set. The one thing cables lack is a heavy press, so if strength on the bench press matters to you, keep a pressing exercise; if size is the goal, cable flies alone will do the job.

How many reps should you do on cable flies?

Between 10 and 20 reps per set works best for most people. Flies feel unstable and lose form with very heavy weight, so let the reps run higher than on presses and finish each set 0 to 2 reps short of failure.

Should your arms be straight on a cable fly?

Almost straight. Keep a small, fixed bend in your elbows from the first rep to the last. If the bend grows as you tire, the fly turns into a press and your chest stops doing the work, which is the cue to end the set or lower the weight.