UPPER BODY WORKOUT
An all-round upper body workout must include well selected upper body exercises that take care of all the main upper body muscle groups. These target muscles include the back, the chest, the shoulders, the biceps and the triceps. The result of such a workout program will be a great overall strength gain with no muscular imbalance.
It is advisable to frequently change the exercises to ensure that there is a continuous progress as the body responds to these changes. This is because repeating the same exercises for a long period of time gives the body an opportunity to adapt to the exercise stress and slows down your progress.
CHEST EXERCISES
Isolated chest exercises: some of the isolated chest exercises that guarantees good results are dumbbell pullovers, pec dec fly and cable crossovers. When performing chest isolated exercises, one should concentrate on squeezing the pec muscles only.
Compound chest exercises: compound exercises have the advantage of stimulating the biceps and triceps hence reducing the intensity of the exercises to be carried out on them. These exercises may include dips, bench press and push-ups. The bench press can be performed on a flat , decline or incline surface using either dumbbells or barbells.
BACK EXERCISES
For a balance of the upper body, it is highly recommended that you perform an equal number of back exercises as those done on the chest when performing upper body workout.
Isolated back exercises: some of the exercises that can specifically target your back muscles include pull-ups and pull downs. They should be done with either close, wide or reverse grip.
Compound back exercises: the best known compound exercise for the back is one that allows you to lift a high total weight in any variation of the row. Rows are performed by dumbbells, t-bar, barbell or with cables.
SHOULDER EXERCISES
Shoulder exercises can be performed on their own day, when exercising the chest or when exercising the back muscles. They must be considered in every upper body workout program because they determine how broad you appear.
Isolated shoulder exercises: some of these exercises include reverse cable flyes, reverse pec dec, upright rows, front and side lateral dumbbell raises and shoulder cable flyes. Most people find some difficulties in performing these exercises and usually use smaller weights.
Compound shoulder exercises: the two common compound exercises for the shoulders are the Dumbbell Arnold Press and the shoulder press. The shoulder press can either be performed with a set of dumbbells or with a barbell.
BICEPS EXERCISES
During upper body workout, proper compound exercises for the chest and the back usually work on the biceps and very little exercise is required for them. Any additional exercising of these muscles should be done with caution to avoid over-training.
Isolated bicep exercises include close-grip chin-ups, concentration curls, single arm dumbbells or cable curls, dumbbell or barbell curls and incline curls.
TRICEPS EXERCISES
Triceps are usually worked out when you perform chest and back muscles. Triceps constitute a large part of your arm muscles and should be worked out if you want to have a bigger arm.
Isolated triceps exercises: these exercises may include triceps push-downs, overhead dumbbells, dips, French press or close-grip bench press.
Compound triceps exercises: they include chest workouts like bench press and incline press and all shoulder workouts.
When carrying out upper body work out, choose a single exercise and give it 2 or 3 weeks. Then move to another exercise that target the same muscle but in a different way. This will allow progression and will result to a well toned upper body.
Upper Body Workout
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