Then lower them back to the start. With an upper/lower split, you train the muscles in your lower body and upper body on separate days. Dumbbell Punches Getting enough protein is vital to help your muscles repair and rebuild after hard workouts, but you also need to ensure you get a balanced diet containing five daily portions of fruit and veg as an absolute minimum and enough carbs to provide the energy for your training sessions. For example: (Note: Lateral raises and front raises are technically not “pushing” movements, but they still fit best in this category. Pull the bar up towards your sternum, leading with your elbows, then lower it back to the start. For example: An elbow flexion exercise is any movement in which the weight is being pulled towards your torso strictly as a result of flexing at the elbow. For an upper body workout, this could mean doing arm circles, windmills, arm swings, and spinal rotations. Each workout is made up of five moves. CLICK HERE FOR FULL PROGRAM. To add as much lean muscle mass as possible over the next 28 days, while also stripping off body fat, it’s important you follow this training plan as closely as possible. Since we don’t have a specific person in this case, we’re just going to assume it’s for a typical man or woman whose primary goal is to build muscle. Specifically, if both chest exercises are compound pressing movements, the shoulder exercise will typically be lateral raises. If you are new to the weight room, or unable to perform dips and pullups without assistance, it is recommended to start with this phase. Stand tall with feet just wider than shoulder-width apart, holding a barbell across the back of your shoulders. This gym warm-up starts with a range of dynamic stretches that get muscles all over the body moving. Brace your core and press your feet into the ground, then lower the bar towards your chest. It will be done in a higher rep range (8-15) with shorter rest periods (1-2 minutes). But how does that break down in terms of sets per workout? Today there is a great emphasis placed on the upper body. If you want to learn an effective full body workout routine optimized for muscle growth, then you need to read this article. This is all collectively known as volume. Well, assuming your upper body workouts are being done as part of an upper/lower split, you’ll typically be training each muscle group twice per week, which is likely the ideal training frequency for most people seeking muscle growth (source). Body weight options, dumbbell options, and resistance band options. For the upper body workouts you will be training your chest, back, shoulders, biceps, and triceps to some degree. Or what order to do them in? If so, you’ve come to the right place. This four-week upper-body program is designed to build muscle mass, making you stronger and more powerful. Lie on an incline bench holding a dumbbell in each hand above your face, with your palms facing and a slight bend in your elbows. Hold a bar using a shoulder-width underhand grip, hands just outside your legs. In this guide, I’m going to tell you everything you need to know to design an effective upper body workout, and I’ll include 5 sample workouts of my own for you to use. Start in a press-up position but with your thumbs and index fingers touching to form a diamond. For example: Now that you know the types of exercises an upper body workout should include, the next thing we need to figure out is how many exercises we should include from each category, and how many sets and reps should be done for each. It’s 100% free. The beginner upper body focused workout will be used to build stability and condition the body to be able to perform more advanced upper body workouts in future phases. There are plenty of different ways to approach this, but I want to show you the steps I take whenever I design an upper body workout for myself or someone else. This would be scheduled throughout the week using an upper/lower split.