Thinking of upgrading your strength workouts but don’t know where to start? Well the first thing you can do is to start splitting your strength sessions so rather than doing a full body strength session twice a week, you can start to have an upper body focused session and a lower body focused session. This will allow you to develop your strength further and get in more exercises for the upper or lower body.
This upper body strength workout is full of exercises that can be done either at home or in the gym- all you need is a set of dumbbells and your good to go!
The exercises
Back extension
Lie face down on your matt with your hands at your temples. Use your back muscles to lift your head and chest off the floor as high as you can while keeping your feet in contact with the floor. Lower the upper body back to the floor nice and slowly with control.
Press up/floor press
Start in a high plank position (hands on the floor, underneath the shoulders, with the arms straight. You can either be on your feet or on your knees depending on your fitness level) from here, bend the elbows and lower your chest towards the surface, keeping it nice and controlled, then breath out and push yourself back up to the starting position.
Walkouts
Start standing, bend at the hips (and knees if you need to, depending on your flexibility) until your hands reach the floor. Walk the hands forward until you are in a full plank position, then walk yourself back to standing- and repeat.
Bent Over Row
Stand with your feet slightly apart with a dumbbell in each hand. Bend at the hips, lowering your chest while keeping your back straight and your core engaged. Draw the elbows backward, keeping them close to the body, moving the weights along the upper leg to just above the hips (think pockets) then control back down and repeat.
Prone fly
For this you are going to need a lighter weight as the muscles we are targeting are smaller. Start standing with the weights in your hands, keeping the knees soft, bend at the hips lowering your torso towards the floor. Let the weight swing forward slightly. For this exercise you want to keep your elbows soft (think rounded arms). You are going to open your arms (much like taking your arms from first to second in ballet), keeping them in line with the shoulders and squeezing in-between the shoulder blades. The lower with control and repeat.
Shoulder press
This exercise can be performed standing, sitting or on your knees. Start with a dumbbell in each hand and engaging your core, bring your arms up to a staple position (out to the side with the elbows bent, hands pointed to the sky and upper arm in line with the shoulders). Then drive the dumbbells up and toward the centre above your head.
Perform each of these exercises for 10 repetitions, either for 3-4 sets before moving on to the next exercises or as a circuit performing 1 set of every exercises then going onto a second set.
Enjoy!
