Following a workout program is one of the most important things you can do for improving your overall health and fitness level. But, sometimes your workout program needs to help you reach specific fitness goals. For example, a common goal is improving upper body strength or improving muscle tone in the arms. To reach these goals, you must schedule a specific workout program that targets the various muscles and movement patterns for increasing strength and lean muscle.
Step 1
Schedule the number of days per week you can dedicate for a workout. Factors to consider include personal, family and work obligations. The goal should be to reach four to five workouts per week, but two to three is sufficient if you have time restrictions. A sample week that includes three upper body workouts mixed with one leg workout is performed with chest and triceps on day one, back and biceps on day two, rest on day three and shoulders on day four, before finishing with a leg day and rest day.
Step 2
Plan at least two rest days per week. These built-in rest days allow your muscles, joints and tendons to repair between workouts to decrease injury potential. Incorporate the rest days into your workout schedule after two to three consecutive days of strength training workouts.
Step 3
Choose two different compound exercises for each major muscle group in the upper body. Compound exercises are characterized by movements that include two or more joints or muscle groups. Sample compound chest exercises include the bench press or pushups with rows, cable pulldown or pullups as compound back exercises. Use the shoulder press for a shoulder workout, close-grip chinups for biceps and close-grip bench press for triceps.
Step 4
Add two to four isolation supplementary exercises for each workout according to your fitness goals. Isolation movements are single-joint movements that concentrate on one muscle group. For example, dumbbell flies or cable crossovers are isolation chest exercises, while triceps pushdown concentrates the triceps and biceps curls concentrate the biceps.
Step 5
Perform the exercises and workout cycle for two to three weeks before making minor adjustments to the exercises. For example, adjust the bench press angle to an incline press or biceps curl exercises to a dumbbell hammer curl. These small adjustments recruit different muscle fibers to improve upper body strength and muscle mass.
Step 6
Build upper body circuits to save time while burning excess body fat. An upper body circuit is performed by combining multiple exercises where you perform a specific number of repetitions of each exercise in sequence with little to no rest in between sets. For example, a complete upper body workout may start with 10 repetitions on the bench press, followed with 10 repetitions of each on pullups, dips and pushups, and repeated for a total of three to five rounds.
Step 7
Change the workout routine completely after six weeks. Your body slowly adapts to the exercises and workout routine during the six weeks, and making changes prevents a training plateau that promotes consistent improvements to your upper body strength and fitness.
Things You'll Need
- Dumbbells
- Barbells
References
- Bodybuilding.com; Beginner's Bodybuilding Program; Matt Danielsson
- Muscle and Fitness; Gone in 30 Minutes; Joe Wuebben and Jimmy Peña
- Muscle and Fitness; Upper Body Advice From Fitness Pro Aleksandra Kobielak; Lara McGlashan
- Bodybuilding.com; Randy's Quick-Start 7-Day Training Routine; Randy Herring
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