The 5 best exercises for upper body strength that anyone can do!!
Looking to tone your upper body and look leaner? These five upper body exercises will improve your strength, and help you tone up those arms and chest. The best part is you can even do most of these at home!
- Boxing
Boxing is a great cardio workout, works your entire body, but it also really tones up your upper body. The resistance provides similar benefits to strength training and weight lifting. Boxing will help you get toned shoulders, build your arm strength and is great for fat-burning too with the added endurance training!
- Push Up to Plank
For this move, you will hold a traditional plank, but then lower to a half push-up position, hold for 5 seconds or as long as you can, then go back to the original plank position. You can also modify and do this on your knees as well.
- Tricep Dips
Tricep dips are easy to do at home. You can either do them on the floor, the edge of a sturdy chair or a step/bench. Just be sure that you are creating a bend in your elbow, rather than moving your hips up and down. Your goal is to have your arms at a 90 degree angle, and then push up through your palms, engaging the back of your arms. Your triceps will be on fire!
- Bicep Curls
If you have dumbbells, you can use them for your bicep curls. I like to do about 10-15 reps, doing one arm at a time to keep an eye on my form and not swing! Start with your arm by your side, then curl the dumbbell up towards your shoulder, keeping palm up the entire time. Then lower SLOWLY – this is where you build up strength! If you don’t have dumbbells and are doing these at home, you can use a shopping bag full of tins of veg.
- Push-ups
Not everyone loves push-ups, but they are one of the best moves for building strength, because they work your entire upper body. They even work your core in the plank position, so push-ups are a win win. If you need to modify, I would recommend doing them on your knees. You could even try a hand release push up to really help get the most benefit out of them!
If you’re unsure if your form is good, jump onto YouTube and watch a few videos – it really helps to hear how different people word or demonstrate the same exercise.
What’s your favourite upper body exercise? I’d love to know! Share your favourites in the comments below.