While it is important to tone up your legs, doing upper body exercises are equally important as they help in adding muscle size as well as strength to the upper body. Performing upper body exercises also helps in boosting posture and preventing joint pain. For maximum benefit, upper body exercises should be performed in the form of a circuit, as it helps in burning high amounts of calories as well as strengthen muscles. Given below is an effective upper body workout for women.
5 Upper Body Workout for Women
Workout for Arms
Women should focus on training arm muscles using high reps and medium weight. You should use a weight that will allow you to perform only 15 repetitions. The best exercises for arms include barbell curl, dumbbell curl, hammer curls, tricep dips, diamond push-ups and lying extensions.
If you do not have a set of dumbbells or barbell, you could easily train your arms using dips and reverse grip pull-ups, as this is the only bodyweight exercise that completely isolates the bicep muscle. Initially, it is highly recommended that you use very light weight to get accustomed to the movement. You should perform 3 sets of bicep exercises and 5 sets of tricep exercises.
Workout for Chest
Women can easily workout the chest muscles by using bodyweight as well as weight training exercises. Some of the best bodyweight exercises for chest include dips and push-ups. However, if you have a pair of dumbbells or barbell, you could perform a number of chest exercises such as flat bench press, incline bench press and decline bench press.
You could also perform dumbbell flies by adjusting the bench to incline, flat or decline. You should use extremely light weights when performing dumbbell flies, as using heavy weight might increase the risk of shoulder injury. You should aim at performing 7-9 sets of exercises for chest muscles for 12-15 reps.
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Workout for Back Muscles
Back muscles are large muscle group and require enough resistance to grow. Therefore, it is important to train back muscles using 12 sets of a number of exercises. The best exercises for back muscles include bent-over rows, pull-ups, upright rows, seated cable rows and pull-downs.
You should perform these exercises using medium weight for 3-4 sets each for 12 reps. It is important that you warm-up your muscles prior to exercising, to prevent any injury.
Workout for Shoulders
Shoulder exercises are extremely important as they help in improving posture and strength. Women should focus on using light weights for high reps. The best exercises for shoulder muscles include seated dumbbell press, seated barbell press, dumbbell lateral raises, front raises and rear delt raises.
It is imperative that you use very light weight to warm-up properly, as the shoulder joint is most susceptible to injury. In total, you should perform 8-10 sets for shoulders, containing 12-15 reps.
Considerations
If you have never worked out before, it is important that you seek approval of your physician before following any fitness plan. In addition to that, it is highly recommended that you train with light weights initially and lift heavier weights as you progress.
