For all you guys who LOVE to train your upper body, we have the ultimate upper body muscle-building workout for you!
This is an upper body workout routine that I performed to train for my first fitness modeling shoot – and helped me build up my upper body in a really short amount of time.
This workout routine will build the thickness and width of the upper body, as you will be working your chest, shoulders, and traps. Working out these 3 large upper body muscle groups together will help you accelerate your anabolic muscle building hormones and give you an incredible upper body pump.
A lot of skinny guys put a huge emphasis on their arms – but need to be training the larger chest, shoulder and trap muscle groups to balance out their physique. Putting an emphasis on your chest, shoulders and traps will give you an incredible looking physique. Nothing looks more aesthetic and impressive than a very lean guy with well-developed pectorals, large and shaped trap muscles with muscular shoulders.
I have always put a huge emphasis on these muscle groups – and I think its one of the main reasons that my physique appears more “aesthetic” than most.
Lets talk about each exercise in this workout routine – and discuss how to get the most benefit from it.
Exercise #1: Dumbbell Bench Press
- Sets: 3
- Repetitions: 12, 10, 8
- Rest Time: 120 seconds
This is my favorite chest exercise because the instability of the dumbbell will force the smaller surrounding muscle groups to work as well. This one puts a huge emphasis on your chest and also the front deltoid. You should be able to put a huge amount of overload on the pectorals from this movement as well, which will accelerate muscle growth.
Just like the bench press, you should be pushing yourself to failure on this exercise and going heavy. The key to really accelerating muscle growth with this exercise is to control the weight with your pectoral muscles throughout the entire movement. This means lowering the weight in a slow and controlled manner, and exploding the weight through gravity on your way up.
I like to perform a 1-3 pace with this exercise. What this means is that it will take me about 1 second to lift the weight up, and about 3 seconds to lower the weight. Most of the muscle damage occurs when you are lowering the weight, so make sure to keep it slow and controlled throughout.
Exercise #2: Barbell Incline Bench Press
- Sets: 3
- Repetitions: 12, 10, 8
- Rest Time: 120 seconds
Another amazing upper body compounds exercise movement. I hope by now you are starting to get a sense of what we are trying to accomplish here. We are ONLY performing the exercises that give us the most bang for our buck – the proven maximum muscle builders! Don’t waste your energy on the shaper exercises when you are a skinny guy. You need to conserve your energy and put maximum overload on your muscles with the best compound upper body movements.
The barbell incline bench press is a regular bench press performed on an incline. This is my favorite bench press movement because it puts more emphasis on your upper pectorals and shoulders. I always like to say that a well-defined upper chest is the key to a perfect looking physique. It makes you look awesome in T-shirts and really brings your entire physique together. If you want to build upper pectoral mass you need to make sure the barbell incline bench press is in your training routine.
Exercise #3: Dumbbell Shoulder Press
- Sets: 3
- Repetitions: 12, 10, 8
- Rest Time: 90 seconds
The dumbbell shoulder press is one of the most effective exercises for building the mass of the shoulder muscle. Since the dumb bell shoulder press is done with your back parallel to the bench – your shoulders are forced to contract in a vertical position.
The seated dumb bell shoulder press is an exercise I like to go really heavy on. Your back is more supported during this movement than the standing military press, and having to control the weights throughout the movement is an incredible shoulder workout.
Make sure that you go heavy on this exercise, but you control the weight when you lower it. Remember that most of the muscle damage occurs on the way down – so get a big shoulder pump in on this one and go extra slow on your way down.
Exercise #4: Barbell Shrugs
- Sets: 3
- Repetitions: 12, 10, 8
- Rest Time: 90 Seconds
Nothing complements large boulder shoulders and a well-developed chest better than some thick trap muscles! The barbell shrug is the ultimate trap exercise – as you are able to put the maximum amount of overload on the muscle.
I love performing the barbell shrug after I do a shoulder exercise because this one will also work your shoulders indirectly. That is why we have you performing the barbell shrug directly after the dumb bell shoulder press.
Another tip for this exercise is to use weight lifting straps. This will allow you to lift more weight on the barbell shrug. Most people have much stronger trap muscles than they do grip strength – so in order to put the maximum amount of overload on the trap muscle during the barbell shrug you should perform the movement with weight lifting straps. You can pick up a pair at your local sports store for around 10 dollars.
Exercise #5: Standing Military Press
- Sets: 3
- Repetitions: 12, 10, 8
- Rest Time: 120 seconds
To put a cap on an incredible mass building upper body workout – we have another shoulder and trap movement. The standing military press works your shoulder muscles at a slightly different angle than the dumb bell shoulder press – while also putting an emphasis on the trap muscle.
I recommend during the standing military press that you keep a tight core and contract your abs throughout the movement. This will protect your lower back during the exercise and prevent you from hurting yourself.
Make sure to lower the weight in a slow and controlled manner in front of your face and tap your upper chest. This one should blast your shoulders and put a grand finale on a great muscle-building workout.
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