5 Best Upper Body Warm-Up Exercises for Beginners

Upper body warm-up exercises should be an important part of your routine when you work with weights. Even for other bodyweight exercises, warming up is extremely important.

A good warm up activates all the muscles, especially the small ones. That makes your workout more effective and also lessens the chances of injury. Warming up before a workout also helps improve blood flow and move oxygen-rich blood to the muscles.

It helps get rid of waste products from metabolism that might make muscles sore while also improving blood flow to muscles.

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Upper Body Warm-Up Exercises

Here's a look at five such warm-up exercises:

1) Jump Rope

This upper body warm-up exercise works on the entire length of the arm, but you can modify it to suit your wrists. It can raise your heart rate and get your whole body ready for the full body coordination you need for upper body training.

Here's how you do this upper body warm-up exercise:

• Start by holding the ends of the jump rope loosely but not so loosely that it flies out of your hands.
• Hold the handles between your thumbs and index fingers as if your thumbs were resting on the side of your index finger.
• When you skip, keep your shoulders relaxed and upper body movement to a minimum.
• The rope should move from your wrists and not your shoulders or upper arms.
• Make sure to land softly on the balls of your feet each time.

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2) Cat Cow Pose

The cat cow pose wakes up the spine and improves blood flow to the spinal column. The movement improves breathing so that you can brace yourself for heavy upper body lifts - engaging the core and tuning the body into coordinating all its parts.

Here's how you do this upper body warm-up exercise:

• Start in the tabletop position, with your knees under your hips and hands under your shoulders.
• As you take a deep breath in, pull your belly button down towards the ground, and arch your back.
• Look up a little bit towards the ceiling.
• If you want to make the movement deeper, move your palms towards your feet without moving your hands.
• On your exhale, push down through your hands, and arch your back in the opposite direction, drawing your spine up towards the ceiling and tucking your tailbone down towards the ground.

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3) Scapular Slide

This warm-up exercise particularly activates the rhomboids and serratus anteriors. That helps the smaller muscles work when you lift your upper body.

Here's how you do this upper body warm-up exercise:

• Stand with your heels three to six inches away from the wall.
• Tuck your tailbone in such that the lower back reaches the wall and, if your body allows, touches it.
• Touch the back of your head to the wall, and pull your head back till you have a double chin.
• Raise your arms with your elbows bent at a 90-degree angle, and try to touch the backs of your elbows and wrists against the wall.
• Lift your arms straight up as if you were doing an overhead press.
• Do that slowly and steadily, and keep your hands on the wall.
• Slowly lower yourself while keeping your hands on the wall.

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4) Side Plank

This move uses the shoulders and triceps in an unbalanced position to warm up the upper body. It can help improve your coordination for isometric exercises.

Here's how you do this upper body warm-up exercise:

• From a push-up position, move into your right side with your forearm on the ground and elbow right under your shoulder.
• Don't tense up your shoulder, and keep it away from your right ear.
• Stack your left foot on top of your right foot, or put your left foot slightly in front of your right.
• To keep your hips from falling toward the ground, squeeze your glutes, quads, and core.
• Hold this position, and take deep breaths till the timer goes off.

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5) Band Pull-Apart

This is an excellent warm-up exercise for the upper back's smaller muscles, which are often ignored when you work out.

Here's how you do this upper body warm-up exercise:

• Hold the band in front of you using a double overhand grip, with your hands shoulder-width apart.
• Keeping your shoulders loose and away from your ears, squeeze the glutes, and tighten the core to keep the ribcage from flaring out.
• Pull the band apart by squeezing your shoulder blades together.
• Lead with your back delts instead of pulling with your arms.
• Slowly and carefully move back to the starting position, and do it again.