Upper body weight training exercises

That girl with a dragon tattoo and amazingly muscular arms. I can never forget her.

There was a girl I saw some years ago in some dance party. She was wearing a backless dress. All of the muscles around her shoulder joints were separately visible. Each muscle had a lean, shapely definition. I was awe-struck. The time was around my cousin’s marriage when I was working hard to define my upper body muscles and abs to flaunt them in a saree. Over time, I did manage to get lean and muscular arms, back and upper chest, but it always lasted for just a few days.

A few days ago, a friend of mine, who has started a new venture called PATANG (online saree store), asked me for some workout plans for a saree body. As she asked, I was instantly reminded of that girl with the dragon tattoo. Fortunately, now I can figure out what her upper body workout plan must have been like.

The main upper body joint is the shoulder joint. Good upper body training means training all the muscles around both the shoulder joints equally. Check out the diagrams below:

There are triceps, biceps, anterior, posterior and medial deltoids. There are upper, middle and lower traps, the lats muscles also insert at the shoulder joint. There are pectoralis, the chest muscles. There are rotator cuff muscles.

So to train the upper body we have to train all of these muscles. This will keep the shoulder joint strongly located at the right position with each muscle taking its own definition. Check out the clear muscle definition of arm muscles of the girl in this picture.

Here go the exercises. Use at least 5 kg dumbbells. This is more of a isolated exercise plan.

Move from bigger to smaller muscles.

Do some warm-up and stretching first. Pick up the compound exercises from below to do the warm-up. Do them with weights lighter that you use in your main workout.

For all of them do at least 15 reps, 2 sets. Do 1 quick and one slow. Feel your muscles.

1. Chest/pectoralis: Push ups and Chest Press

Use this in warm up too:

http://youtu.be/OVYv6ZnLVRM

2. Pull Over: Lats

http://youtu.be/jSYJkzRKW3U

3. Upper Traps: Shrugs

http://youtu.be/g6qbq4Lf1FI

4. Lower and Middle Traps: Upright Rowing

In the video, barbell is used. You can use dumbbells too.

http://youtu.be/nIJGvsdNtFE

5. Medial Deltoids: Lateral Raises