Upper Body Exercise List
Hey San Antonio,
I made a huge mistake and fell asleep way too early on the couch this evening, so now I’m rather awake at 2:30am! So why not update the blog, eh?
As promised, here is a list of upper body exercises broken down by each body part. This list isn’t all inclusive, but it is a good list for exercise ideas. With that being said, read back through some of my training articles – you will see that I recommend building your routine around compound exercises and using much fewer isolation exercises.
Just because an exercise isn’t on this list doesn’t mean I don’t believe it should be used. Remember, it is 2:30, and I’m just wanting to name a few per body part, not list every exercise I know. One thing I am not a huge fan of is obliterating a muscle group from every angle. I think people would be much better served with keeping the number of exercises they do at a decently low number and focus on intensity on those exercises.
WHY do we do particular exercises? Well, there are 2 reasons. Some (bench presses, dead lifts, squats, etc) are done to simply overload the body and force muscles to grow (as I always state, this is the goal during fat loss as well). Now, muscles have only two states – they grow or they go away. There’s no toning, firming, or hardening. No sculpting or shaping. The other reason we choose some exercises is for functionality purposes, either to improve coordination in a part of a major exercise, or to strengthen a group of muscles that may be used to stabilize during another exercise.
So, here’s a list of my favorite exercises. I’ll be listing exercises under their primary muscles worked (note, I do think heavy bench pressing is paramount for increased tricep growth, FYI :D). Proper form is ALWAYS a must.
Chest
Flat barbell bench press
Incline BB bench press
Flat dumbbell bench press
Incline db bench press
Decline bench press (either bb or db)
Dips
Cable and DB Flyes (various angles)
Upper Back
Dead lifts
Pull Ups (and chin ups)
Bent BB Rows
Rack Chin Ups
Pull downs
Seated Rows
DB Rows
Deltoids (shoulders)
Military Press (standing/sitting/db)
Push Press
Lateral Raises (medial)
Front Raises (anterior)
Rear DB Flyes (posterior)
Trapezius
-I want to qualify something here. For some odd reason, people like to include this muscle group (aka the “traps” as part of the shoulders. The trapezius is a huge kite shaped muscle in the upper back and is not part of the delts). With that being said, it is hit quite a bit with heavy pulling exercises (especially dead lifts).
Face pulls
Upright Rows
Triceps
Reverse Grip Bench Press
Close Grip bench press
Bench dips
Skull Crushers
Overhead Tricep Extension (db/bb/rope-cable)
Tricep Cable Pressdown
Biceps
BB Curl
DB Curl (seated/standing/incline – many variations)
Preacher Curls
Cable Curls
Again, this list isn’t all inclusive, but it is more than enough to give you a few ideas for exercises. I left out many popular machines, but that was because not everyone reading this has access to them. If you’re unclear on how to do these exercise, there are numerous videos floating around youtube. Of course, many of the individuals may or may not be performing the exercises with correct form, so don’t hesitate to drop me a line with a URL to the video, and I’ll take a look at it!
Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
North San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Road
210.391.1454
