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FACT CHECKEDWhen it comes to strength training, ladies have a tendency to give the lower body the most attention. And we get it. That little black dress looks infinitely better with sculpted quads. However, it's essential to not neglect the upper body, as it too can make a sleeveless dress look phenomenal.
In fact, nothing looks better than sculpted arms, a toned chest, and a sleek back. Plus, there are numerous benefits beyond looking amazing.
It’s totally fine if the lower body is your favorite, but please don’t forget to give your upper body muscles some love too. You’ll love what happens, which is why we're showing you the best upper body workout for women, programming tips, how to perform the exercises included, and a run-down of benefits.
Table of Contents:
This workout uses bands, free weights, gym equipment, and bodyweight exercises. To ensure you get the optimal upper body volume, perform both sessions one time each week. Spread them out so your muscles have time to recover between sessions. Progressive overload each week and you will build upper body strength and muscle.
The upper body exercises can be scaled to be done at home, as long as you have resistance bands and a set or two of dumbbells. If you have lighter weights, you may need to increase the reps or slow down the tempo of the exercise.
If you are new to upper body training, don’t worry if you don’t complete every set on the first try. Work up to getting through the workout no matter what weights you are using, and progress until you can complete the required set volume.
If you are more seasoned, you can immediately focus on progressively overloading the weights weekly to achieve muscle hypertrophy with this upper body workout for females. If you didn’t quite hit the number of reps, focus on getting it next week. If you got it easily, add some weight.
You can follow this program as long as you see results. Just continue challenging yourself to progress each week. This could mean increasing your reps, sets, or weight. In addition, make sure you're also following a leg workout, so you're training your major muscle groups evenly. You may want to consider a different workout split down the road, or throw this Upper Body Dumbbell Workout into the mix, as some variety will help keep your workouts fresh and exciting.
A mix of bodyweight exercises, dumbbell and barbell moves, and gym equipment, there are plenty of versatile exercises to include in a women's upper body weight workout.
The 12 best upper body exercises for women are:
Let's go through how to perform each.
The close grip bench press is just as much for women as it is for men. In fact, it's one of our favorite exercises to include in a Triceps Workout For Women. It gets the nod over the regular bench press for its ability to build the triceps and upper chest muscles.
Close grip dumbbell bench presses are another great option if a barbell isn't available to you. This push exercise works multiple muscles, including the pecs, triceps, and anterior deltoids.
How to do the Close Grip Barbell Bench Press:
Another push exercise that gets serious results by working multiple muscles, dips build the chest, triceps, and shoulders. Make sure not to let your shoulders round forward. And once you build up your strength, switch to bodyweight dips to challenge yourself.
Doing close grip bench presses and these dips will develop some seriously sexy toned triceps, and it also saves you time by requiring you to do fewer isolation exercises.
How to do Assisted Dips:
This classic bodyweight exercise is tried and true for building the pecs, shoulders, and triceps and one of our favorite female upper body exercises. There are countless push-up variations, but this one focuses on pausing at the most challenging position to build a strong upper body.
How to do Pause Push Ups:
Our first vertical pulling motion targets the lats as well as the biceps. This is one of the top upper body exercises for women as it can also build the strength required to achieve your first chin-up.
How to do Close Grip Lat Pull Downs:
This challenging core exercise is a single-arm dumbbell row variation that hits the lats, biceps, erector spinae, and oblique sling, which includes the glutes and core muscles. It is a more advanced single-arm row, but if you start light and focus on control, you’ll progress in no time.
How to do the Bird Dog Dumbbell Row:
Not just for farmers, this exercise is as simple as it gets with an incredible upside for total body strength and beautifully toned arms. Carry heavy weights and walk. That's it. The farmer's walk will build the traps, lats, shoulders, arms, and core.
How to do the Farmer's Walk:
The Arnold press will sculpt all three heads of your delts and target the triceps, whereas a standard shoulder press mainly hits only the front and lateral heads. Go slow and controlled, as this will also help build shoulder stability.
How to do the Seated Arnold Press:
Pull-aparts are a fantastic posture-correcting exercise that targets your traps, rhomboids, and rear delts. Perform this move, and your upper back muscles will thank you.
How to do Band Pull-Aparts:
Our final upper body strength training back exercise ensures everything on the backside is strong enough to support the muscles on the front of your body. Trust us, nothing leads to a better positive body image than a strong and well-balanced upper body.
This horizontal bodyweight pull gets all the back muscles and the biceps. You can change your angle to increase the difficulty or make it easier. While we've included a TRX variation, you can also use a barbell or smith machine as well.
To perform this move with a barbell, rack the barbell at around waist level, lie under the bar, facing it. Grab it with an overhand grip, slowly lowering yourself up and down.
How to do TRX Inverted Rows:
A bicep isolation exercise we love is the incline dumbbell curl. It gets bonus points for helping strengthen the biceps to help with pulling exercises.
How to do the Incline Bench Dumbbell Biceps Curl:
This bicep exercise is perfect for an upper body strength workout and allows you to lock your body into position to avoid momentum. The concentration curl also allows you to even out each side as you work one bicep at a time.
How to do the Dumbbell Concentration Curl:
Even though the close grip bench and dips do a great job of hitting the triceps, they do not target the muscle in the overhead position. A great isolation exercise, the tricep extension ensures no head is missed when building the back of your arms. Keep your core engaged the entire time to get some ab work in as well.
How to do Standing Overhead Triceps Extensions:
The upper body includes the chest, back, shoulders, and arms. Your core is on the upper half of your body, but training it falls under the core muscles category. Your abdominal muscles will be active in many of the upper body exercises we featured in this post, but they won't be the primary focus.
Including the lats, traps, rhomboids, and erector spinae, your back muscles are essential for upper body strength, pulling movements, core stability, and good posture.
The pec major and pec minor are essential for pushing movements and a toned body, so don't neglect your chest workouts!
The delts sit on top of the arm and have three heads that control the shoulder in any direction it moves. This includes movements like pushing, pulling, shoulder rotation, and stabilizing the shoulder during lifts.
No upper body workout is complete without paying attention to the beloved arm muscles: bis and tris.
Everyone needs to train their upper body! Women who strength train and include upper body exercises in their routine have less body fat, better body composition, and more muscle1.
It’s that simple! Strength training means training your entire body as a whole. Sure, we will all have different things we like more than others, but avoiding certain body parts or whole areas will lead to serious muscle imbalances and leave progress on the table.
There is no reason to avoid performing a female upper body workout. Trust us, you will see nothing but benefits from adding it to your program.
There's no shortage of benefits when it comes to performing a women's upper body workout. Here's why upper body workouts for women are great.
Understandably, some women may worry that focusing on building muscle will lead to them being too muscular, but that's not the case. It is, in fact, tough to gain muscle. Otherwise, everyone at the gym would be jacked like Arnold.
Not only will strength training not turn you into a massive monster, but building and toning your muscles through strength training will improve your body image2. Seeing your body transform before your eyes is extremely rewarding and will help build confidence. Sounds like a great reason to start performing women's upper body workouts!
Women tend to have a higher risk of osteoporosis as they get older, and strength training has been shown to decrease this risk3. Not only does it ensure your bones are strong, but it also helps fight sarcopenia, which is the loss of muscle as you age. This is why it's essential to have a workout program that targets your entire body.
Weight lifting strengthens bones, builds muscle, and helps your body burn more calories, which is all the more reason to perform a women's upper body workout. Your body uses more calories to support muscle than it does for fat. This means you do not want to skip upper body days. Otherwise, you'll miss out on building muscle for half of your body, as well as the extra calorie burn that comes with it.
These days, almost everyone suffers from poor posture and rounded shoulders. We sit all day at work, in the car, and on the couch at home. Training your upper body will strengthen the important posture muscles that fight this and help keep you upright. Women may also appreciate upper body exercises for their breast lifting abilities.
Increasing strength in your upper body will directly increase your favorite lower body exercises like squats and deadlifts. Strong back muscles can help stabilize your upper body during these movements allowing you to lift more weight, resulting in more gains for your booty and legs. So, perform a women's upper body workout, and make bigger gains on your lower body.
It’s best to put the idea of one perfect diet out of your mind. The best practices are concepts that help guide how you are eating to help you meet your goals. Figuring out how many calories your body burns using a simple basal metabolic rate calculator is a great start.
You can increase that number by 200 to 500 calories if you are trying to build muscle or decrease it by that amount if you are trying to lean out. Don't decrease it by any more than that, or you'll have a really hard time making gains when performing women's upper body workouts.
Honesty and accountability are crucial, so track everything you eat. Start with small increases or decreases in your total and adjust by tracking what you eat during the week. It takes some trial and error, but if you are consistent, it will work. Lastly, start tracking your macronutrients and aim for .75 grams of protein per pound of body weight as a starting point.
These weight loss tips for women will also help you get (and stay) on track.
Ladies, it’s time to put this women's upper body workout to good use. No matter your starting point, remember that progressive overload is essential for muscle hypertrophy, so keep challenging yourself and getting stronger, and the results will come.
For more great upper body workouts for women, check out The Best Shoulder Workout For Women and the 12 Best Back Exercises Women Can Use to Build Muscle.
Prepare to maximize your gains with our exclusive 12-week hypertrophy training program. Choose between a 4 or 5 day training split and gain 2-12 pounds of muscle over 90 days...
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