Best Upper Body Home Workout Program

If you don't have a gym membership but still want to get a bigger upper body, this is the article for you. I will go over each body part and list a workout that can be done at home to build muscle mass and tone. The muscle groups are: Chest, Back, Shoulders, Biceps and Triceps. Without further adieu...

When someone thinks about an upper body muscle area, they think of the chest. If developed right it can be a very impressive place to have muscle mass. The best workout that can be done at your home for the chest would be the push-up. It is a simple exercise that can work wonders on your chest, triceps, and shoulders.

Push-ups

• Place your hands on the floor a little more than shoulder width apart.
• Straighten your arms, get off your knees, and make your body as straight as possible. Tighten your glutes and keep your midsection stimulated.
• Bend your elbows, slowing lowering yourself to the ground.
• Push your body back up to the starting position. You should feel your chest and shoulder muscles working to push you up.

Once doing 5 sets of 20 is to easy for you, I would recommend doing clap push-ups to add explosive power to your chest. Plus who doesn't want to be able to say they can do 20 clap push-ups?

The back is a severely under-focused area in many home programs. The reason is that other than pull-ups, there isn't a whole lot you can do at home. Well I'm here to bring an exercise you might have thought couldn't be done at home. But first, the big exercise.

Pull-ups

Pull-ups are the most popular back exercise, and can fit nicely into a home workout program. All you need is a bar that will support you and you're good to go! They are an amazing way to add size and shape to your back, and can also target the wrists and biceps if done as a chin-up.

• Grip the bar with your hands slightly more than shoulder width apart. If you're doing chin-ups, have your palms facing you. For pull-ups, have your palms facing away.
• Pull yourself up at least to your chin, making sure to contract the lats. An easy way to do this is by trying to touch your elbows to your ribs while keeping your back involved. This will keep your form strict, and help build your back and lats.

Bent Over Rows

This is the surprise exercise I was talking about earlier. It's a great way to add mass to the places the pull-ups don't hit. Now, you might not have a barbell or even dumbbells at home to do bent over rows with, but don't worry. A quick stop at Home Depot or Lowe's can help. Pick up a 50 pound bag of sand for roughly $5 and dump it into a sturdy trash bag, double bag if needed. For beginners I recommend splitting the bag in half to a manageable 25 pounds.

Bunch up the top of the trash bag and duct tape it secure. You will use the bunched up area as a handle. Grab a chair and post one hand on it. Use your other hand to grab the bag. Now bend over while keeping your back straight, and pull the weight up to you. You should really feel the contraction in your back, if you're feeling it in your biceps more try thinking of your arms as hooks. Keep them how they are while using your back to move the weight.

Wide shoulders really send a message that you take good care of your body. They are also very tricky to train well. Shoulders are used in most exercises, including push-ups and pull-ups, so it's a good idea to let them rest a bit before going on with the workout.

Inverted Shoulder Press

The inverted shoulder press is a personal favorite of mine for its simplicity. Doing an inverted shoulder press is basically the idea when people do "decline push-ups". Instead of messing around with a push-up that partially works the shoulders, why not do a workout that focuses on them? All you need is the chair you used for bent over rows.

• Put your feet up on the chair, with your butt sticking up in the air.
• Post your hands a bit more than shoulder width apart and only slightly ahead of your face.
• Lower yourself down almost like a push-up, until your head is only an inch or two above the ground and push back up.

If you feel like your doing it wrong, think of it like an assisted handstand. Now add a "push-up" to the handstand and you have an inverted shoulder press.

When you think of an exercise for working the biceps, you probably think of a bicep curl. Whether it's with a barbell or dumbbell, the bicep curl is a favorite among lifters around the world. It's one of the most popular exercises to do, and that's because of how well it works.

Bicep Curl

We're going to be using the bags of sand from the bent over rows for this. Grip the bunched up "handles" and curl away, making sure to keep your elbows near your side. If you put your elbows out when you do curls, it takes some of the work off the biceps and onto the shoulders. The trash bags filled with sand make excellent dumbbells because of the oddly shaped handles. It makes your forearms work harder to hold on.

Close Grip Push-ups

While triceps are hard to train at home unless you have a dipping area, they aren't impossible. A good way to build triceps at home is with the close grip push-ups. This is the home version of close grip bench press.

• Place your hands directly under your shoulders.
• Lower yourself down by bending your elbows while keeping them tucked close to your body.
• Push back up, making sure to keep your elbows near your body the whole time.

Laying Tricep Extensions

Another great exercise for the triceps at home is the tricep extension. Use the trash bags you made for these.

• Lay down on a row of chairs with the trash bags in hand, with your hands behind and below your head. You want them to be pretty close the the back of your head.
• Push the trash bags up from behind your head, keeping your elbows in the same place.
• At the top of the rep, your arms should be pretty close to a 170 degree.

Follow this program to build and you won't be disappointed. It hits every major upper body muscle group in the most effective way possible. I would recommend 5 sets of 20 for the beginner / intermediate on the push-ups. Then 3 sets to failure on the pull-ups followed by 3 sets of 10 reps with the bent over rows. For shoulders, biceps, and triceps I would go with 3 sets of 10 reps also.

The number of sets and reps posted above are the basic guideline set / reps numbers, but everyone's bodies are different. Go see what works for you.