{"id":458388,"date":"2026-02-04T18:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/458388\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T18:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:36:08","slug":"the-best-upper-body-workout-to-get-jacked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/458388\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Upper-Body Workout to Get Jacked"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adopting an good upper-body workout doesn\u2019t have to mean endless hours spent toiling in the weight room<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know from research that it actually makes much more sense to do fewer movements per workout, but at a higher frequency per week,\u201d says Antony Brown, personal training leader at Life Time<\/a> in Lake Zurich, Illinois.<\/p>\n

A 2016 study<\/a> published in the journal Sports Medicine found that when subjects with the same total weekly training volume hit the weights once, twice, or three times per week, the higher-frequency groups ultimately walked away with the biggest muscle gains<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than doing a full triceps workout<\/a> or arm workout<\/a> per week\u2014which might be good for a professional bodybuilder who\u2019s in there all day, every day, and has all day to recover\u2014the recreational lifter is going to get a lot more benefit from just hitting the muscles more often over the course of a week,\u201d says Brown.<\/p>\n

“I would go with four exercises,\u201d says Matthew Accetta, MS, CSCS, exercise physiologist at HSS<\/a>, who recommends doing two push exercises and two pulls for the most balanced results\u2014one of each along a horizontal plane, like a bench press<\/a> and seated row, and one of each along a vertical plane, such as a shoulder press and chin-up.<\/p>\n

And if you have the time and want to throw in a couple of isolation exercises for extra credit, go for it! “If you had to pick four exercises to add strength and muscle to your upper body, I would do these four,\u201d says Luke Carlson, founder and CEO of Discover Strength<\/a>. \u201cThat said, including a few single-joint movements will produce more hypertrophy. For example, if you add a biceps exercise<\/a> and a triceps exercise, you’re going to increase the size and strength of those muscles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shoulder Press<\/p>\n

First up, a vertical push exercise, and it\u2019s one you\u2019ve definitely seen, and probably done, many times before. When it comes to the best shoulder exercises<\/a>, the humble shoulder press is a classic for a reason. “We’re getting the front head of the shoulder, also known as the anterior deltoid, as well as the side of the shoulder, or the medial deltoid, and we’re also involving the triceps,\u201d says Carlson. \u201cWe’re just covering so much shoulder.\u201d You can do the shoulder press from a standing or seated position. You can also choose between dumbbells or a barbell, although Carlson recommends dumbbells for comfort as well as shoulder health. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong with a barbell,\u201d he says, \u201cbut a dumbbell is just going to be more comfortable for the shoulder, because you’re going to have your upper arms at a 45-degree angle.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to do it:<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re performing the movement from a seated position, sit on a bench with back support, or an adjustable bench set to a 90-degree angle, with your feet flat on the floor.Grab a dumbbell in each hand and bring the weights up to your shoulders. Rather than having your palms facing completely forwards, you want your upper arms to be at roughly a right angle with one another. \u201cYour elbows shouldn\u2019t be pointing directly out to the sides, but they’re also not aiming directly in front of you,\u201d Carlson says. This is your starting position.Brace your core and press the dumbbells directly overhead until you lock out at the elbows.Once you\u2019ve reached the top of the rep, slowly reverse the movement with control to return to the starting position. That\u2019s one rep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adopting an good upper-body workout doesn\u2019t have to mean endless hours spent toiling in the weight room. \u201cWe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[64,63,538,137,13221],"class_list":{"0":"post-458388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fitness","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-working-out"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}