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Training for upper body strength



A simple workout brings you psychological and health benefits

exercise, upper body, equipment, home


Women find strength training gives them the ability to perform tasks that give them increased independence, while preventing osteoporosis, improving posture, and relieving pressure on the joints. If going to a gym takes too much time and/or the pandemic makes you want to limit activities outside the home, try these simple exercises for upper body strength, described in more detail on Healthline.com.

Equipment

You'll need a few pieces of equipment:

  1. an exercise mat
  2. several resistance bands of different strengths
  3. two or three sets of dumbbells of different weights

Warm-up

Prepare yourself with a few warm-up exercises. Walking or jogging in place are good ways to stimulate blood circulation. To wake up the muscles you'll be working on, do a series of arm circles and movements that twist your spine. The American Council on Exercise has stated that you need about 8 to 12 minutes for a good warm-up.

Then you can move on to a series of exercises targeting different parts of the upper body. In all cases, it's important to prevent injury by keeping your abdominal muscles engaged, maintaining correct posture and form, and stopping if you feel pain, other than the normal ache of a workout. For each exercise, start with a small number of repetitions and work up to several sets of 10 to 15 repetitions.

READ MORE: 7 healthy habits for fall fitness

Arm exercises

Begin with dumbbell curls, sitting up straight, arms at your side, curling a pair of dumbbells up towards your shoulders.

The triceps dip is like a backwards push-up, in which your hands are behind you on the edge of a sturdy chair, and you lower your body down towards the floor and back up.

Back exercises

For the resistance band pull, stand up, grab a stretchy band with both hands out in front of you, and pull your hands out to the side.

Wall angels are like snow angels, in which you lean your back flat against a wall, knees bent, and stroke your arms up and down against the wall.

Shoulder exercises

In the deltoid dumbbell raise, stand with feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent. Raise dumbbells out to the side to shoulder height and then back down.

Consult Healthline.com for tips on proper form and for more exercises in each category.



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