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:
- an exercise mat
- several resistance bands of different strengths
- 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.
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.
Other articles by HVP News Reporters