A well defined upper body is something mostly all women would love to attain. There is, however, a specific way of training that would benefit women with these goals. Women will generally seek a toned and lightly defined upper body with heavy emphasis on developing the shoulders and arms. They are not looking for a mass building workout. That is why heavy barbell and dumbbell lifting should be avoided by those looking to define and tone the arms and shoulders. What exercises should they do? Here are some of the most well recommended ones:
The basic pushup is a must. The pushup is the main upper body workout that can be performed without weights. It stresses the arms, chest, and shoulder region. For toning, it is important not to try and perform high repetitions of pushups since this will yield mass building. Instead, 3 sets of 10 – 15 reps are fine. Also, it would not hurt to perform a number of variations such as performing the reps in an extremely slow manner. This will turn the pushup session into a shock to the muscles
Isometric exercises can tone the arms and shoulders. Isometric exercises involve pushing into a stationary object in order to create resistance that builds muscle tone. A common, simple example of this would be placing your fist into an open palm in front of your chest. Press in with the fist and hold the palm steady. You will soon notice your muscle “bulging” from the tension. Hold the pose for 15 seconds. Perform several sets of it. This will definitely help define your arms and shoulders in a short period of time.
Light dumbbell exercises. By light, it is best to use 5lbs and less per dumbbell and perform a lot of high reps. Basic arm exercises such as curls and shoulder exercises such as presses could be performed. Again, the volume of the reps should be very high. 15 – 20. This will lead to defined and toned lean muscle as opposed to bulk.
Boxing workouts are great for the arms and shoulders. Some may find this surprising, but it really should not be. After all, have you ever seen a boxer that did not have ripped arms and shoulders? Remember, the biceps, triceps, forearms, and deltoids are constantly at work in a boxing workout. Now, does this mean you have to hit the heavy bag? No, you do not have to. You could always just shadow box or perform cardio boxing routines. The closer to a legitimate boxing workout you are, the better your results will be. However, a lower impact cardio boxing workout will deliver many of the same results.
Yes, it can be fairly easy for someone who is dedicated to attaining well defined arms and shoulders to achieve such results. Women who engage in the aforementioned exercises will certainly discover their goals becoming fairly easy to attain. And there is good reason for this: these exercises work!
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