Building upper body muscle is one of the most common goals of men who work-out. Why? Is it because women love a man with a nice body? Is it because men just feel the need to be strong? Or do men just like the way they look when they start building upper body muscle? The reasons vary from person to person.
As your Coquitlam fitness trainer, my goal in this article is to provide the information to those of you who are building upper body muscle or to those of you who plan on it. I want to simply list the best exercises to build muscle fast! These exercises should not be left out of your regimen if you are serious about gaining muscle quickly. I’m sure all those pretty machines look nice inside your gym but I’m sorry, they didn’t make my list!
DEADLIFTS
I know you don’t like the fact that I put Deadlifts as my first exercise in building the upper body. But Deads build everything for us at Coquitlam fitness training! It’s primarily a back and thigh/glute/hip/posterior chain exercise, but it hit other muscles hard like your shoulders, traps, biceps, and forearms. The mere fact that this exercise promotes the release of growth hormone is a good enough reason to have this exercise on the list.
PARALLEL BAR DIPS
Great for building size and strength in the chest, shoulders and triceps. It also works what are known as stabilizer muscles because that’s what you use to balance yourself on the bar. Something else that makes this move great is that you can add weight if you have a chain that holds plates which goes around your hips and the weight hangs down between your legs.
Jump up on the bar and grab it at about shoulder width. Lean forward slightly, lower your body until you reach a 90 degree angle between your arms and your upper body. Push back up hard but don’t lock your elbows.
CHIN UPS
I know you hate doing these, but that’s why they are so effective. I love Chin ups! They are great for building big biceps and it builds up your lats aka your ‘wings’.
Performing chin ups will incorporate a lot of muscles in the exercise. Even your abs are hit to some degree when doing chins.
Grab the chin up bar a little closer than shoulder width apart with your palms facing you. Lift yourself all the way up as far as you can and hold for a second, then with a controlled decent, lower all the way to full extension.
BENCH PRESSES
Okay of course you know this was going to be on the list. What other weight training movement could you do that would build a thick chest better than the bench press. Grab the bar a little wider than shoulder width apart. Feet on the floor. Bring the bar down under control and don’t make it bounce off your chest. Stop about an inch before it touches your chest and press it back up as forcefully as possible.
CLOSE GRIP BENCH PRESSES
This exercise really blows up your triceps! In this exercise, you sit down on the bench, grab the bar about shoulder width or slightly less, lower the bar to around nipple level and arms are parallel to your body, try to keep your elbows in comfortably, and press upward and concentrate on using your triceps for the lift. I lower the bar slower than I do when I explosively raise it! And when I get the bar in the bottom position I pause for a second. It makes a difference, you’ll feel it!