My Workout - Upper Body with weights

The one thing I didn't want to do when I started a fitness plan was to invest in a lot of workout or exercise "devices" to tone up and work the various muscle groups. There are too many of them on the market and some are just too specialized to give a whole body workout.

One of my favorite TV Chefs, Alton Brown, will say the same thing about kitchen utensils, "No Uni-taskers!" Free weights like dumbbells can be used in many exercises so they are the way to go.

So I purchased a basic set of 40 lb dumbbells that have interchangeable weights. I can set them to 8, 15 and 20 lbs each and they allow me to do most toning and upper body exercises. I searched many fitness websites looking for various types of dumbbell exercises that I felt would work the muscle groups I wanted to tone up. I found that there are multiple exercises that will work the same muscles, so I tried many to find the ones I liked.

I do the following exercises in no real order.

• Flat Chest Presses
• Flat Chest Flies
• Seated Shoulder Presses
• Front Arm Raises
• Single Arm Row
• Upright Row
• Hammer Curls
• Triceps Kickbacks

I do a different amount of repetitions depending on the exercise and only two sets total with a minute rest between sets. The amount of repetitions varies as the strength of each of the muscle groups are different. The goal is to work the muscles to near exhaustion, pause, then do the second set. Over time you will increase the number of repetitions per set or even add a third set.

After a thorough upper body workout you should wait a few days before repeating the workout to allow the muscles to rebuild. Perform a good cardio workout or work the lower body over the next day or so and repeat the upper body after two or three days.

The website www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/dumbbellexercises.html helped me by not only explaining the various exercises for the different muscle groups, but by providing an animated picture showing how to do each exercise.