Vote in This Week's Poll: What's Your Favorite Upper Body Exercise?
Wednesday July 5, 2006
The great thing about training the upper body is that there are tons of choices for working each muscle group. The bad thing is that there seem to be a lot of muscles in the upper body and, if you're like me, you have your favorites and your not-so-favorites.
This week's poll asks you about your favorite upper body exercises. I've included standard moves for the major upper body muscles, but feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section.
Poll: What's Your Favorite Upper Body Exercise?
1. Pushups
2. Overhead shoulder press
3. Bicep curls
4. Lat pulldowns
5. Tricep kickbacks
6. Other
Comments
wheres the bench press?
“PUSHUPS” . pushups incorporate more muscles than any other single upper body exercise when done properly.
there aren’t ehough choices!! this voting pole is bias!
You need to look into the kettle bell. It does put into play every muscle group if worked properly. This with your pushups and pullups is all you need.
I couldn’t include every exercise in the poll…that’s why there’s an ‘Other’ choice, so please use that and let us know in comments about your favorite move.
If you are serious about strength exercise
” bench press ” is necessary . You can expect totally different results with “pushups” and “pullups “
I think pushups are great because you don’t have to have any equipment to do them and you get a great overall workout.
Actually, I hate pushups and can barely do 20 of them, BUT they’re the most effective, and some day (soon!) I will easily do 40.
POLE DANCING!! Swear by it. I have never had a better looking, stronger upper body even when I was doing all the “other” exercises combined…Pole Dance for FITNESS rules. I can even do chin ups now!
I do 2 sets each of #’s 1, 2 & 3 plus bench presses and a coouple of others 3 times a week. (Hey, I’m 66!) But bu far the best routine I have ever found for upper body is a 20 minute Yoga routine by Rodney Yee called “Yoga for Strength”. Talk about extreme, multiple pushups. . .phew!
Pullovers, either straight arm or bent arm have always been my favorite upper body exercise. Not only do they give you excellent definition of the chest and rib cage, they also give a wonderful stretch of the upper body. Of course you need a bench and some weight to do it unless you have a Total Gym type exercise unit.
Incline bench press and pullovers!
I don’t know what it is called, but it cured my 4 year left shoulder soreness when I realized my muscles were seriously unbalanced. Lie on your side & lift a weight from the ground to straight up–using a straight arm.
Pushups and incline bench press , pulls up/chin up and lat pulldown.
These four are main exercises I do for upper body.
What about triceps crossover bench dip? It’s one of my favorites.
Bent over row -
to draw shoulders back
Pushups and lat pulldowns… dudes, that’s just sucky. Overhead press is the king of skill, it symbolizes what mankind is all about.
Keith: Wrong. How much ‘muscle’ something uses is rather interpretable. The only thing that matters is weight, and how transferable it is to other things.
Steven: You can do some of these with kettlebells, it’s asking what is the best exercise, not exercise tool.
Terry: Anything that can be done with a bench press can be done with pushups, probably more in fact…
Tamara: Poledancing kicks ass, yes, but it’s not AN exercise, it’s an artform, one that requires a lot of strength, sure, but not an actual fitness exercise. Kind of like how Capoeira or Rock Climbing or Gymnastics are insane strength-sports but aren’t strength exercises.
Fran: that sounds like a good idea. Have you heard of the Turkish Getup? I like the idea of exercises done in a variety of ways on the ground besides standing, pushing with hands, or on one’s back.
Peg O: you won’t get much weight that way, and you’ll tire your back out (save that for deadlifts and good mornings) instead do the rows lying on your chest on a bench. It will build strong chest tension too!