Anyone have a really good upper body written workout?

[akaAnnie]

Does anyone have an effective upper body workout that is written and not dvd?

[beatchica]

I got this book awhile back.

Totally Toned Arms: Get Michelle Obama Arms in 21 Days
http://www.amazon.com/Totally-Toned-.../dp/0446563358

As a personal trainer I am pretty picky about what training material I purchase. But I thought this was a pretty good little book on how to get toned arms.

The one really nice thing about it is the exercises are laid out so you can do them at home or in the gym.

The one con is the pictures could be a bit better, you may need to look up some of the exercise on youtube to see exactly how to perform them.

[akaAnnie]

Thanks beatchica! I looked at the reviews on amazon and one mentioned problems with form instructions-for a squat? Is this a total body workout? I was just looking for arms.

[beatchica]

The books main focus is on arms, but it also uses some full body exercises along with intervals to help burn the extra "fluff" so that your arm muscles are visible. *** This is actually what I like BEST about this book as it takes a very balanced approach to toning the arms...

This may sound strange but arms are like abs in the sense that what makes someone's arms look cut is having a ratio of 40% muscle and 60% low body fat.

Example, I am small, 5 ft and 113 pounds. I have been working out consistently for years so I have a lot of muscle on my arms, my body type is compact vs. petite. Because I am not petite I have to work very hard to get my body fat down into the 18% range before my arms really look defined. This is easier to do in the summer, however in the winter my body fat is around 20% and my arms just look more or less normal as you cannot see the muscle.

On the other hand I have clients that are petite and of thinner body types naturally, i.e. 5 feet 4 inches and 116. These ladies often start out with very little actual muscle, but because they have the advantage being thinner body types with naturally low body fat, after about two weeks of normal full body workouts their arm muscles look extremely defined.

OK, so back to the book, the one thing that this workout will do for most people regardless of body type is tighten the arms and make them less jiggly. But getting cut looking arms has a lot to do with genetics, so don't get discouraged.

Hope this helps.

[Kyra]

If you're looking for upper body work, you could follow a very generic template of doing a horizontal push exercise, a horizontal pull exercise, a vertical push exercise, and the a vertical pull exercise. Sets and reps would be dependent on your goals/time constraints. Do some exercises unilaterally (i.e., one arm at a time) and some bilaterally (both arms at a time) - for example, standing one-arm db press would be a unilateral vertical push, and a standing military press (bb) would be a bilateral vertical push. Use your imagination/what you know, and the supply of workouts is endless. Add on some core work, and you have a decent workout.

[Joni O]

I just bought the Womens Health Big Book of Exercises and made a list of exercises I'd like to use in a routine. The rotation I looked at said to choose one exercise per body part (i.e., biceps, triceps, shoulders, back, chest). I haven't started the rotation yet, but I like the book.

Now I'm tempted to get the Michelle Obama arms book. One of the fitness magazines actually published her workout a while back. I assume the book is only using her as an example of someone with nice arms, and that it doesn't include her actual routine.

I totally agree with beatchica. Maybe I have Michelle Obama arms already, but I can't see them under the fat :-)

[Joni O]

Okay, I don't like books that don't let me 'look inside' at Amazon so I didn't get the Michelle Obama one. I read what was available on this one, and just bought the Kindle editiion. So, I'll be reading it when I get home from work today. The author sounds like fun, too. It seems like it might be a little to 'diety,' but we'll see.

http://www.amazon.com/Six-Weeks-Slee...xgy_b_text_b#_

[Breezy Trousers]

Out of everything I've done over the years --

Joyce Vedral's weight training routine in her book, 'Weight Training Made Easy," gave me an incredibly buff upper body back in 1998. I still use a variation of it when I want to get my upper body defined.

[Mary09(b)]

I have a feeling push-ups alone would be great. And push-ups and pull-ups would be fabulous.

[Hej]

Originally Posted by Breezy Trousers

Out of everything I've done over the years --

Joyce Vedral's weight training routine in her book, 'Weight Training Made Easy," gave me an incredibly buff upper body back in 1998. I still use a variation of it when I want to get my upper body defined.

I've also found I've gotten the best results ever from Joyce Vedral's workouts. I like Bottoms Up, Fast Forward, and Fat Burning which I believe are available as books. I borrowed these from the local city library when I was staying in Canada. From what I remember, Fat Burning is a two-day upper/lower split, but I know I've been able to adjust Bottoms Up so I could use it that way too.