The Best Upper Body Workout Routine And Exercises

Looking for the best upper body workout routine? Wondering which exercises to do? Or what order to do them in? Or how many sets/reps to do for each? If so, you’ve come to the right place. In this guide, I’m going to tell you everything you need to know to design an effective body workout, and I’ll include 5 sample workouts of my own for you to use.

The Optimal Amount Of Volume

10-20 sets per week per muscle group is best for most people, with the low end likely being ideal for beginners, the high end for the advanced, and somewhere in between for intermediates/everyone else.

Secondary volume – which we’ll define as the volume secondary muscle groups receive while training primary muscle groups – counts towards these numbers.

Vertical Pushing Exercises

The weight is being pushed upwards in relation to your torso in a vertical plane.

How Many Total Sets And Exercises Should You Do?

The next thing we need to figure out is how many exercises we should include from each category, and how many sets and reps should be done for each

This is all collectively known as volume
When designing a workout routine, the goal is to do an optimal amount of volume for each body part/movement pattern

Other

Depending on the specific needs of the person, there may be some other stuff added.

Shoulders

The one shoulder exercise you choose will either be a vertical pushing movement (i.e. overhead press) or a “vertical raising” movement for the side delts.

Whether you choose overhead press or lateral raise is mostly dependent on what the chest exercise selection is in that same workout.

The Optimal Volume Per Upper Body Workout

Aim to do the following in each of your two upper body workouts: Chest, Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps, Chest, Back, and Shoulders

Sets per workout: Chest (5-10 sets per workout), Shoulders (2-5 sets per session), Biceps/Triceps, Back/Shoulders, Chest/Back, Shoulder, Chest

Select your goal below:

Want To Build Muscle

Build lean muscle without gaining excess body fat, spending all of your time in the gym, using a diet or workout that isn’t customized to you, or doing myth-based nonsense that only works for people with amazing genetics
I Want To Lose Fat
Jay has 15+ years of experience helping thousands of men and women lose fat, gain muscle, and build their “goal body.”

The 3-Day Upper/Lower Split

Week 1 Monday: Upper BodyTuesday: off Wednesday: Lower BodyThursday: off

Upper Body
Off Friday: off
Off Saturday: off and off Sunday: off.
The same three-day format as last week, except with lower body (upper body)

Horizontal Pushing Exercises

Any movement in which the weight is being pushed out in front of you so that it’s traveling away from your torso in a horizontal plane.

Bench Press, incline bench press, machine push-ups, dumbbell/cable/Machine Flyes

What Is an Upper Body Workout?

An upper body workout is any workout that involves training most or all of the muscle groups of the upper body including: Chest, Back, Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps

Most often done as part of an upper/lower split which involves training the entire upper body on certain days and the entire lower body on others.

Exercise Order

Generic guidelines for exercise order are a good place to start

Compound exercises before isolation exercises
Bigger muscle groups before smaller muscle groups
Harder, heavier, more taxing exercises before easier, lighter, less taxing ones
For example, bench press before dumbbell flyes.

The Muscle Building Workout Routine

For a full upper/lower program that puts everything together for you

How Many Exercises Per Muscle Group?

The optimal number of sets for each muscle group in each workout varies based on personal preference and anecdotal evidence.

Chest: 2 exercises per workout
Back: 2 workouts per day
Shoulders: 1 workout per workout. Biceps: 1 exercise per workout

Step 0: Individualization

Take into consideration the individual needs, goals, preferences, training/injury history, etc. of the specific person the program is being designed for, and go forward with all of that in mind

Horizontal Pulling Exercises

The weight being pulled in towards your torso from out in front of you in a horizontal plane. Most back “rowing” exercises fit into this category.

Upper Body Exercises: The 6 Categories

Effectiveness

Designing a workout with these six categories in mind will help ensure that every upper body muscle group is being trained, and you’re using each available movement plane to do so.
Injury Prevention and Balance
Keeping things this way also helps to keep everything balanced around the joints.

Step 1: Chest

Choose two horizontal pushing exercises – one flat, one incline

The exercises themselves will either both be compound pressing exercises (like barbell bench press and incline dumbbell press) or one compound press (like any barbell, dumbbell, or machine press) with one isolation movement
First chest exercise will be done heavier and in a lower rep range (typically 4-8) with longer rest periods (2-4 minutes)
Second will be a little lighter and in the slightly higher rep range with shorter rest periods

Back

Choose two back exercises: horizontal pulling movement (i.e. some type of row) and vertical pulling movement

The first back exercise will be heavier, in a lower rep range (4-8 reps), with longer rest periods (2-4 minutes)… while the other will be a little lighter (8-15 reps) with slightly shorter rest periods.