If you’re trying to bulk up, fill out your frame, and add some quality muscle mass to your physique, you’ll know right off the bat that it is a long, arduous, drawn out process that can take weeks, even months before you begin to see any real improvements. Because of this, a lot of people become disheartened, or impatient, and basically throw in the towel after a few weeks because they aren’t seeing the results they were hoping for. In order to pack muscle onto your frame, not only do you need to follow the correct training procedures and protocols, at the right times, you also need to ensure that you eat and drink the right foods and supplements too, and get enough rest. Training your upper body isn’t as simple as people would have you believe, and it is certainly about way more than just bench pressing and bicep curling (though they are still very beneficial exercises). Here we’ll be taking a look at the ultimate upper body workout guide, giving you helpful tips and pieces of advice, along with a sample upper body workout that you can try the next time you’re in the gym. So, without any further dilly dallying, let’s get down to the nitty gritty.

Be Patient

As mentioned, a lot of people when trying to bulk up and build quality muscle, tend to find themselves losing interest after a few weeks, because their bodies haven’t transformed from a scrawny bag of bones into a hulking mass of muscle. To build quality muscle mass takes time, and although you will notice gradual improvements week by week, for the most part, it will be several months before you see any noticeable improvements, providing you follow the correct program to begin with of course. The thing that you must remember when it comes to bulking up and building muscle, is to be patient. Don’t expect miracles, don’t expect overnight improvements, and don’t get impatient. Just keep telling yourself that the changes and improvements will happen, all in due time. Just stick with your plan, keep on doing what you’re doing, and you will begin looking and feeling better sooner than you may have thought.

Get Enough Rest

When we push ourselves to breaking point in the gym, by lifting heavy weights and pushing ourselves to failure, we aren’t building muscle at all, we’re doing the opposite in fact, we’re destroying it. Think of your muscles like a house being constructed: the lifting of weights in the gym, however, isn’t the constructing of the house at all, it is actually the demolishing of it. It’s the rest and sleep that we get that is the rebuilding of it, building it bigger and stronger than it was previously. Put simply, if you follow the ultimate upper body workout program, train like a beast, and eat relatively clean, but don’t get enough sleep each night, and push yourself too hard, too often in the gym, your body will be unable to adequately recover properly, and you will find your muscles atrophying and breaking down rather than being built up. Aim at following a pretty stable sleeping routine, and look for around 7 – 9 hours each night.

Push/Pull days

When it comes to upper body workouts, you would be hard pressed (pardon the pun) to find a more beneficial form of training than a push/pull day. Push/pull days are basically training days in which you will pair up two different body parts, one of which will be a pushing muscle, whilst the other will be a pulling muscles. Chest and Back for example, is a perfect example of this as your chest is a pushing muscle, whereas the back is a pulling muscles. When you train chest, you bench press, dumbbell press etc, and you push the weight in order to gain a contraction. With the back, you are pulling the weight I.E lat pull downs, barbell rows etc. By pairing up pulling muscles and pushing muscles, you guarantee that both muscle groups are relatively fresh, which means that if you start with chest, for example, when you get around to your back, your back will be relatively fresh and so you won’t be pre-fatigued. The shoulders are a pressing muscle group, as is the chest, so pairing up chest and shoulders is generally not a good idea as once you’ve trained one muscle group, when you get to the next one, you will be exhausted and simply won’t be able to train as hard. Alternatively, if you go with a full upper body type program, you will basically mix and match different pulling and pushing exercises for different body parts.

Upper Body Workout Program

Barbell bench press – 3 sets of 8 – 12 reps
Incline dumbbell press – 3 sets of 10 reps
Barbell bent over rows – 3 sets of 10 reps
Lat pull downs – 3 sets of 10 – 12 reps
Seated dumbbell shoulder press – 3 sets of 10 – 12 reps
Dumbbell lateral raises – 3 sets of 15 reps
Dumbbell hammer curls – 3 sets of 12 reps
EZ bar curls – 3 sets of 10 reps
Triceps overhead extensions – 3 sets of 15 reps
Triceps rope pushdowns – 3 sets of 15 – 20 reps