What's a good exercise for general upper-body toning and fitness?

Question

I cycle, so don't need to work the legs so much. My weight is OK, I could lose a little but it's not my highest priority. And I don't need to de-stress. Any suggestions?

Actually I'm looking for an activity eg Yoga or swimming, rather than individual exercises...

Answer 1

look for some exercises on this site

Answer 2

If you want to cycle competitively you ned to go for muscular endurance rather than bulking up. However if you want to develop muscular definition you need to do pyramid sets exercising your major muscle groups. A pyramind set is a desreasing number of repetitions with an increasingly heavy weight. So you start with a set of 12 at a manageable weight, increase the resistance each set down through sets of 10, 8, 6 and sometimes 4 or 2. Rest for about a minute between sets and by the time you do the last you need to have reached exhaustion. This really means that you cannot lift anymore. Rest another minute and then repeat your 10 set and weight.

Try these exercise:

incline bench press with barbel or dumbells
flat bench press and declinie bench press.

Dumbell flyes.

Cross over cable row

lateral raises

pull-ups, push-ups, dips.

And don't forget that you should work your muscles in antagonistic groups and you should exercise your core to help your cycling

Answer 3

water aerobics works the whole body, yard work does the upper torso and so does ab work. u need to do curl-ups which is working the upper ab muscles. you can get the book its Banish your Belly, Butt & Thighs its a great book for women to lose weight and keep the body in shape. ps men can use it as well.

Answer 4

Light weights , press ups, cross trainers in the gym, rowing machines.

If you cycle you should loose weight which in turn should tone the upper body.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

get some dumb bells or use some tin can like tin peas or veg and work with them you could get a fitness DVD too

Answer 7

pull ups and chin ups