How can i improve my upper body strength strong?

Question

I've joined a gym and decided i want to improve my upper body strength.
I am not bothered about being well toned.
I was wondering how i can achieve my goal. I've heard some people say "lift a lot of small weights" and some say the opposite, "lift few heavy weights".
Another question i have is; if i need to lift few weights 8-12 times with a gap of 60secs (which is what i've been doing), how many times do i need to do 8-12 reps per day?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

best thing to do if your starting out is do 3 sets of 8-12 reps, but on the last few reps in each set it should be hard to do, you shouldn't be able to get 13+ reps or you need to up the weight. after a while you can change your work out but you don't need to. You always want to do 3 sets but doing fewer reps is for getting strength, like 3-5 reps but your last rep you should almost not be able to lift it at all, USE A SPOTTER, doing more reps is for toning, like 15+ and with those you can be able to do a few more when you stop

Answer 2

Simple answer:Lighter weights help build strength,heavy weights stimulate muscle growth.Do 4 sets of 8-12 reps on each excercise.Thats all yoy need to.Easy.

Answer 3

Heavy weights - low reps.

60% of your one rep max. 10 reps, 3 sets, with a break of 1 - 2 mins between sets.

one day on, one day off.


Too much information to put on here for the whole of your upper body though - www.bodybuilding.com has got some good articles on individual muscle workouts and general strength training.

Answer 4

first off eat more calories than your body burns off by providing your body with more calories your body mass will increase to build mass use heavy weights you will know if their heavy if you can only do 4-8 reps at a time before resting. Last but not least make sure to eat things high in protein I own my own business with these products to help build muscle if you want to know more feel free to contact me

Answer 5

Do pushups with those swivel handles, guaranteed to bulk you and give you muscle definition.
Best of all, you can save a ton of $ on the gym membership.

Answer 6

press up and bench press start with small weights to begin with starting with large weights can destroy the muscle

Answer 7

How to have hard abs-

 Stretch
 Run at least 3 miles a day- get comfortable shoes, run smooth with arms lower, WATCH WHERE YOU ARE GOING, no music, run with a partner faster than you (otherwise it’s worthless), run in the day time, dress like a prude
 Stretch


 Be in your own room with a mat under your back
 Do 25 regular crunchers
o Make sure that your head, neck, and back stay on one plane
o Bring your shoulders off the ground
o Keep your eyes on the ceiling
 Do 25 reverse
o Make sure your arms are behind your head
o Bent legs go thorough full range of motion
 Do 25 regular crunchers
 Do 15 regular special crunchers
o Arms are straight
o Elbows behind your ears
o Head, arms, neck, and body on the same plane
o Bring shoulders off the ground
 Do 15 special leglifts
o Arms behind your neck
o Bring your legs up straight
o Only halfway up
o Don’t touch the ground
 Do 10 double specials
o Like a V-up
o Do like special crunchers and special leglifts together
 Do 10 extra specials
o Keep your body in a 170 Degree angle
o Keep body very tight, especially in the abs
o Don’t cheat by using your arms
o Rock back and forth, each period counting as one rep
 Do 25 regular crunchers
 Do 50 obliques left
o Keep your arm, neck and head on the same plane.
o Look up
o Nose to knee not Knee to nose
 Do 50 obliques right
 Do 25 regular crunchers
 Do 25 bicycles
o Make sure legs go fully extended
o Bend neck to body as little as possible
o Almost touch knees with opposite elbows
o Shoulders off the ground the entire time
 Do a hold of 30 seconds
o Fully extend legs
o Pretend you are doing a regular cruncher
o But hold halfway with your shoulders off the ground
o If you’re not shaking you’re not doing it right
 Bring legs up while still holding body up for 20 more seconds
o Like a leglift but hold
o Keep legs at a 45 degree angle
o After 5 seconds put them at a 30 degree angle
o After 10 seconds put them at a 1 degree angle
o Don’t touch the ground with your shoulders or legs
 Do 25 regular crunchers
 50 Bicycles

For each day, increase each exercise by one until it takes more than 15 minutes to do. Don’t cheat.
To build muscle mass, you must increase strength. It’s that simple. You will never get huge arms, a monstrous back, a thick chest, or massive legs without lifting heavy weights. I know that probably doesn’t come as a revelation to anyone. But despite how obvious it seems, far too many people (and not just beginners) neglect power training and rarely make increasing the weights lifted in each successive workout a priority. You must get strong in the basic mass building exercises to bring about a significant increase in muscle size. One of the biggest mistakes typical bodybuilders make is when they implement specialization routines before they have the right to use them.
It constantly amazes me just how many neophytes (beginners), near neophytes, and other insufficiently developed bodybuilders plunge into single-body part specialization programs in the desperate attempt to build big arms. I don’t fault them for wanting big arms, but their approach to getting them is flawed. For the typical bodybuilder who is miles away from squatting 1 ½ times their bodyweight for 20 reps (if you weigh 180 lbs., that means 20 reps with 270 lbs.), an arm specialization program is utterly inappropriate and useless.
The strength and development needed to squat well over 1 ½ times bodyweight for 20 reps will build bigger arms faster then focusing on biceps and triceps training with isolation exercises. Even though squats are primarily a leg exercise, they stress and stimulate the entire body. But more importantly, if you are able to handle heavy weights in the squat, it logically follows that the rest of your body will undoubtedly be proportionally developed. It’s a rare case that you would be able to squat 1 ½ times your bodyweight and not have a substantial amount of upper body muscle mass.
This is not to say that you don’t need to train arms, and squats alone will cause massive upper body growth. You will still work every body part, but you must focus on squats, deadlifts, and rows—the exercises that develop the legs, hips, and back. Once you master the power movements and are able to handle impressive poundages on those lifts, the strength and muscle you gain will translate into greater weights used in arm, shoulder and chest exercises.
In every gym I’ve ever visited or trained in, there were countless teenage boys blasting away on routines, dominated by arm exercises, in the attempt to build arms like their idols. In the ‘70s, they wanted arms like Arnold Schwarzenegger, in the ‘80s Robby Robinson was a favorite and currently Mr. Olympia, Ronnie Coleman, has set the standard everyone wants to achieve. Unfortunately the 3 aforementioned men as well as most other top bodybuilders have arm development far beyond the reach of the average (or even above average) weight trainer. But arm size can be increased. However, not in the way young trainers, with physiques that don’t even have the faintest resemblance to those of bodybuilders are attempting to make progress. Thin arms, connected to narrow shoulders, fixed to shallow chest, joined to frail backs and skinny legs, don’t need body part specialization programs. Let’s not have skewed priorities. Let’s not try to put icing on the cake before the cake has been baked.


Priorities
Trying to stimulate a substantial increase in size in a single body part, without first having the main structures of the body in pretty impressive condition, is to have turned bodybuilding upside-down, inside-out and back to front.
The typical bodybuilder simply isn’t going to get much meat on his arms, calves, shoulders, pectorals and neck unless he first builds a considerable amount of muscle around the thighs, hips and back. It simply isn’t possible—for the typical drug-free bodybuilder, that is—to add much if any size to the small areas unless the big areas are already becoming substantial.
There’s a knock-on (additive) effect from the efforts to add substantial size to the thigh, hip and back structure (closely followed by upper body pushing structure-pecs and delts). The smaller muscle groups, like the biceps, and triceps will progress in size (so long as you don’t totally neglect them) pretty much in proportion to the increase in size of the big areas. It’s not a case of getting big and strong thighs, hips, back and upper-body pushing structure with everything else staying put. Far from it. As the thigh, hip, back and upper-body pushing structure grows, so does everything else. Work hard on squats and deadlifts, in addition to bench presses, overhead presses and some type of row or pulldown. Then you can add a little isolation work—curls, calf raises and neck work (but not all of this at every workout).


The “Driver”
The key point is that the “engine” that drives the gains in the small areas is the progress being made in the big areas. If you take it easy on the thigh and back you will, generally speaking, have trouble making gains in the other exercises, no matter how hard you work the latter.
All this isn’t to say just do squats, deadlifts and upper back work, quite closely followed by some upper-body pressing work. While such a limited program will deliver good gains on these few exercises, with some knock-on effect throughout the body, it’s not a year after year program. Very abbreviated routines are great for getting gains moving, and for building a foundation for moderately expanded routines. They are fine to keep returning to on a regular basis. The other training isn’t necessary all in the same workout but spread over the week. This will maintain balance throughout the body and capitalize upon the progress made in the thigh, hip and back structure.
Just remember that the thigh, hip and back structure comes first and is the “driver” (closely followed by the upper-body pushing structure) for the other exercises. These other exercises, though important in their own right, are passengers relative to the driving team.


Big Arms
To get big arms, get yourself on a basic program that focuses on the leg, hip and back structure without neglecting the arms themselves. As you improve your squatting ability, for reps and by say 100 pounds, your curling poundage should readily come up by 30 pounds or so if you work hard enough on your curls. This will add size to your biceps. While adding 100 pounds to your squat, you should be able to add 50-70 pounds to your bench press, for reps. This assumes you’ve put together a sound program and have worked hard on the bench. That will add size to your triceps.
If you’re desperate to add a couple of inches to your upper arms you’ll need to add 30 pounds or more over your body, unless your arms are way behind the rest of you. Don’t start thinking about 17” arms, or even 16” arms so long as your bodyweight is 130, 140, 150, 160, or even 170 pounds. Few people can get big arms without having a big body. You’re unlikely to be one of the exceptions.
15 sets of arm flexor exercises, and 15 sets of isolation tricep exercises—with a few squats, deadlifts and bench presses thrown in as an afterthought—will give you a great pump and attack the arms from “all angles”. However, it won’t make your arms grow much, if at all, unless you’re already squatting and benching big poundages, or are drug-assisted or genetically gifted.
As your main structures come along in size and strength (thigh, hip and back structure, and the pressing structure), the directly involved smaller body parts are brought along in size too. How can you bench press or dip impressive poundages without adding a lot of size to your triceps? How can you deadlift the house and row big weights without having the arm flexors—not to mention the shoulders and upper back—to go with those lifts? How can you squat close to 2 times bodyweight, for plenty of reps, without having a lot of muscle all over your body?
The greater the development and strength of the main muscular structures of the body, the greater the size and strength potential of the small areas of the body. Think it through. Suppose you can only squat and deadlift with 200 pounds, and your arms measure about 13”. You’re unlikely to add any more than half an inch or so on them, no matter how much arm specialization you put in.
However, put some real effort into the squat and deadlift, together with the bench press and a few other major basic movements. Build up the poundages by 50% or more, to the point where you can squat 300 pounds for over 10 reps, and pack on 30 pounds of muscle. Then, unless you have an unusual arm structure, you should be able to get your arms to around 16”. If you want 17” arms, plan on having to squat more than a few reps with around 2 times bodyweight, and on adding many more pounds of muscle throughout your body (unless you have a better-than-average growth potential in your upper arms).
All of this arm development would have been achieved without a single concentration curl, without a single pushdown and without a single preacher curl. This lesson in priorities proves that the shortest distance between you and big arms is not a straight line to a curl bar.

STRENGTH, MASS, AND POWER WORKOUT
(3 days per week—1 on, 1 off)
Monday
LEGS: Squats
1x 16 reps, 1x 12 reps, 1 x 8 reps, 1x 6 reps, 1 x 5 reps, 1 x 4 reps, 1 x 10 reps
BACK: T-Bar Rows or Seated Rows
1 x 16 reps, 1 x 10 reps, 1 x 8 reps, 1 x 6 reps, 2 x 5 reps, 1 x 10 reps
CALVES: Standing Calf Raises
1 x 12 reps, 1 x 8 reps, 1 x 6 reps, 1 x 10 reps

Wednesday
CHEST: Bench Presses
1 x 12 reps, 1 x 10 reps, 1 x 6 reps, 1 x 5 reps, 1 x 4 reps, 1 x 8 reps
CHEST/TRICEPS: Parallel Bar Dips
1 x 12 reps, 1 x 10 reps, 1 x 8-10 reps
BICEPS: Barbell Curls
1 x 10 reps, 1 x 8 reps, 2 x 6 reps
ABDOMINALS: Reverse Crunches
2 x 20 reps

Friday
LEGS, HIPS, BACK: Deadlifts
1 x 12 reps, 1 x 8 reps, 1 x 6 reps, 1 x 5 reps, 3 x 3 reps, 1 x 8 reps
SHOULDERS: Military Presses or Behind The Neck Presses
1 x 10 reps, 1 x 8 reps, 2 x 6 reps, 1 x 8 reps
CALVES: Seated Calf Raises
1 x 12 reps, 2 x 8 reps, 1 x 10 reps
ABDOMINALS: Crunches
2 x 20 reps

After a light warm-up set for each body part, adjust the weights used so that you are struggling to achieve the desired number of reps. Don’t sacrifice proper form for the sake of excessive weight, but the final rep of each set should be nearly impossible to complete. If you are able to breeze through each set, then the weights selected are too light and must be increased. When you get stronger while using proper form, you give your body no choice but to grow.