A Quick Upper Body Workout (Dumbbells Only & Home Friendly)
If you’re looking for a quick upper body strength workout you can do at home (or in the gym!) with your dumbbells, I’ve got the perfect one for you today.
This workout should take less than 30 minutes, with only 6 exercises in total. We’ll target the whole upper body: shoulders, chest, triceps, biceps and your back muscles – so by the end you’ll feel like you’ve done a really well-rounded upper body session!
WORKOUT OVERVIEW
Equipment You’ll Need
All you need is a pair (or two) of dumbbells. For reference, I used one moderate set of dumbbells throughout this workout for simplicity, but you may want a lighter dumbbell option available too depending on how you find each movement! 🙂
I would also advise a soft exercise mat or even a cushion for under your knees, as there are a few fun kneeling exercises!
Workout Instructions
- Reps: 10-15 reps each exercise (for single-arm exercises make sure to do 10-15 each side!)
- Sets: 2-3 sets of each superset
- Rest: Minimal rest between exercises in a superset, then take a full 60secs rest before moving onto the next pair of exercises.
Below I’ve provided some more helpful instructions on how to do each exercise, along with video demos just in case you need a reminder of what the exercise looks like. So grab your dumbbells and follow along with me! 💋
Upper Body Dumbbell Workout
1a) Floor Chest Press
Our first exercise in this superset is a chest press on the floor. We’re working with a pair of dumbbells for this one.
The floor press is a great exercise to work your chest, shoulders and your triceps!
Lying on the floor also gives you better stability for your back, which means you can really focus on pressing those dumbbells away from the chest.
To begin, lie down on the floor with the knees bent. Bring your dumbbells to the side of your chest, elbows resting on the floor. Then simply press the dumbbells straight up above the chest, extending the arms. Slowly come back down to the floor and gently rest the elbows down before going again.
*Please excuse my dogs barking in the background of this video – I forgot to mute it before I uploaded to Youtube and couldn’t be bothered to re-upload! 😅
1b) Kneeling Single Arm Row
Now we’ve completed our floor press, let’s get into a comfortable half-kneeling position for our Single-Arm Row.
You’ll need just one dumbbell for this movement, as we’re working each side individually. So remember to do 10-15 reps on each side.
Pop one knee so it’s underneath your hip, then bring your front foot out and plant it on the floor. Then I just placed my elbow onto that leg and leant over almost into a little kneeling hinged position. You might need to play about with this position and adjust yourself to what feels comfortable.
Once you feel steady, grab a dumbbell in one hand on the side that’s kneeling, and extend it out long. To begin your row, start to bring the elbow back so it ends up just behind your torso. Really think about using your back muscles to pull that dumbbell back towards your waist + hip.
Little tip for this one: think about scopping the dumbbell BACK towards your hip, rather than pulling straight UPWARDS.
2a) Floor Lat Pullover
Now that we’ve completed all 2-3 sets of our first superset, let’s move into the next one.
The first exercise we’re doing in this pair is a Lat Pullover on the floor. The pullover is going to work not only your lats (the muscles in your back) but is also beneficial for strengthening the chest too.
So let’s lie down on our back, with the knees bent. This can be a bit tricky, but grab underneath one end of your dumbbell, crossing your hands over each other. This will make sure you have a good grip of the dumbbell throughout the movement.
With your dumbbell straight above the chest, you want to start lowering it slowly behind your head. Tap the other end of the dumbbell gently on the floor behind you, then with all your strength bring it back up to the starting position.
A little tip for this one – keep your lower back pressed into your exercise mat and make sure the ribs aren’t flaring too much.
2b) Half-Kneeling Shoulder Press
Now we’re onto our Half-Kneeling Shoulder Press – one of my favourite exercises!
For this exercise you just need one dumbbell. Position one knee directly under your hip, then place your front foot flat on the floor, so that the knee is aligned over your ankle. This should create two lovely 90 degree angles with the legs.
Once in position, bring your dumbbell to your shoulder, on the side where your knee is underneath your hip. Gently squeeze your butt cheek on that side to keep you stable. Once you feel steady, simply press that dumbbell straight up into the air, then lower it back down to your shoulder.
The muscles in your core will really have to work to keep you from leaning to one side or even falling over. It’s a great exercise to strengthen the shoulders in isolation too, as you have pretty much no help from your legs to bounce the weight up! You’re just using all that good shoulder strength!
3a) Seated Hammer Curls
You’ve made it to your final pair of exercises. Next up we have Hammer Curls to help strengthen your arm muscles – primarily the biceps at the front of your arms.
I’m in a low kneeling position here for these as you can see, but if it feels more comfortable you can raise up into a Tall-Kneeling Position by bringing your butt off the heels, extending the hips and sitting up tall.
In either position, we want to remain upright in our torso, thinking about keeping our core strong throughout this movement.
This one’s really simple – with the palms facing inwards, extend the arms down by your sides. Keeping the elbows close to your waist, squeeze your biceps to bring the dumbbell upwards toward your shoulders.
After a little pause at the top, slowly lengthen your arms to the starting position again.
3b) Lying Triceps Extension
Our final exercise is a Lying Triceps Extension. This exercise primarily focuses on working your triceps (the muscles at the back of the arms.)
We’re going to comfortably lie back with our knees bent. Hold onto your dumbbell firmly at each end and straighten your arms above your chest.
Whilst keeping the upper arms as steady as possible, start to bend at the elbow and lower the dumbbell down close to your forehead. Then, think about squeezing your triceps to extend the arms back up above your chest again.
The best tip I have for this exercise is to try and keep the elbows from flaring out too much and of course – don’t hit yourself on the head with your dumbbell 💀😅
So there you have it! Well done for completing this workout and I hope you feel really good for taking the time for yourself today! You deserve to feel strong 🙂
If you haven’t got round to doing it just yet, make sure to bookmark it on your browser or save it on Pinterest.
Let me know what you thought of this upper body dumbbell floor workout! Where there any exercises that where your favourite? Do you have any questions? I would love to hear from you!
Jane XOXO
SAVE THIS WORKOUT FOR LATER ON PINTEREST 📌
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