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10 Upper Body Exercises at Home

These shoulder and arm exercises are meant to be done with light free weights (such as 2-5 pound dumbbells) but can easily be done with no weights or household items, such as canned goods or bottles of wine! As you grow stronger, you can increase the heaviness of the weights to continue to challenge yourself and break through the dreaded plateau.

This 30-minute at-home workout is perfect for anyone looking for a low-impact, small-space friendly workout (essential for apartments or hotel rooms!) or if you are traveling and do not have access to a gym. If you prefer a bodyweight only arms and shoulder workout (aka no equipment needed!) , make sure to check out our workout section for more inspiration.

Beginner Friendly Workout

This workout is ideal for beginners or intermediate levels. If this is your first time performing these exercises, go slowly, focus on form and not the size of the dumbbell. Full and complete repetitions in each circuit will be much more effective in gaining muscle than shortening the rounds due to fatigue. Break away from the negative thinking that heavier is better!

Short on Time?

If you would prefer a shorter workout, perform one set of each circuit to shorten the workout to 15 minutes. This would make for a great finisher on a cardio workout, such as a spin class or run!

Want a Cardio Twist?

Looking for more cardio in your workout routine? Check out our low impact, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) burst workout! Combining upper body exercises with calorie-burning cardio intervals, this 20-minute no weights needed upper body workout will get your heart rate up and the sweat dripping!

See our full workout series here.

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Watch the Full Workout on YouTube

The 10 Best Shoulder + Arm Toning Exercises for Your Next Workout 

Suggested:

5-10 Minute warmup + cooldown of your choice.

Tip:

The goal of this upper body toning workout is to work the muscles through a high amount of reps with very little rest! Use the heaviest set of dumbbells that you can without having to stop in the middle of a set. This helps to work the muscles to fatigue and boost your muscular endurance.

Increase the difficulty!

Don’t drop the elbows during the shoulder series! If you need to, drop the weights, but don’t place the arms down!

Still too easy? On the second set, try increasing the reps by 10 to 35. It should be extra challenging to finish each movement without having to rest.

Need a modification?

Don’t have a set of dumbbells? Use anything that you have at home that can provide some weight. This could include milk jugs, wine bottles, or pantry goods. Get creative!

Dumbbell Upper Body Exercise List:

Perform 25 reps of each exercise. Complete each round 2 times before moving on. Rest 1 minute between rounds.

Round 1 - Shoulder Exercises:

Forward Raise

How-to: Stand tall, squeezing your core and glutes, with arms lowered in front of your body, palms facing your thighs. Slowly raise the arms until parallel with the ground. Slowly lower down.

Form tip: Keep the arms straight as you lift the weights.

Side Raise

How-to: Stand tall, squeezing your core and glutes, with arms lowered at the sides of your body, palms facing towards your body. Slowly raise the arms at your sides until parallel with the ground. Slowly lower down.

Form tip: Keep the arms straight as you lift the weights.

Forward Shoulder Press

How-to: Start with arms bent at 90 degrees in front of you, triceps parallel with the ground, palms facing together. Squeezing your shoulder blades, press the shoulders upwards in small pulses.

Form tip: Don’t let your arms drop below parallel during this entire movement or fully extend the arms.

Bent Arm Shoulder Raise

How-to: Start with arms at your sides, bent at 90 degrees, palms facing inwards. Lift the elbows at the sides until arms are parallel with the ground, keeping elbows bent at 90 degrees. Slowly lower down.

Form tip: To fully work the deltoids and muscles surrounding the shoulders, keep the elbows at 90 degrees and don’t rotate the palms.

Arnold Press

How-to: Start with arms at your sides. Perform a bicep curl, with palms facing your chest. As you press the weights overhead in a shoulder press, rotate the arms as you press upwards to turn the palms away from you. Reverse the movement as you bring the weights back to your sides.

Form tip: Avoid swinging through movement and squeeze the biceps and shoulders as you curl and press.

Modification: If a normal bicep curl bothers your wrists, you can switch the grip to perform a hammer curl.

Round 2 - Arms:

Bicep Hammer Curl

How-to: Standing tall, arms at your sides, palms facing your body, thumbs up. Slowly lift the weights to bring the dumbbells to your shoulders and slowly lower down.

Form tip: Avoid swinging the movement.

Overhead Tricep Extension

How-to: Standing tall, core squeezed, back straight. Bring the weights behind your head, elbows pointed upwards, arms squeezed by your ears, palms together. Lift the arms to fully extend overhead and slowly lower down.

Form tip: Make sure to squeeze the glutes and core to avoid arching the back as you extend the arms.

In-&-Out bicep Curls

How-to: In the same positioning as the hammer curl, start with the arms at the side, palms facing inwards, elbows pinned to the sides. Curl the weights to the shoulders in a hammer curl and slowly lower down. With elbows pinned at your sides, alternate with a hammer curl out to the side (creating a ‘W’ shape) and slowly lower down.

Form tip: Avoid swinging through the movement and squeeze at the top.

Tricep Kickbacks

How-to: Feet underneath the hips, hinge at the waist, core squeezed, back flat. Squeeze your shoulder blades, pulling your arms up along your sides, elbows pointed towards the ceiling. Moving only from the elbow, fully extend the arms, palms facing inwards, pinkies turned upwards.

Form tip: Keep your core squeezed and avoid arching through the back.

Challenge: Hold the weights at the top for an isometric hold.

Chest Press

How-to: On your back, knees bent, feet on the floor, start with your arms extended over your chest, palms facing away. Bring the elbows to the mat, angled alongside your body and press the arms back towards the ceiling.

Form tip: Keep the weights in line with your chest and don’t let the elbows flare out too far to the sides to focus on the muscles of the chest.

Round 3 - Ab & Core:

Leg Lowers

How-to: On your back, start with your legs fully extended over your hips at a 90 degree angle, palms pressed into the mat at your sides. Keeping the legs long and ankles pressed together, slowly lower down and raise the legs back up.

Form tip: Don’t allow your back to arch from the mat. Only lower the legs down as far as you can keep the abs and core engaged and lift up without arching the back.

Modification: Bend the knees slightly to take pressure off the hip flexors.

Reverse Crunches

How-to: On your back, start with your legs fully extended over your hips at a 90 degree angle, feet flexed, palms pressed into the mat at your sides. Lift the hips and glutes up from the mat in a tiny movement and slowly lower down.

Form tip: This movement should be very small and come directly from the abs! Avoid swinging the legs as you press upwards.

Dead Bugs

How-to: On your back, legs bent, knees over the hips, arms extended over your chest. Slowly extend your opposite arm and leg long to your lowest point. Bring your arm and leg back to center and alternate to the other side.

Form tip: Avoid arching through the back and allowing the lower back come up from the mat. The arm and leg should only go as low as you can without lifting the back.

Single Leg Boat-Sits

How-to: Start on your back, with your arms outstretched over your head and legs long. Sit up, bringing one knee into the chest, and slowly lower down. Sit up and bring the opposite leg into the chest.

Form tip: Keep the chest lifted as you sit up.

Modification: If you are still working on strength and can’t sit up from the prone position, stay in the seated position, hands behind your hips for stability. Extend one leg long out as you lean back into the hands and then return to center.