A 22-minute upper body strength challenge

I love a full-body strength workout — you get to check so many boxes in one go. But lately, I’ve been trying a program that involves an upper/lower split: in other words, doing all upper body on one day, all lower body on a different day. (Approaches vary, but the split approach I’m currently taking involves four strength workouts per week. Upper, lower, upper, lower. It’s a lot, and wouldn’t work during every season of my life, but I’m enjoying it for now.) This approach allows me to really dial in to the muscles I’m targeting and fully fatigue the area, and then have a little extra rest time for those muscles to recover before I get into them again.

There’s other value to be found in a workout that’s just for your upper body or just for your lower body: These kinds of divides can be really useful if you’re really sore in a particular area, dealing with an injury, or just have some reason why you need to avoid certain movements. Or you’re just in the mood to really go to town on your arms and shoulders.

So! All that said: As much as I love full-body workouts, I’m going to start incorporating some WOWs that focus just on one half of the body. This’ll give everyone more options and make my soon-to-come workout index even more useful. So let’s start with this challenging (but fun!) upper body circuit.

(If you do prefer a full-body workout today, you can find lots of them here.)

You’ll ideally need a set of heavyish weights and a set of medium weights. If you, like me, need something pretty darn light for a chest fly, grab that, too. That said, pretty much all of these exercises can also be done with a band, so that would work, too. (For the chest fly, maybe a couple of heavy books or water bottles.)

Final note: This is your LAST CHANCE to upgrade to a paid subscription at my current rate of $5/mo or $50/year. My prices are increasing on August 1! If you’re already a paid subscriber, you can continue at the current rate.

Let’s go!