Abs & Upper Body

Supersets are an awesome time saving way to get in an incredibly effective workout. In this routine we're going to be giving the upper body muscles a break by working our abs and obliques.

With a typical strength training routine, there's often an extended rest period for the muscle groups you're working - anywhere from 1-5 minutes in between sets (depending on what your goals are). Aside from my short attention span and the fact that if I gave myself 1-3 minutes in between strength sets I would get distracted and move onto some other project, I also have a heavy workload and busy life, and don't necessarily always have the time to wait that long in between sets. That's why I love supersets. They allow you to stay active throughout your entire training session, using the rest period of one muscle group to train the other, and vice versa.

These are some of my favorite upper body exercises. The combination thoroughly targets the entire upper body; shoulders, triceps, biceps, chest, and upper back. The core exercises we do in between are also comprehensive in that they target both the abdominals and obliques, as well as the lower back (an important aspect of core workouts that many people tend to leave out in their quest for a "six pack" or defined stomach).

Workout Structure
6 Groups of 2 exercises
1 Upper body strength training exercise and 1 core exercise per group
10 Repetitions of the strength exercise, 20 repetitions of the abs and obliques exercises
2 Sets for each group
You will need: Dumbbells (We use PowerBlock's Adjustable Dumbbells)
Make sure to do at least a quick warm up before you jump right into this routine; cool down and stretch is included

We've provided the amount of weight that I'm lifting for each exercise but this is purely specific to my own strengths and weaknesses and in no way a suggestion of the amount of weight that you should lift. Choose a weight that makes it difficult to complete repetitions 8-10, especially by that second round of that exercise. Remember to lift heavily enough to challenge yourself. You can easily break a sweat with this seemingly harmless routine.

Upper Body and Abs Exercises
Chest Press -  36 lbs total (18 lbs per hand)
Toe Touch Crunch

Bentover Row - 24 lbs total (12 lbs per hand)
Back Bow

Overhead Press -30 lbs total (15 lbs per hand) - and switches down to 24 or 12 lbs for the second set
Russian Twist

Dumbbell Pullovers - 18 lbs total - switching to 15 lbs for the second set
Bicycle Crunch

Overhead Triceps Extension - 15 lbs total - switching to 12 lbs for the second set
Side Hip Raise (Left)

Bicep Curl -  30 lbs total (15 lbs per hand) - switching down to 24 or 12 lbs for the second round
Side Hip Raise (Right)