Strong upper body muscles are essential for stability – they improve posture, enable the safe completion of everyday tasks, and enhance flexibility.
The main muscles which are worked when focusing on the upper body include the chest, shoulders and upper back; biceps, triceps and forearm muscles; middle back and obliques.
Stabilising muscles like the core are also given a workout as part of a complete upper body routine.
Building muscle strength and fitness aids fat loss, improves heart health and lowers the risk of disease, lowers the risk of injury and promotes greater mobility.
Strength training focuses on specific muscles or muscle groups by exercising them against an external resistance. In an outdoor gym, the user’s own bodyweight is ideal for an effective strength workout.
A good upper body workout routine
All outdoor gym workouts should start with a warm-up and something like the Double Health Walker or Sky Stepper is ideal for this.
Five minutes of walking or marching at a fast pace will help to increase heart rate and blood flow and prime the body for its workout.
Some dynamic stretches can also be included such as squats – try using the Double Squat Push.
An effective upper body workout routine can last anywhere between 10-12 minutes and 45-60 minutes.
Around 30 minutes is usually sustainable if spreading workouts across a week. This allows for three to four sets of 10-12 reps of a good range of exercises including rest times.
Upper body workout equipment
The varied range of outdoor gym equipment from Sunshine Gym is designed so users can follow routines which target the whole body.
It could be users complete two to three total body workouts every week, or it could be they choose to split the workouts up into muscle groups.
Upper body workout equipment for an outdoor gym includes the Combi Pull Down Challenger and Power Push; Double Pull Up and Sunshine Gym’s new collection of Outdoor Fitness Rigs.
Upper body workout plan
An upper body workout programme can include chest press and shoulder press exercises. The Power Push side of the Combi Pull Down Challenger and Power Push works the chest, shoulders and triceps.
Using smooth controlled movements can maximise the benefits of the exercise.
The Pull Down side is similar to a Lat Pulldown targeting the back and shoulders.
Push and pull movements are at the centre of upper body workouts.
Using the benches or ladders in Sunshine Gym’s Outdoor Fitness Rigs, such as the Olympus, Camelot or Atlantis fitness rigs, standard, incline and decline push-ups can be included in a workout plan.
The ladders and bars can also be used for inverted rows.
The ultimate workout for upper body strength can include pull-ups, a very challenging bodyweight movement.
The Double Pull-Up from Sunshine Gym or again, the pull-up and chin-up handles which feature in the outdoor fitness rigs, are ideal for this move. Pull-up rings are also included in some of the rigs.