We have been getting lots of requests from our Fitness Blender Family, wanting to see some short, fast, and effective upper body workout videos. We have tried to deliver on this one, coming in at well under ten minutes, you wont need a single piece of equipment in order to get this one done...Which leaves you without any excuses at all not to give it a shot.

The key to this kind of toning workout is that you absolutely must commit to being present and to pushing yourself throughout the entire thing.

This is a routine that you can easily limp through, meaning that you aren’t breaking a sweat, using much muscle effort, or burning any significant number of calories. You have to focus on contracting the muscles throughout your entire body (particularly the upper body muscles in this case) in order to get the most benefit. You also need to “work against yourself” – a phrase that we use often that means that – for example – while you are doing a pushing motion, you are contracting your muscles as if you were simultaneously being pulled in the opposite direction. This creates a difficulty level for each movement that is specific and appropriate to each individual. That means that an experienced exerciser should find some of the motions (the ones where you are working against yourself) as difficult as someone who is brand new to any kind of physical activity. Stay present, focus, and push yourself to get the most out of your efforts.

Structure
There are ten different bodyweight exercises for the upper body. We will be doing each for just 30 seconds before we move immediately into the next interval. This is a fast moving video with no rest periods at all; we move directly from one exercise to another, so watch the top left corner of your screen towards the end of each 30 second interval for a preview of the upcoming move.

Printable Workout
1 Rhomboid Squeezes
2 Bicep Squeezes
3 Arm Circles
4 Arm Circles – opposite direction
5 Tricep Push Ups
6 Row Pulls
7 Side Push Ups
8 Other Side
9 Tricep Dips
10 Regular Push Ups

It seems deceptively difficult, but by that last interval of basic push ups, your arm muscles will be burning!

How to use this routine
In addition to our 40-90 minute workout videos, we also have a collection of very short ones. You can use this one in combination with some of the other quick ones, or you can tack this one onto the end of one of our other longer upper body workout videos in order to really wear those muscles out. This routine is fairly light in nature, so if you aren’t sore after doing it, you could do it 3-5x/week – if you are sore, wait until those muscles have healed before you challenge them heavily again. We estimate that this route can burn between 4-7 calories per minute if you push yourself.