Having the time to do a proper workout can be hard to come by so we have put together the best exercises for upper body to get a workout in with the least amount of time possible. To properly use this video you will need a pair of dumbbells for three of the exercises.

We have picked 4 different exercises to go though and each has its pros and cons but together they hit the major muscle groups to tone up the arms, shoulder, back and chest.

Workout Structure:

Each exercise will be done for 4 rounds of 20 seconds on and 10 seconds rest.  There is no extra break in-between exercises so get ready to move quick. Because of the speed try to get your weights set up so you don't have to hunt them down and potentially miss out on rounds.  Part of this routine is the fact that you don't get very long rest breaks so try your hardest to get through this workout routine without hitting pause.

1. Push Up: The traditional push up, whether you are doing a full version from hands and toes or a half version from hands and knees, focuses on the chest muscles but it also does a lot more than that. The Push Up also targets the triceps (back of the upper arms), core (abdominal, obliques and lower back), and hip flexors (front of hip). If you are doing a full Push Up then you also work the quadriceps (front of the thighs) and the ankle complex.  In fact this one exercise targets almost the entire body and because of this can burn a high number of calories.

2. Reverse Fly: This dumbbell exercise targets the upper back across the shoulder blades and rib cage but like our first exercise also works multiple other parts of the body. The tricep (back of upper arm), deltoid (outer shoulder), lower back, glutes (butt muscles), and hamstrings (back of thighs). All of these muscles work together to hold your body in position while the rhomboids and latissimus dorsi (both upper back) work to raise your arms up and out.

3. Bicep Curl: This arm specific exercise uses the least number of muscles out of all of our exercises in this routine but is used strategically to target the biceps (front of upper arm) since they have not yet been hit.  This isolated motion targets the bicep, forearm, and wrist complex, with very little muscle activation throughout the rest of the body except for light stabilization work from the deltoid (outer shoulder), and lower back.

4. Overhead Press: This dumbbell exercise is a great movement not only for its primary target, the deltoids (outer shoulder) but also the triceps. It also demands a lot of extra work from the core (abs, lower back, and obliques) especially when done from a standing position like we show in the video. It does take more control then the seated version of this exercise but if you adjust weight accordingly you will find that you actually get more of an increase in functional strength, due to the extra demands on the rest of the body.

If you want to top off this list with one more great exercise then add in some Pull Ups. We did not include them because they are very difficult for most people and require specific equipment that most people don't have. However if you do have access to a pull up bar then doing an extra round with a Pull Up is the best way to round out this routine.