The first a sprinter, the second a gymnast. Each a display of strength and power in their own right; yet their individual training is hardly interchangeable. Whereas Max trains his upper body religiously, Harry’s training doesn’t include dedicated workouts to build his chest, arms, or shoulders at all.

So, what happens if Harry tries out one of Max’s upper body sessions? Let’s find out.

Dumbbell Overhead Lateral Raise

Max starts Harry off with some overhead lateral raises.

To do this exercise yourself, start with a (light) Dumbbell in each hand by your side. Keeping your palms turned towards the floor as you lift the dumbbells sideways to shoulder height. Once at shoulder height, rotate your hands so that your palms are facing the sky. Continue the upwards motion until both dumbbells are directly overhead. Slowly reverse the movement (including the rotation) to return to the starting position and complete the rep. Try to always keep your body straight. Don’t let your chest come up as you raise the dumbbells.

If you look closely at the video, you’ll notice a difference between Max’s and Harry’s finish position overhead. Max can bring his arms right next to his ears while Harry’s shoulder mobility appears somewhat limited. Tight lats or pecs are a common cause of reduced overhead mobility. We offer some recommendations to improve overhead mobility at the bottom of this blog!

Dumbbell Overhead Shoulder Shrugs

Next up are overhead shoulder shrugs. This is a movement with a relatively limited range of motion that is great for working your traps.

Start with two dumbbells in an overhead position with your arms locked out. Your arms should form a straight line with your body. You can use a mirror or film yourself to check your form. Shrug your shoulders, closing the gap between your ears and your arms as much as you can. Hold that finish position briefly before retracting your shoulders again to complete the rep.

This exercise requires a lot of shoulder mobility. Much like the previous exercise, Harry’s restricted range of motion stops him from achieving the ideal overhead position.

Wide Grip Press Ups

This exercise doesn’t require any overhead mobility and is therefore much easier for Harry.

Use a heavy set of hex dumbbells and place them on the ground outside your shoulder width; they will be used as parallettes in this exercise. We’d advise not to attempt this exercise with ring dumbbells as these will roll away, which could potentially cause injury – the flat base of a Hex Dumbbell provides a much more stable base. Assume a high plank position. Lower the chest until it touches the floor (or until you’ve reached the end of your range of motion). Try and keep your body as straight as possible throughout. The wide grip will challenge your shoulders, pecs and chest much more than a traditional press up.

Overhead Tricep Extension

Max is taking Harry back overhead! This exercise only requires one arm at a time, which allows those with limited overhead mobility to ‘cheat’ a bit by leaning their torso a few degrees to the side.

Take one dumbbell and start in an overhead position. Again, we’re looking for a straight line between body and arm. Slowly lower the dumbbell, bending at the elbow only, so that the dumbbell finishes behind your head. If your lats are tight, you might find this challenging. Don’t rush the movement. Let gravity help you achieve a lower finish position.

The slower you go, the longer your muscles are under tension, which will increase the benefit of the movement.

Incline Dumbbell Fly

Max is bringing out the Adjustable Weight Bench. This is Harry’s time to shine!

For this exercise you’re going to need to set your bench to roughly 45 degrees. Start with a dumbbell in each hand with almost fully extended arms in front of your body. Slowly lower the dumbbells sideways until you reach shoulder height; your elbows should be a touch lower than that. In fact, you can drop your elbows as low as your range of motion allows so you fully activate your chest muscles. Slowly return the dumbbells back to the top.

Close Grip Incline Dumbbell Press

This is Harry’s final chance to redeem himself and hit that perfect form, and he doesn’t disappoint!

Position yourself on a 45-degree bench with a dumbbell in each hand, keeping them pressed against each other in front of your chest. Press the dumbbells away from your body, almost fully extending your arms, before returning them back to the starting position. This exercise hits both your triceps and your chest at the same time.

And that wraps up Max’s upper body dumbbell session. Give it a go yourself! If you find that your own overhead mobility is restricted, you can use a combination of soft tissue mobilisation and stretching to remedy this:

Use a foam roller to target your lats. Start by lying down on your side and work the foam roller into the outside of your armpit – this is where the lat muscle is located. Move up and down and pause a few seconds on tender spots. To target tight pecs, you’ll need a lacrosse ball and a wall. Trap the ball between the wall and your chest; you should feel a moderate amount of pressure. Slowly move the ball around against the wall and pause a few seconds whenever you find a tender spot.

Quite possibly the best stretch you can do to help overhead mobility is the prayer stretch. This stretch is very similar to child’s pose in yoga. You start in a kneeling position with your hips sat close to your heels. Drop your chest to the floor and reach your arms as far out on the floor as you can. With each breath out, try to sink your chest lower to the floor. We recommend holding this position for 60-90 seconds.

Looking to get huge arms like Harry? Check out our full body workout with 40kg dumbbells.

Written by guest author Lisanne Van Ingen.

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Tags: Equipment > Dumbbells ; Exercise Type > Conditoning ; Misc > Mirafit Ambassadors