Even though I really like to work out with just bodyweight exercises, I sometimes miss the weights. Today, I went to 24 hours fitness to do a weights and bodyweight mixed “push workout”, which basically includes only push movements. The primary muscles used in push exercises are chest, shoulders and triceps.

I like to mix my workouts up and almost every session looks different. However, I always follow the same structure.

Warmup

The warmup is probably the most boring part of my workout or even my whole day 🙂 The goal of this part is to make the joints and muscles ready for the workout and even more important prevent injuries. I often skipped the warmup and just started with weights. Since I’ve felt pain in both of my shoulders I don’t dare to skip it anymore.

Every time I work on upper body, I start with some exercises for rotator cuff, which is a group of small muscles stabilizing the shoulders during activity. I used the functional trainer to perform exercises like external and internal rotation with the lowest available weight (5lbs or so). If you’re not familiar with them, simply google “rotator cuff exercises”.

I don’t count reps or sets while doing them… I just do them until I feel ready for the workout.

Working sets

I like to start my workouts with a compound exercise, which is bench press in this case.  I start with 2 or 3 sets to get into the movement with very low weight. With the following 5×5 system I try to increase my strength.

Bench press 2-3 warmup sets, 15 reps
Bench press, heavy 5×5, 2-3min pause in between sets
Bench press 3×8
Overhead press 3×8

3 Push Circuit, no rest between exercises, 2 minutes between cycles
8 Handstand pushups against a wall if necessary
10 diamond pushups
12 dips
15 pushups

You’ll definitely feel the burn in your muscles while doings this circuit. If it’s too easy, you can either increase the number of repetitions or add another exercise.​​

Stretching

I ended up with some stretching to keep my body flexible and also some wide arm

handstands. My upper body flexibility is sometimes limited the next day when I didn’t stretch enough the day before. For the handstand, I kicked my leg up against the wall and tried the find the balance then.

It has to be said that this routine is probably not for everyone depending on their goal.  I personally like the mix of strength, hypertrophy, and also some strength-endurance. Especially the circuit will give you a crazy pump 🙂

– Tinu