Upper body workout: two presses, two pulls, then shoulders and arms

An upper body day is the half of the week that most people get wrong in the same way: three kinds of press, one row, and arms until the pump runs out. The fix isn't more exercises. It's covering every direction your upper body pushes and pulls, once, with enough sets to count.

This page is one session, written twice: once for a gym and once for a pair of dumbbells at home, with the sets, reps and rests, how the week adds up, and how it pairs with a lower day. Each slot has its own deeper page (chest, back, shoulders, arms). Running two upper and two lower days a week? That's a split, and the upper/lower split plan has all four sessions written out.

The four directions

The American College of Sports Medicine's 2026 position stand didn't compare body regions. Its authors' view is that applying its recommendations to pushing and pulling for the upper and lower body is enough to reach the major muscle groups, and that the upper body can also be split into horizontal and vertical directions.¹ For an upper body session, that's four slots:

Two small additions finish the session: a lateral raise for the side of the shoulder (the shoulder workout calls it the head pressing misses), and a curl and a triceps extension, which add to what the four big lifts already gave your arms (the arm workout counts it).

The gym session

In this order. "3 × 6–10" is three sets of six to ten reps.

1. Flat press, 3 × 6–10. Barbell bench press, dumbbell bench press or a chest-press machine.
2. Row, 3 × 6–10. Seated cable row, a chest-supported row or barbell row.
3. Overhead press, 3 × 8–12. Dumbbell shoulder press, barbell overhead press or a shoulder-press machine.
4. Vertical pull, 3 × 8–12. Lat pulldown, or pull-ups (assisted if you need it).
5. Lateral raise, 2 × 12–15. Dumbbells or a cable.
6. A curl and a triceps extension, 2 × 10–15 each, one after the other. A cable or dumbbell curl, and an overhead cable extension or a pushdown.

The big lifts go first and the single-joint ones last. The ACSM's 2009 position stand recommends that strength programs put large-muscle and multiple-joint exercises before small-muscle and single-joint ones,² and pairing the curl with the extension is a superset of two muscles that don't compete. Eighteen working sets; with the rests below, plan on about an hour.

The dumbbell session, at home

Same four slots, same order, with a pair of dumbbells and, if you have one, a bench.

1. Flat press, 3 × 6–12. Dumbbell bench press, or the floor press without a bench. When the dumbbells get light, push-ups fill the slot.
2. Row, 3 × 8–12 each arm. One-arm dumbbell row, a hand on the bench or a chair.
3. Overhead press, 3 × 8–12. Seated or standing dumbbell shoulder press.
4. Vertical pull, 3 × 8–12. Pull-ups on a doorway bar, or a pulldown with a band anchored above a door. With neither, another pull: a dumbbell pullover, or the doorframe row from the bodyweight workout.
5. Lateral raise, 2 × 12–15. Dumbbells.
6. A curl and an overhead extension, 2 × 10–15 each. Dumbbell or hammer curls, and an overhead extension holding one dumbbell in both hands.

The lighter weights at home are less of a problem than they look. The ACSM's 2026 stand found that loads anywhere from 30% to 100% of a one-rep max didn't change muscle growth.¹ In an eight-week trial, 18 untrained young men did either bench presses at 40% of their one-rep max or push-ups adjusted to the same load, twice a week; both groups gained similar chest and triceps thickness and similar bench press strength.³ What changes is how you make a set hard: when the reps climb past 15, a 2021 review of time-efficient training says sets of 15 to 40 reps can be used if they're taken to failure.⁴ Short of that, slow the lowering or move to a harder version.

Sets, reps, rest and effort

• Reps. 6 to 12 on the four big lifts, 10 to 15 on the raises and arms. The 2021 review recommends a 6 to 15 rep-max range for strength and muscle,⁴ and the ACSM's 2009 stand puts the emphasis for muscle on 6 to 12.² (How many reps, in more detail.)
• Effort. End each set with one to three good reps left; the raises and curls can go closer. The ACSM's 2026 stand found that taking sets to failure didn't change muscle growth,¹ so you don't need to. (How to judge reps left.)
• Rest. Two to three minutes after the press and the row, about ninety seconds after the overhead press and the pulldown, about a minute on the raises and arms. A 2018 review of 23 studies found rests longer than two minutes were needed to get the most strength in trained lifters, while 60 to 120 seconds was enough in untrained people.⁵ For muscle, a 2024 Bayesian meta-analysis of nine studies found a small benefit from resting more than 60 seconds and no appreciable difference beyond 90.⁶ (Rest between sets.)
• Warm-up. Two or three lighter sets of the first press, building to the working weight. (The full warm-up.)

Twice a week: what the sets add up to

Run the session twice a week and count the hard sets each muscle gets. A 2026 meta-regression of 67 studies found the strongest support for counting a set that trains a muscle only indirectly, like a row's work for the biceps, as half a set.⁷ On that count, two sessions give:

The ACSM's 2026 stand found muscle growth enhanced by ten or more sets per muscle group a week,¹ and how many sets per week puts someone new to lifting at 6 to 10. So the session lands most muscles near ten and leaves the chest at six, which is plenty for your first months. When the chest matters more, add a set to the press, or swap the second session's flat press for an incline press at about 30 degrees and add a fly, the way the chest workout does it.

Pair it with a lower day

An upper body session is half the job. The World Health Organization's guideline is muscle-strengthening activity that involves all major muscle groups on two or more days a week,⁸ and the legs, hips and core aren't in this session. Put a leg day next to it:

• Two days a week: this session once and a leg day once trains each major muscle group once. A full-body plan, which trains everything every session, fits two or three days better.
• Four days a week: upper, lower, off, upper, lower. That is the upper/lower split, and its page has the two upper and two lower sessions, the progression and what to do when you miss a day.

Two days in a row is fine when one is upper and the other lower; they train different muscles.

Upper body workout for women, and for men

The same session. A 2025 Bayesian meta-analysis of 29 studies in healthy adults aged 18 to 45, with men and women on the same training, found relative increases in muscle size similar between the sexes; absolute increases slightly favoured men, in the upper body but not the lower body.⁹ The weights on the bar will differ. The exercises, sets, reps and rests above don't need to. Strength training for women covers the research in women and two example weeks.

Common mistakes

• Three presses and one row. Count the sets: the session above has as many pulling sets as pressing sets.
• Skipping the vertical pull because pull-ups are hard. A pulldown, an assisted pull-up or a band does the same job while you build up.
• Arms first. Tired arms cut the reps on every press and row after them. Keep them last.
• Heavy, swinging raises. A lateral raise works at a weight you can lift and lower under control; drop the weight before you shorten the rep.
• The same weights for months. Write every set down and add reps, then weight. (Progressive overload.)
• Working through a sharp pain in a shoulder or elbow. Effort and soreness are part of it; a sharp or lasting pain isn't. Stop that exercise, and see a doctor or a physical therapist.

Common questions

How many exercises in an upper body workout?

Four big lifts, one per direction, cover it; the raise and the arm pair make six. More exercises rarely help as much as more sets on the ones you have.

Can you train upper body every day?

You don't need to. With weekly sets matched, the ACSM's 2026 stand found that training once a week or more than five days a week didn't change muscle growth.¹ Twice a week, with your legs on other days, is enough to fit the sets in.

An upper body workout with no equipment?

Push-ups for both presses (a pike push-up for the overhead slot), and a doorframe row for both pulls. The bodyweight workout has the easier and harder version of each.

If you'd rather have it built for you

The session is the easy part. Which lifts suit your gym and your shoulders, how many sets your chest needs this month, and where the upper days fall in a week that keeps changing are the parts a page can't settle. Coaching is the version where your workouts live in the Trainerize app, built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call goes over the week you just had and sets the next one. Coaching to build muscle explains how that works, and apply is where you tell me about your training. Otherwise: run the gym or the dumbbell session twice this week and write every set down.