As you gain training experience, it’s only natural to experiment with more advanced muscle-building techniques and challenging variations. But recently performance coach Bobby Rich, who trains David and Victoria Beckham, posted a reminder that even those at the top of their game aren’t above a straightforward dumbbell session.
“I had twenty minutes max for a simple little press and pull upper body”, his Instagram Reel reads.
So he picked three strength-boosting staples. The raw ingredients are the dumbbell bench press, seated dumbbell shoulder press and one-arm dumbbell row. He performed each dumbbell exercise for four sets of 10 reps, resting for 60 seconds between each set, then hit the showers.
With just three moves, Rich recruits the entire upper body and covers three of the body’s fundamental movement patterns, building functional strength.
He plumps for a pushing movement in the bench press, a pulling movement in the dumbbell row and a pressing exercise in the shoulder press.
The bench press will work your chest muscles, front delt and triceps, the row hits the back muscles as well as your biceps, and the shoulder press targets the medial delt (one of the three delt muscles in your shoulder) while also engaging the front delt, upper pec and triceps.
The sum of these parts is a time-savvy session that delivers a comprehensive pump for your top half, as well as the strength and muscle gains you’d expect from a spot of weight training.
So next time you’re in a rush, grab a couple of dumbbells and get to work. Got a little more time to play with? Try this seven-move dumbbell upper-body workout.
