TRUE Workout: Upper Body Strength Burnout for FUSE XL
A strong upper body can provide you with a lot of benefits like improved body stabilization, and reducing the risk of injuries and fatigue, regardless of what you are training for. Having a strong upper body is important to ensure that energy is being transferred properly all throughout your body. Enabling your upper body muscles will allow you to perform every day and sports activities at an optimal level.
Exercise Goals
This workout incorporates several of the FUSE XL strength pieces that are designed to hit every muscle group in your upper body! The first
two movements focus on strength while the following movements are a combination of strength, conditioning, and muscular hypertrophy. You will be feeling the burn once you complete this workout!
Tips Before the Workout
First, make sure you complete a proper warm up before diving into this workout. A good warm up could consist of some cardio, stretching, or foam rolling.
When working on the Chest Press and Shoulder Press superset, be sure to allow yourself three to four warm up sets. Each set should be gradually increased to help you find the best weight for you to use for each set. For example:
- 40lbs x5 reps
- 70lbsx5 reps
- 90lbsx5 reps,
- 100lbsx5 reps (This set of 100lbs was challenging so this will be your first of 2 additional work sets).
To adjust this workout for your skill level there are a few things to consider.
- For a Beginner user, use a weight that is moderately challenging but enables you to keep perfect form with every rep.
- For an Intermediate user, use a weight that is challenging to complete all your sets.
- For an Advanced user, use a weight that is very challenging to complete the first set, rest around 3-4 minutes and complete it again at the same weight. This will help maximize strength adaptations. For the conditioning portion of the workout try not to rest.
Proper Forms To Remember For This Workout
When performing this workout, there are several forms that you need to remember in order to keep proper form to make the workout more effective and prevent injuries:
- FUSE-0900 Chest Press
- When you start to push, make sure your elbows are below your shoulders and your shoulder blades are pinched back together and stay that way. The handles should be below your shoulders to make this possible. Press out till your arms are fully extended keeping neutral wrists and return to the starting position.
- FUSE-0700 Shoulder Press
- Set the seat up so that your hands are slightly above shoulder height. Grab the handles with a neutral wrist and vertical forearm. Press the handles as far away from you as possible. (Think shrug upward at the top). Return the handles back to the starting position ensuring you keep a vertical forearm. Stop the handles just before the weight stack hits.
- Pushups
- Begin lying on the floor. Put your hands just outside your shoulders and about armpit level. (Your forearm should be vertical). Tighten up your legs and core, and then push away from the floor. At the top, push as far away from the floor as you can. (Flatten your back out). Slowly lower yourself back down, tap your chest to the floor and repeat. If this is too hard to do from your feet, simply push from your knees instead.
- FUSE-1200 Seated Row
- Make sure your back stays very straight, and do not let your chest sink in and back round. When pulling the weight back, let your elbows come to a 45 degree angle and focus on squeezing your shoulder blades together until the handles are even with your chest.
- FUSE-1100 Lat Pulldown
- Starts with fully extended arms, and when you initiate the pulldown, try to squeeze your scapula down towards your butt. End with the bar just below your chin with vertical forearms. Finally, return the bar to the fully extend arm position and keep your knees pressed against the pad during the whole set.
- FUSE-1100 Pec Fly
- At the start, set the handles up so they are just behind your shoulders. During the movement, keep your elbows slightly bent with your elbows slightly below your shoulder level.
- FUSE-600 Biceps Curl
- When setting up, be sure your arm pits are firmly into the top of the arm rest and your upper arm is flat on the rest. Once set up, keep a big chest and flat back when you curl the handles toward you. Follow through by squeezing up until you cannot move the handles anymore.
- FUSE-1500 Triceps Pushdown
- For wider shoulders, move the handles to the out position. For narrow shoulders, move the handles to the in position. In the starting position, push to get your upper arm parallel to the floor and at the extended position your whole arm should be vertical to the floor.
The Exercise
Final Thoughts
Proper form is the most important part of working out. Keeping focus on your form with each movement and rep prevents injury and ensures you are getting the most out of your workout. This is very important on all movements but be extra vigilant on the Chest Press and Shoulder Press: These are the heaviest pressing movements of the workout.
If you cannot do push-ups from your feet be sure to regress the movement by simply dropping to your knees.
Log your weights used and simply repeat this workout in a week or two to see how much you have improved. After this upper body workout make sure you stay active, eat enough food, and rest enough, all of these factors will help you recover faster so you are ready for the next workout.