Focus & Benefits: This quick upper body strength routine strikes a balance between push and pull exercises and gives you an opportunity to identify strength imbalances and movement differences during the unilateral exercises (one arm at a time). The shorter duration also makes this workout a fun benchmarking option for challenging your weight selections and tracking your progress with repeated attempts.

Equipment: You’ll need a range of “medium” to “moderately heavy” weights for this routine. These weights will not be your heaviest options as we are only getting 15 seconds of transition time between exercises, but they should be heavy enough to challenge you during the 30 seconds of work.

A mat is also a good idea for the floor work in circuit 2.

Tips & Helpful Information: Note any differences in strength and/or movement execution from one side to the next during the unilateral exercises. These observations are “feedback not judgment” and are instrumental to helping us work towards minimizing these differences (a perfect balance doesn’t exist!).

For the bird-dog renegade rows, forcefully press your non-weighted arm into the ground as you row with the working arm. Keeping the “non-working” arm active during unilateral exercises helps with core engagement and stabilization.

Difficulty & Modifications Explained: This routine is rated as a level 3, because your weight selections are the primary determinant of the overall workout difficulty. However, the core strength and coordination required for the unilateral exercises could make the routine feel like a level 4. Decrease the overall difficulty of the workout by opting for lighter weight selections, decreasing your range of motion, and/or slowing the transition time between multicomponent movement patterns.

Closing Notes: Enjoy the quick upper body muscle pump from this short workout! And remember – short workouts don’t always mean easy workouts. Use your weight selections to determine the difficulty level/intensity of this routine.

Have fun!

Workout
Warm-Up: 30 sec per exercise, no rest between exercises (3:00)
-Arm Circles (forward and back)
-Inchworm + Renegade Rows
-Thread the Needle – R
-Thread the Needle – L
-Bird-Dog
-Lat Pull-Down (palms forward) + Straight Arm Shoulder Squeezes (palms face, chest height)

***30 sec off***

My Weights (not a recommendation, just a reference):
-(Medium to Moderately Heavy) 20 lbs. (9.1 kg) to 30 lbs. (~14 kg)

Circuit #1: 30 sec on / 15 sec off / 2 rounds (~4:15)
-SA Rotational Biceps Curl + Arnold Press – R (1 weight)
-SA Rotational Biceps Curl + Arnold Press – L (1 weight)
-Tempo Low Row (1-0-3) (2 weights)

***Water Break #1***

Circuit #2: 30 sec on / 15 sec off / 2 rounds (~4:15)
-SA Bird-Dog Renegade Row – R (1 weight)
-SA Bird-Dog Renegade Row – L (1 weight)
-Alt. Regular + Narrow/Neutral Grip Chest Press (2 weights)

***Water Break #2***

Shoulder/Biceps Finisher: 20 sec on / no rest / 2 rounds – 20 sec off between rounds (~2:00) (2 weights)
-Reciprocal Overhead Presses
-Reciprocal Biceps Curls

Cool-Down: approx. 30 sec per stretch (approx. 3:00)
-Chest Opener/Biceps Stretch + Wrist Rotations
-Wrist/Forearm Stretch – R
-Wrist/Forearm Stretch – L
-Overhead Triceps/Lats Stretch – R
-Overhead Triceps/Lats Stretch – L
-Tree Hug