5 Best Upper Body Exercises for Young Athletes

While most young athletes primarily focus on their lower body strength, upper body exercises are equally beneficial.

Indeed, lower body strength is crucial – after all, the calves, hamstrings, quads, and glutes are major muscles used in most sports. However, building upper body strength can make you even stronger and physically capable. The muscles in the upper body play an important role in generating power to get you into motion, helping you resist anything that comes during athletic performances.

Studies suggest that three sessions of upper body training a week are sufficient to keep the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones functioning healthily and develop competence while making you a more capable and powerful athlete.

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Upper Body Exercises for Young Athletes

Check out these five amazing upper body exercises that are a must for every young athlete:

1) Pull-up

One of the best upper body exercises, pull-ups target some of the major muscles, including the pecs, delts, lats, triceps, and biceps while also engaging the entire core muscles for stabilization.

Here’s how to do a standard pull-up:

• Stand straight and tall underneath a pull-up bar, and hold the bar using an overhand grip, with your hands at shoulder-width distance.
• Keeping your shoulder blades back and down, pull yourself up towards the bar, with your toes pointing straight.
• Continue to pull yourself up till your chin reaches the bar. Slowly lower yourself back to the starting position, and repeat.
• Look to work up to two sets of five reps, and gradually increase the reps.

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2) Push-up

Another amazing strength-building upper body exercise, push-ups not only target the triceps and chest but also work on the muscles in the abs, shoulders, back, and legs.

Here’s how to do a standard push-up:

• Start the exercise by lying face down on the ground, with both feet slightly apart and hands halfway up your ribs.
• Squeezing your abs and butt, push your body off the floor while keeping your arms on your sides rather than elbows flaring out. This elbow position helps prevent shoulder pain.
• Lower yourself down to the starting position once your arms get extended, and make sure not to bend the hips.
• Ensure that your body is in a straight line from head to your toe.
• Perform at least ten reps.

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3) Medicine Ball Slam

One of the best plyometric exercises for the upper body, the medicine ball slam helps boost all-around strength and power.

Here’s how to do this exercise:

• Start the exercise by standing upright, with your feet at shoulder-width distance. and hips and knees slightly bent. Hold a medicine ball. with both hands at torso level.
• Engaging your core muscles and contracting the abs towards the spine, squat down slightly.
• In one powerful move, press through your heels to slam the ball straight down on the floor between your feet. Use as much power as you can to slam the ball.
• Make sure that the ball is over your head before you slam it on the floor.
• Squat down again to pick the ball from the ground, and quickly move into the next rep. Position yourself on the balls of your feet as you lift the ball overhead.

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4) Overhead Press

Overhead presses are a challenging yet strength-building upper body exercise, so it's better to start with a lighter weight.

Here’s how to do this exercise:

• Start the exercise by standing straight. with dumbbells in both hands positioned overhead and palms facing out.
• Do not arch your spine, and keep your core muscles engaged throughout the exercise.
• Bend your elbows, and bring the dumbbells down till they reach your ears. Press the weights back up, and make sure to use a slow and controlled movement.
• Perform a few reps.

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5) Bent Over Row

Any kind of rowing movement uses resistance, which creates a beneficial pulling motion and helps you become more powerful.

Although there are several rowing exercises, such as TRX rows and seated rows, bent-over rows are some of the best ones and offer great upper body benefits.

Here’s how to do this exercise:

• Place a barbell in front of you on the floor.
• With the body straight and feet at shoulder-width distance, hinge at your hips, and pick up the bar with both hands.
• Maintaining this position and with your torso parallel to the floor, engage your abs, and pull the barbell towards your body till it reaches the ribs.
• Lower the barbell to the starting position, and perform a few reps.

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Takeaway

The aforementioned exercises ensure that the major muscle groups above the waist have the power, endurance, and strength you need for your best athletic performance.