1-Exercise Workout | Upper Back | Flat Bench + Dumbbells

Bryce Winter
2 days ago
2 min read

Today's 1-Exercise workout core phase was completed in a little over 15 minutes. The result was a very intense workout, lots of sweat and a well worked upper back.

Warm-up Phase

For my warm-up, I used the Elliptical Trainer hands-free, as usual. Today, however, I did something new, after the first phase (8 minutes at level 14), I switched direction and worked the same thing backwards, which was a surprisingly different challenge. I did find I needed to reduce the level to 10 to keep up a good pace going backwards. I could feel different minor muscles and tendons being tested, so didn' go over aggressive. It was great! After 16 minutes total on the Elliptical, I stopped and moved to the free-weight gym for the core phase of my workout.

Core Phase

For my core, 1-Exercise portion, I chose a flat bench and a medium-heavy dumbbell. Here are the exercises I did:

1-arm row, right side, then left side.
Using the same dumbbell, Overhead Pullover
1-arm row, right side, then left side, again
Overhead Pullover, again

I find this combination of exercises to be beneficial for a big, strength oriented shoulder and upper back / lat workout. The alternation of pushing and opening (1-arm row, the pullover) really helps lengthen and strengthen the lat muscles especially (helpful if you're interested in a developing a v-taper profile!).

This core phase was two full sets for me, as I was going pretty heavy, so quite slowly and so had a bit of a rest to catch my breath between sets, without cooling off. The key concept with the 1-exersise workout is to keep the exercises continuous, there is no set resting time, only what is needed to get your breath calm enough to breathe through the nose.

Secondary Phase

For my secondary, 1-Exerise portion, I chose a mat in a calm area of the gym combined with enough Sun Salutations to slow everything down, about 8 minutes.

Cool-down

For today's cool-down I used the balance board to practice some my overall balanee and small muscle controls on a single point balance board, another 8 minutes.