It can be intimidating to put a workout program together for yourself, especially if you’ve just begun to exercise. In order to keep my clients on a consistent routine, I’ll often recommend YouTube workouts to try in between our scheduled sessions.
On one recent YouTube search I found physical therapist Dr. Kristie Ennis’ five-minute beginner arm workout, which targets key upper body muscle groups like the biceps, triceps, rotator cuff and mid to lower trapezoids. These muscles all need to be strong and conditioned for popular exercises like push-ups, rows, and overhead presses.
If you’ve just started a fitness regimen and want a great introductory upper body workout, Dr. Ennis’ program would be an excellent choice. Here are a few reasons why I think it’s one of the best you can find, and why even experienced athletes could benefit from this routine.
How to do Dr. Ennis’ five-minute upper body workout
You’ll need a looped resistance band and dumbbells for this workout. The light resistance band and 3-pound weights I used felt appropriate, but you may want to select a lighter weight if you’re a beginner.
The routine includes seven exercises each done for 10 repetitions:
- Banded external shoulder rotations
- Banded pullbacks
- Y raises
- Bent over lateral raises
- Bicep curl
- Bent over tricep kickbacks
- Hammer curl with cross punch
Shop workout equipment
You can get short-looped resistance bands and light dumbbells for less than $16 all together. Here are some quick options from Amazon.
Why I recommend this workout
Dr. Ennis offers excellent verbal cues
There are some wonderful workouts to be found on YouTube and Instagram, but more often than not they lack decent cueing. This isn’t an issue if you know what you’re doing, but a little bit of form guidance can make a world of difference for a beginner.
Instead of opting for an upbeat soundtrack to accompany her workout, Dr. Ennis focuses on providing clear verbal cues and tips. This is extremely important, as many of the exercises she includes are basic but often done incorrectly. Including these verbal cues all but guarantees you’ll get the full benefits of the workout.
The exercises can be easily modified (or progressed)
Another common gripe I have with social media workouts is the absence of any exercise modifications. In many cases, showing alternatives would open up the workout to a wider range of fitness levels.
Dr. Ennis mentions early on that all of the exercises can be performed seated, which makes the workout more accessible to those with low back pain, mobility concerns, or other health considerations. I would have loved to see Dr. Ennis demonstrate some of the exercises while seated, but even just mentioning it is a great step. She further suggests doing the exercises unweighted if needed.
It’s also fairly easy to progress the routine. Dr. Ennis notes that beginners should perform the exercises for one round, but those with more experience can go for multiple rounds. I’ll add that you can always choose heavier resistance bands and weights for a more challenging experience.
It’s a great upper body warm-up for intermediate and advanced fitness levels
I’ve been through my fair share of upper-body workouts as a fitness professional, but I’ll always advocate for a return to the basics. Going through this routine myself was helpful for addressing some recent range of motion issues and pain in my shoulder, and also served as an efficient and well-rounded warm-up for the bench presses and heavy rows I had on my schedule.
It’s likely that I’ll re-visit this routine as a warm-up in the future, and I’d happily recommend it to my more advanced clients for the same purpose.
If you want more routines like this, try doing this dumbbell upper body workout or have a go at this resistance band arms workout.
