What is THE best way to improve upper body strength, arm strength?

The ultimate upper body strength exercises. I would probably be overhead barbell press and the pullup.

 

You should look up Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength.
I believe you can buy the book on amazon.
It's an excellent program for people who are looking to make impressive gains in muscle mass and strength.

 

My arms never looked better than when I just did regular boxing. The combination of pushups, pullups, ab/lower back exercises, and bag-work helped tremendously. I used to play in multiple sports too, but this was the only one that transformed my body.

http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-beginner-strength-training-program/ is also a great program. You will get bigger if you follow the program and diet. We used to call the prone bridges "planks" at my old boxing gym. You might know them better by that name.

 

Get a job on a farm.

Seriously though. As boxingtactics07 said regular boxing exercise, bag work in particular IMO, develops the arms pretty well. If you want mass weights may be better though.

 

That's what I have used in the past an it worked for me. I can still remember the look on one of my mates face when I beat him at arm wrestling for the first time. I weighed about 135lbs at the time and he was 190lbs minimum maybe closer to 200lbs at I didn't even break a sweat. :happy

 

Now that's pretty impressive :shock:

 

Make friends with squatting and deadlifting, you'll be amazed how much stronger you get just from those two exercises. For bicep work nothing beats chins and bent over rows. For triceps benching and dips are the way to go.

If you want to add mass the only thing that will do it is eating healthy clean foods like a savage pig.

 

For boxing: Pushups, Pullups and hitting the bags.

 

agreed, i would personally add dips and sledge hammer drills to this. tire flips add a little upper body workout too. theres a lot of different things you can do without doing a 'weight lifting' routine and still build strength. I hardly ever lift weights yet through what i do do my 1RM's are almost always improving

edit* if you want to add mass then you'll have to incorporate a weight routine. I've added significant strength but haven't really bulked up at all just got more toned. I've added maybe a few inches here n there but nothing special. On that note, nothing wrong with unexpected strength like Mr. Bomber's arm wrestling story. I'd much prefer strength on that end than bulk.

 

OK, which clown hacked into RDJ's account?


In reply to the thread, pullups and rows are great for the lats and biceps, dips and bench press are good for the triceps, and the overhead press wil do shoulders and triceps as well. If you don't fancy going to all this hassle, keep hitting the bag. You'll be improving your boxing and getting bigger arms, it'll just happen slower.

 

yeah dont focus on curls that much. They are an isolation exercise and you should do them last after you have done your pull ups, lat pull downs, rows ect. And dont neglect the triceps. do them after chest.

 

dips, pull ups and chins are all pretty good

 

take a look at this site it's full of great tips on developing explosive strength for combat athletes:

www.rosstraining.com

Kind Regards BH