Building a strong upper body doesn’t come from doing more exercises but doing the right ones consistently and applying progressive overload. Some movements give you a far better return for the time and effort you put in. In this post, I’ll show you my top 10 go-to exercises to build strength in your chest, back, shoulders, and arms. These are all compound lifts, meaning they train multiple joints and muscle groups at once. They’re the foundation of strength. Isolation exerci

My strongest week yet — and also the one where my shoulder fell apart like a cracked oar on a Viking ship. A breakdown of my workouts, injury missteps, and what I learned heading into my next training cycle.

This week’s training was a mix of highs and hard lessons—from hitting a new bench press PR to struggling with deadlifts and prepping for a future Half Ironman. I’m sharing my honest training log, insights on progress vs. fatigue, and how I balance cardio, lifting, and life.

Big milestone this week — I benched three plates for the first time. This training log covers my full workout week: strength PRs, Olympic lifts, cardio intervals, and thoughts on balancing intensity with recovery.

After last week's recovery, I felt good. Well rested and eager to train. I modified my workout schedule slightly, in an attempt to...

This week, I skipped cardio and focused purely on strength training—heavy bench press, paused deadlifts, rows, Olympic lifts, and a test run of the reverse band incline press. Here’s a breakdown of my workouts and how I’m planning next week’s recovery phase.