Upper body routine...newbie here.

[aldeswari]

Not entirely ignorant though. Lifted all throughout high school with the soccer team, but was pretty minimal and basic. 3x10 bench and incline twice a week, auxillary if we felt like it, and plate workout at the end.

Season's offer now and I'd like to get more serious about lifting (not competition serious, just to get in shape), though I want to focus only on upper body now.

I was hoping someone here would help me build a routine, though I'm limited to an adjustable bench/barbell and dumbbells.

Thanks.

[Jeff_Brodsky]

With the equipment you have you can splityour upper body like this - most sets should be performed 15 reps unless specified

here is the split:
Mon - chest / Traps
Tue - Rest
Wed - Back / Shoulders
Thur - rest
Fri - Arms

Use the following routines if you'd like

Chest
4 sets of incline barbell
4 sets of flat dumbbell
3 sets of dumbbell flyes
3 sets of dumbbell pullovers

Traps
4 sets of Barbel Shrugs
4 sets of Dumbbell Shrugs

Back
Deadlifts
3 sets to failure Pull Ups (if you have a place to do em)
4 sets One Arm Dumbell Rows
4 sets Bent Over Barbell Rows

Shoulders
4 sets 15 reps Bent Over Lateral Raises Dumbbell
4 sets 15 reps Side Lateral Raises Dumbbell
3 sets 12, 8, 6 Standing Over Head Barbell Press

Arms
4 sets Standing Alternate Dumbbell Curls
4 sets Standing Barbell Curls
4 sets Hammer Curls
4 sets Bench Dips
4 sets Skull Crushers
4 sets Overhead Dumbbel Extensions
4 sets of 20 Behind Back Barbell Wrist Curls

best of luck.. make sure you have a solid nutrition plan in place

[Darkhorse]

Season's offer now and I'd like to get more serious about lifting (not competition serious, just to get in shape), though I want to focus only on upper body now.

I was hoping someone here would help me build a routine, though I'm limited to an adjustable bench/barbell and dumbbells.

Why do you want to focus more on upper body than lower? The reason I ask is because most upper body strength/mass as well as overall fitness in general stems from lower body work..ie Rock bottom squats, deadlifts, ect.

I'm definately not a complete fan of high volume work, especially if natural/just starting back up.. For someone just starting up lifting "more seriously", I recommend you do three full body workouts per week. By full body, I'm not saying to hit each "part" of the muscle because that's really not necessary. I very good idea would be to read over the hst thread I made explaining why less is more found here. Another very good read that goes against most "muscle-mag" routines is here. Now, using that information combined with your limited in house supply of equipment, I'd recommend something more like the following. Just pick one exercise per bodypart and change the rep range every two weeks...

Monday, Wednesday, Friday:

2 weeks of 15 reps
2 weeks of 10 reps
3 weeks of 5 reps

By doing the same workout every other day with slightly more weight each time, you will ellicit a growth response by way of progressive overload. I'm sure others will chyme in with more info on hypertrophy, but for now, I'd advise you to look through that HST link I provided in the beginning.