The Only Equipment You Need for This 10-Minute Upper-Body Workout Is a Towel

You’ll find that equipment varies greatly from one home gym to the next, but you don’t necessarily need trendy high-tech machines for an effective workout. A yoga mat and a set of light dumbbells are often enough to do the trick. But in the latest episode of Good Moves, all you really need for a comprehensive upper-body workout is a dish towel.

Instead of using weights or resistance bands, Colette Dong, founder of The Ness in New York City, says you can complete a 10-minute upper-body workout without buying something you don’t already own. “You can grab a sweat towel or a dish towel—something on the tinier end,” she says. “We’re going to work all of the upper body muscles, and even the abs and obliques, to get everything activated and firing.”

Even though you’re not working with weights, Dong’s upper-body towel exercises really make you work for it. Think about how hard it is to hold your arms up after a couple minutes. It’s like that, except—sorry to inform you—it’s even more difficult because you don’t get to rest your arms at all while doing exercises like arm pumps, tricep press-ups, and bicep curls during the 10-minute workout.

Just when you think you’re almost done with this upper body towel workout, Dong has one more surprise for you: a tricep burnout. She says you’ll probably never look at your dish towel the same way ever again after this workout. And I think she’s right.

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