for all you people that know what you are talking about, your advice is needed.
i am currently working out 5-6x per week, weightlifting for approximately 1hr and doing cardio (eliptical, running) for approximately 1/2hr per day. when i am lifting, i usually focus on chest and back on one day, and then biceps, triceps, and legs on alternating days. when i work on my chest and back, my pecs (just as an example) tend to get tired it i go from bench, to incline, to decline, etc. my question is this: is it ok for me to alternate between one chest exercise to a back exercise and back and forth within one day? or should i do all chest exercises and then all back exercises? i know if i alternated, i could get more reps in, but i dont know if it is ok to do this. this goes for all muscle groups i work out, i was just using chest as an example.
usually you want to do chest + tris on the same day, and back and bis. the exercises that work chest use a lot of tri, and same with the back for bis. i do legs and shoulders on the 3rd day, and try to do abs whenever theres energy left over.
some people do the opposite, but IMO that’s not the best way b/c then your muscles don’t get any time to heal.
typically i do standard bench, then decline, then a tri, butterflys, then a tri, then incline, then a tri. it’s really “best” if you can handle all of the chest exercises in a row, but sometimes your body just needs a short break in between. more important is that you do a few sets of the same exercise in a row without an extended break.
alternating is fine. I tend to do circuits from time to time and thats alternating so your fine with that.
However I would changed from chest & back to chest and tris, back and bi’s as mentioned above. You want to group like muscle groups together, ones that emphasize the same ones because then your working the muscles at the same time, giving them time to rest in between days.
If you constantly are exercising them you aren’t giving them time to recover/heal/grow so that is why its better to group those together with each other. (also pretty much everything badazzss said haha)
Like above Chest and Tris, then Back and bis. I wouldn’t be doing chest more than twice a week.
When I was really into power lifting I had my best increases when I would do chest on Monday and then again Friday or on the weekend. Every other day doesn’t give you muscles enough time to repair.
Bench the bar with two 5 lbs weights on the side. 100 times. You can “stop” in the middle to rest, but you can’t put the bar down. Do it as fast as you can while keeping control and correct form.
I used to be all about big weight and gaining mass, but when I tried to do just the bar for 100 times, I near cried around 75 reps lol.
Continue that with all your other workouts - low weight, high reps.
I usually do workouts that work the same group of muscles out.
Chest, shoulders, tris, forearms.
Back, Biceps, foreames (I do forearms everytime i work out)
before you take any of the advice given already, identify what your goals are.
from the sounds of it you are at a plateu (pla-tow, i suck at spelling). there are different ways to get around this, some of them were already suggested. if it isnt just a pla-tow (i crack myself up) and you are looking to see different results then you have a bit more work.
identify your goals and you might find that what you are doing is completely opposite of what you should be to attain them.
disclaimer: i am not a personal trainer, i am by no means licensed in the school of fitness and furthermore i am not in peak physical condition. i do however claim to have been at one point in my life close to being all three of the previous statements.
thanks for all the recommendations guys, i will try this stuff out tonight…
howie, does this help cut fat too? will i lose strength? im not looking to add mass at all, im just worried about losing the strength i have.
thanks for everything… keep the suggestings coming
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You won’t lose strength. You can throw in some heavy sets here and there, but for the most part, you won’t lose stregth. What good is maxing out? It’s like having a small NOS bottle on a 400 shot - only good for one shot.
This type of work out cuts fat like you would not believe. It in essence, is also a cardio workout - it keeps your heart rate up and works the little supporting muscles a lot more than you would think.
usually you want to do chest + tris on the same day, and back and bis. the exercises that work chest use a lot of tri, and same with the back for bis. i do legs and shoulders on the 3rd day, and try to do abs whenever theres energy left over.
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Working out shoulders uses a lot of chest and tris also, so you might want to add it in that routine. But yeah, I agree that working primary and secondary muscles in the same day is the best way to do it.
yeah i do. i know shoulders uses a lot of chest, but i had to break up that day a little bit b/c it was running longer than the time i had to do the workout in… so in the interest of doing good full sets, i dropped shoulders onto another day.
but definitely, if you have the time, shoulders should be done in conjunction w/ chest/tris.
i wanted to try howie’s max reps strategy and meant to a while back… then forgot about it. have to definitelty try that sometime soon. i just don’t want to cry in the middle of the gym when i can only do 50-60
[quote=“Pass McGrass,post:12,topic:28658"”]
Working out shoulders uses a lot of chest and tris also, so you might want to add it in that routine. But yeah, I agree that working primary and secondary muscles in the same day is the best way to it.
What time do you usually go? I’m in there all the time.
I’ve done 100 reps without any weights on the bar, and it’s pretty fucking hard. It feels kinda like the burn when you climbed the rope in gym class, except it doesn’t feel good at all
Not sure if its true but I heard it takes 3 days of working out (not sure how long each day) to gain muscle and 2 days to lose that muscle you gained. So technically you would have to work out 5-6 days a week to keep gaining muscle. Thats why to me I found it pointless to do 1 or 2 groups of muscles once or twice a week but what the fuck do I know.
Not sure if its true but I heard it takes 3 days of working out (not sure how long each day) to gain muscle and 2 days to lose that muscle you gained. So technically you would have to work out 5-6 days a week to keep gaining muscle. Thats why to me I found it pointless to do 1 or 2 groups of muscles once or twice a week but what the fuck do I know.
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doesn’t sound right… you muscles take lots of time to heal… more than a week at times…
you can easily workout a muscle or muscle group once every 7-10 days and keep gaining. of course the gains will be slower than if you worked out the same every 4-5 days.
many people once they get into a routine will do the same body part twice every 7-8 days, so it probably takes 3 good days to heal up. note: of course i have learned thru trial and error, when starting out or after a long break, it takes a helluva lot longer to heal!
pass - i try to make it there a couple nights a week around 6-7ish, also try to make it a couple mornings every week… those are rare occasions though.
i wanted to try howie’s max reps strategy and meant to a while back… then forgot about it. have to definitelty try that sometime soon. i just don’t want to cry in the middle of the gym when i can only do 50-60
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LOL!
You have no idea how many looks I get, especially when I’m done - and I’m like, breathing all hard and shit, sweating like a bitch. They are like “wtf is wrong with that guy, all he did was lift the bar.”
