dealing with weaker body parts

I have always been from the school of thought that you should train your weaker muscles at the beggining of your workout, when you have the most energy.

eg. if its arm day and your triceps are lagging behind then you should train them before biceps

however i have recently come across a theory whereby you do the opposite and train your weaker part last.

the reasons being that at the end of your workout you will have a higher heart rate and more blood can be pumped around that weaker muscle and at a quicker rate. also straight after your workout when you take your glutamine, amino acids etc, that weaker body part is going to be the first area to receive the benefits from the supplements

i have not tried this technique as of yet, but i do have a few issues with lagging body parts and just wandered if anyone else had tried this or knows of anyone who has and has achieved good results?

It woould be easier helping you if we knew your workout-routine...

If your triceps are lagging do a 10 minut warm-up and then your triceps routine... I would never do my lagging bodypart last... You could also do the triceps routine alone if you do that the lagging boyd-part would get all of thed glutamine, amino acids etc...

i am actually changing my routine as of today.
i was originally hitting each body part once a week, but with this new routine that i got off one of Swolecats threads (i have made a slight alteration though) i will be hitting each part once every 5days

it is as follows:

Day 1: Chest/Sh + traps/Triceps

Day 2: Quads

Day 3: Back/Biceps/rear delts

Day 4: Hams/Calves/Abs

Day 5: Cardio only.

Day 6: Repeat.

my lagging body parts are chest and legs (basically the whole lower body)
on day 1 there is no way that i would attempt to train chest after delts and tri's, will be doing chest first, then delts, followed by tri's

quads and hams are on different days which i like

Thats an interesting theory, however I think its all how your individual body would react to that type of training. It could be a big shock to work the lagging body part last, and thus giving you a big growth boost. And in reference to the nutritional aspect, it again would depend how well your body takes to supplements, and how your body would allow the distribution of AA's and glut etc etc.

here is a split that works for me and i put chest as my priority

day 1-chest
day 2-legs
day 3-bis abbs
day 4-cardio
day 5-cardio
day 6-cardio
day 7-delts tris
day 8-back trapz
day 9-cardio
day 10-cardio
off

repeat



i come back stronger, bigger leaner every workout.

G-Force,
1st off you need a day or 2 off so your muscles can heal. i would space out your tri and shoulder workout because your using triceps with shoulders chest and obviously triceps.

>>what works for someone doesn't work for everyone. from what ive seen/learned and done, the best way to jumpstart your legs is to do around 20 reps for each set for about 2 weeks. As for your chest, try mixing up your routine every time, (ie barbell bench dumbell bench smith machine bench, barbell incline . . . etc)this will keep your body guessing and should stimulate growth, (aslo mix it up with cables, flyes, dips etc) try not do to the same workout 2x in a row. A possible schedule could be

1.legs
2.chest/shoulders
3.back/bis
4.off
5.legs
6.chest/tris
7.off


>>as far as the theory goes, imo it is false. the longer you work out the more fatigued your muscles become and after you work out for longer then 1.5hrs your testosterone levels begin to fall.

goodluck bro! :lift:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jantzen4k

G-Force,
1st off you need a day or 2 off so your muscles can heal. i would space out your tri and shoulder workout because your using triceps with shoulders chest and obviously triceps.

>>what works for someone doesn't work for everyone. from what ive seen/learned and done, the best way to jumpstart your legs is to do around 20 reps for each set for about 2 weeks. As for your chest, try mixing up your routine every time, (ie barbell bench dumbell bench smith machine bench, barbell incline . . . etc)this will keep your body guessing and should stimulate growth, (aslo mix it up with cables, flyes, dips etc) try not do to the same workout 2x in a row. A possible schedule could be

1.legs
2.chest/shoulders
3.back/bis
4.off
5.legs
6.chest/tris
7.off


>>as far as the theory goes, imo it is false. the longer you work out the more fatigued your muscles become and after you work out for longer then 1.5hrs your testosterone levels begin to fall.

goodluck bro! :lift:

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i do like the look of that schedule, trouble is i dont like training chest or shoulders if my triceps are still tired from a previous day.

Eg. chest/tri (day 6) followed by chest/shoulders 2 days later. this is the reason why i favoured hitting chest/delts & Tri's in the same workout (leaving 5 or so days for my triceps to recover)

- do u think it matters much if you train shoulders or chest if your tri's are still sore??

- also i am presuming with legs and chest being hit more often i should decrease the amount of sets per workout for these groups??

I disagree with Jantzen4k... You shouldn't change your exercises every workout.. The muscles does'nt now what exercise you are doing....

Do these exercises like Benchpress, incline benchpress, decline benchpres/dips... Use the exercises for 4-6 weeks and then change them... Don't change benchpress with flyers...Flyers is not as good as benchpress... But change benchpress with Db benchpress for exampel...

Agreed. Changing your routine any sooner than 6 weeks doesn't really give you enough time to make real progress with a lift before it is rotated out of the routine. And as GoingBig stated you need to replace exercises with another if similar calibre. IMO some staple lifts should never be fully rotated out of a routine. A person should always be doing some form of squat, deadlift, and bench press.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoingBiG

...Use the exercises for 4-6 weeks and then change them... Don't change benchpress with flyers...Flyers is not as good as benchpress... But change benchpress with Db benchpress for exampel...

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by chicamahomico

Agreed. Changing your routine any sooner than 6 weeks doesn't really give you enough time to make real progress with a lift before it is rotated out of the routine. And as GoingBig stated you need to replace exercises with another if similar calibre. IMO some staple lifts should never be fully rotated out of a routine. A person should always be doing some form of squat, deadlift, and bench press.

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AMEN TO THAT!!!

i always include the mass building/compound exercises
infact they are pretty much all i do,
i dont even bother with isolation exercises unless i'm supersetting

Sounds like you are good to go then. Keep the staples and change up the exercises you superset with every 8 weeks or so.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by G-Force

i always include the mass building/compound exercises
infact they are pretty much all i do,
i dont even bother with isolation exercises unless i'm supersetting

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i recently read an article that states you should actually train the lagging body part LESS than your other body parts. this is because the reason for lack of growth in a particular area could be due to a lack of recovery ability in that area.

does anyone agree/disagree with this?

In some situations it could be right... Buit it depends on more than just one thing...

It could be it lack of ability to heal up faster. But like many people said before the only way to find out is by trial/error techniq

Quote:

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Originally Posted by G-Force

i recently read an article that states you should actually train the lagging body part LESS than your other body parts. this is because the reason for lack of growth in a particular area could be due to a lack of recovery ability in that area.

does anyone agree/disagree with this?

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i would be concious of overtraining if i were to train a certain body part twice a week and the others only once

i never train a body part again if it is even the slightest bit sore from the previous workout

It depends when you train the same muscle twice a week lets say you can do your chest on monday and then do it again on thursday thats a 3 day break with enough food chest should heal up by the next workout

Quote:

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Originally Posted by G-Force

i would be concious of overtraining if i were to train a certain body part twice a week and the others only once

i never train a body part again if it is even the slightest bit sore from the previous workout

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