how many body parts a day
So I guess I just want to see everyone's opinion about how many body parts you should lift a day for optimal gains. My belief is that for best results one should limit the load for best gains. Some will argue that you should only hit each BP once a week for best growth/recovery. I agree with this in the sense that by lifting only one BP you are able to fully concentrate on the muscle and go all out. If you lift two major muscle groups in one day, there is no way you can put 100% into the muscle that is trained second. For instance; doing back and shoulders in the same routine. For me, the entire time I'm doing back I'm thinking in my head "okay, two more sets of these....then I'll do pulldowns....then I'm on to shoulders."
See what's happening? I'm not fully concentrated on my back routine. I'm worrying about what my shoulder workout is going to involve. Also, after you hit a major muscle like back, how much energy do you really have left to do shoulders? My bet is that you will have a crappy shoulder workout.
HOWEVER...people who lift each BP once a week are fooling themselves because they are really hitting each BP 2 or 3 times a week. Here's why:
When you do back, you are working the bi's as well. You might not notice it, but you are! Then you hit bi's again when you do arms. See where I'm going? Tri's you hit 3 times a week!! If your workouts are not placed right you will overtrain your muscles. (Eg. doing arms after back day, etc.)
I believe the best training method is to pair up working body parts. Something like this:
Monday: Shoulders/Traps
Tuesday: back/Bi's
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: Chest/Tri's
Friday: Legs
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: OFF
By doing this style of routine you are only hitting each body part once per week. This is the type of workout people talk about when they talk about using low sets. Only 6 sets for Bi's you say? Yeah, but you are also working them with back so they are really getting a lot more work than you think. After those 6 sets of curls your arms should be good and toasted. This program ensures that you hypertrophy your muscles, prevent over-training, and allows plenty of time to recover.
I'm sure a lot of what I just wrote might not make sense but it is as good as i can get without writing an essay on muscle hypertrophy. This post is also just my opinion.
