What days? Which muscles?

**david2004** · 12-22-2006, 12:58 AM

Do you guys do your workouts one muscle group at a time? Like today is arms, tommorrow back and so on?

**audis4** · 12-22-2006, 01:01 AM

do a search.

I do a split..works best for me.

**MuscleScience** · 12-22-2006, 01:02 AM

no, I do a workouts that hit muscle groups for example chest and tri's, or back and Biceps. Just because the larger compound movements like bench pre-fatigues your triceps and you want to be carefull of overtraining smaller muscle groups like that because anytime you to a pressing or rowing exercise you hit the tri's and bi's respectfully. If you do them on the same day you leave lots of time for rest and growth versus doing bench on monday then doing tri's on thursday or whatever day it is.

**rafael** · 12-22-2006, 01:09 AM

i try to do one thing @ a time...in any life situation :P lifting included. But to answer your question...yeah i aim for one major and possible some minor group of muslce per day....ex : bicpes+ forearms on monday....abs / obliques on tue and so on...etc etc

**IBdmfkr** · 12-22-2006, 01:45 AM

Bi's and forearms have their own day

Try something like this david2004,

sun: off
mon: Chest/shoulders/tris
tues: off
wed: Back/traps/bi's
thurs: off
fri: Legs/calves
sat: off
sun: off

Also why work arms on the day before say chest or back? Bi's and Tri's are both secondary muscles to chest and back, you'll affect your back workout if you work bi's the day before, back's a much larger muscle group so it needs more attention and requires more rest then a smaller group.

**Kale** · 12-22-2006, 01:45 AM

I do it like this

Mon Chest
Tues Back
Wed Bi/Tri
Thur Shoulders
Fro Legs

**Tru2** · 12-22-2006, 01:54 AM

really?

full body thanks. push/pull. pretty much stick to compounds - with a little low volume isolation work.

But then I'm doing the 5x5 anyway. I swear I'll never go back to body part splits again.

**david2004** · 12-22-2006, 11:40 AM

Originally Posted by I**mfkr

Bi's and forearms have their own day

Try something like this david2004,

sun: off
mon: Chest/shoulders/tris
tues: off
wed: Back/traps/bi's
thurs: off
fri: Legs/calves
sat: off
sun: off

Also why work arms on the day before say chest or back? Bi's and Tri's are both secondary muscles to chest and back, you'll affect your back workout if you work bi's the day before, back's a much larger muscle group so it needs more attention and requires more rest then a smaller group.

And when performing this routine should I always do like 3 or 4 sets of each exercise to help fatigue them more?

**HOLLYWOOD** · 12-22-2006, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by I**mfkr

Bi's and forearms have their own day

Try something like this david2004,

sun: off
mon: Chest/shoulders/tris
tues: off
wed: Back/traps/bi's
thurs: off
fri: Legs/calves
sat: off
sun: off

Also why work arms on the day before say chest or back? Bi's and Tri's are both secondary muscles to chest and back, you'll affect your back workout if you work bi's the day before, back's a much larger muscle group so it needs more attention and requires more rest then a smaller group.

Totally agree, chest and back exercises will also help develop secondary muscle groups. You also do not want to go into a workout without having a secondary group not fully recovered because those non-recovered secondaries will fail much sooner than the primaries.

Also, for example, when I'm working out and transitioning from back to bi's I look at it as if I'm jsut "finishing off" bi's because they have already been under a large amount of stress from back. So, you do not have to hit bi's or tri' with large volumes.

**IBdmfkr** · 12-22-2006, 07:23 PM

bingo. Smart man ^

**rafael** · 12-22-2006, 10:03 PM

also to add my .2 $ if u cant bring a given muscle to failure within 10-15mins youre not doin it right:P

**HOLLYWOOD** · 12-23-2006, 12:00 AM

Originally Posted by I**mfkr

bingo. Smart man ^

Thank you sir

**chest6** · 12-23-2006, 12:10 AM

Originally Posted by HOLLYWOOD

Totally agree, chest and back exercises will also help develop secondary muscle groups. You also do not want to go into a workout without having a secondary group not fully recovered because those non-recovered secondaries will fail much sooner than the primaries.

Also, for example, when I'm working out and transitioning from back to bi's I look at it as if I'm jsut "finishing off" bi's because they have already been under a large amount of stress from back. So, you do not have to hit bi's or tri' with large volumes.

Exactly. Gotta make sure shoulders/tri are recovered before a chest workout. I've seen what happens when they are not..poundages take a hit.

**HOLLYWOOD** · 12-23-2006, 12:27 AM

yes, especially shoulders becuase they are indirectly hit with chest and back.

**IBdmfkr** · 12-23-2006, 02:26 AM

I did an experiment around a year or so ago in which I stopped isolated smaller bodypart all together and only hit compound movements, I would only lift 3times/wk as well. Mon/Wed/Fri

During this time I measured my arms/calves/forearms and took pictures of my overall frame/structure for shoulder development.

I did this for around 4-6months and found that if you hit the right movements you can get away with not isolating any of these muscle groups and still grow.
My arms grew slightly, shoulders didn't lose their cap and forearms/calves stayed the same. Now obviously if I would've isolated them a bit I figure I could've gotten better growth but the point of the experiment was to prove to myself that those movements are required to maintain my physique. I grew in proportion and actually put on quite a bit of weight in that timeframe naturally.

Pretty cool IMO, if I ever need to take a prolonged period off I know I could do this again and maintain my build.

**HOLLYWOOD** · 12-23-2006, 02:37 PM

Originally Posted by I**mfkr

I did an experiment around a year or so ago in which I stopped isolated smaller bodypart all together and only hit compound movements, I would only lift 3times/wk as well. Mon/Wed/Fri

During this time I measured my arms/calves/forearms and took pictures of my overall frame/structure for shoulder development.

I did this for around 4-6months and found that if you hit the right movements you can get away with not isolating any of these muscle groups and still grow.
My arms grew slightly, shoulders didn't lose their cap and forearms/calves stayed the same. Now obviously if I would've isolated them a bit I figure I could've gotten better growth but the point of the experiment was to prove to myself that those movements are required to maintain my physique. I grew in proportion and actually put on quite a bit of weight in that timeframe naturally.

Pretty cool IMO, if I ever need to take a prolonged period off I know I could do this again and maintain my build.

Which exercises did you use druing your experiment?

**IBdmfkr** · 12-23-2006, 08:24 PM

All compound movements.. here are some examples per bodypart

Chest: Dumbbell flat/incline presses, flat/incline barbell presses, DB flies, decline

Back: Seated/Bent over rows with DB and BB, Lat pulls, Deadlifts, etc

Legs: Squats, Leg Press, SLDL, Goodmornings, Lunges etc.

Again, heavy compound movements. I didn't isolate smaller muscle groups for over 4months and still they either grew or stayed the same.