when weight training, which muscle groups should be trained together?

Question

im working my upper body, so really, i want to know out of the shoulders, chest, biceps + triceps, how can i combine these in pairs for workouts.

Answer 1

There is lots of choice here. As long as you get at least a day of rest for each muscle group worked then you can choose and mixing it up every once in a while (say about every three months) is a good idea.

The most obvious choice however is to group the shoulders, chest and triceps together for one workout and back and bis for another.

For example a push-up or bench press motion uses the anterior delts (shoulders), pecs (chest) and triceps (back of your arms). This can be combined with isolation exercises for each of those plus other shoulder exercises to work the other two segments of the deltoid group. (for example shoulder press)

A chin-up motion (or lat pull or 'rowing' type exercises) uses mostly the lats (upper back) and the biceps and you can add to that isolation exercises which work different parts of the lats, biceps and forearms.

As far as legs, I like to work all the muscles in my legs at the same time and then rest for two days but there is lots and lots of choice here too. Glutes and quads is a good combination to be alternated with hams and calves.

Your core (abdominals) and cardio should be six days a week with one day of complete rest per week.

Answer 2

It depends on how you feel when training. Personally when I trained Chest Shoulders and triceps together in one work out and then Back and Bi's in another I never really got a good pumped feeling....I can see the logic but for me it doesn't work. I like to group Chest and back (push then pull) and shoulder and arms together. I train both biceps and triceps in the same work out on the basis you are pumping alot of blood into this area so you might as well utilse this in both muscle groups...the long shot is experiment...note how you feel during the workout (good pump, muscles feel worked?) and after...how sore are you and in which areas? Contray to alot of 'experts' opinion there is no right way or wrong way...just your way...my only other piece of advice is listen to your body...if you feel too sore or tired have anothers day rest, in your workouts keep it intense, low sets and get out of the gym....there is alot more to life!!

Answer 3

I agree with Mega on this one as the split he suggest is exactly how I have my routine set up. The reason it's set up this way is doing these on the same day rather than different days helps prevent overtraining of certain muscles. For instance, triceps are heavily stimulated in both bench press and military press exercises. If you were to do these on different days triceps gets worked out on both. Same goes with biceps as they are heavily stimulated during most back exercises. I exercise four days a week on a three day split routine, which makes it to where I work out each muscle group within a seven day period and allowing plenty of time for recovery.

I hope you're not neglecting your legs either. Not only will doing legs add symmetry and help strengthen your core, but an intense leg workout will release valuable GH which will help all your muscles grow.

Answer 4

you must've feel bored reading the guy up here answering it yea?..

my advice is simple, push up (chest and tricep)
pull-up/chin-up ( wings, shoulder, upper chest, bicep)
bench press (chest,triceps)
push up press(shoulder,triceps)

Answer 5

i've got examine that in case you want larger bench, then practice your tri's seperate to chest as chest includes triceps in like bench and stuff. so i bypass with chest and bi's returned and tri's shoulders, traps and bi's returned and chest ^ in a 7 day week. aerobic in there and legs and abs can bypass till now or after the exercising consultation

Answer 6

What about your back; without developing your back your Pectoral muscles will round of your shoulders which will make you look very Neanderthal.

The back exercises are compound exercises and will require considerable more work.

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