Thread: Chest and Tri's or Chest and Bi's

Tris are going to be stimulated in almost every compound movement that stimulates the chest, so I don't see the reason for debate.

It really comes down to whether you want to separate based on vertical/horizontal movements or push/pull movements. I personally would split horizontal/vertical. Actually I would just do pushing and pulling and leg stuff all in one workout.

Chest and Bi's. I think that way ur hitting ur arms twice a week with enough rest in between.
Thats my preference.

I don't really think either one is superior, or at least it's not proven one way or the other. Although I think doing both from time to time is probably a good thing.

If I had to suggest one I would say Chest/Bis. I simply like the idea of being able to use more weight. From my experience, the weights drop so dramatically if you pound one muscle group excessively on a given day, that it almost seems like a fruitless endeavor at a certain point.

Originally Posted by CowPimp

From my experience, the weights drop so dramatically if you pound one muscle group excessively on a given day, that it almost seems like a fruitless endeavor at a certain point.

Hey CP.
Meaning by doing chest, you pre exhaust the tris and can't work them with as much weight as if you did them on a different day?

Originally Posted by FMJ

Hey CP.
Meaning by doing chest, you pre exhaust the tris and can't work them with as much weight as if you did them on a different day?

Yes. Same with your shoulders, or even if you just did an all chest day. By the 4th chest exercise, you are going to have to reduce the weights you can use by quite a lot unless you rest a ton in between sets and exercises.

Originally Posted by gtbmed

Tris are going to be stimulated in almost every compound movement that stimulates the chest, so I don't see the reason for debate.

It really comes down to whether you want to separate based on vertical/horizontal movements or push/pull movements. I personally would split horizontal/vertical. Actually I would just do pushing and pulling and leg stuff all in one workout.

HIT IT RIGHT ON THE HEAD!

Originally Posted by FMJ

Hey CP.
Meaning by doing chest, you pre exhaust the tris and can't work them with as much weight as if you did them on a different day?

Although training tris separate from chest can lead to over training of the tris. I personally prefer tris with chest; however, i do like to mix it up and do bis and chest once in a while

Interstingly enough, I don't even do any iso work on my bi's or tri's.
I just enjoy hearing the opinions and theories behind it all.
Thanks gents.

I usually don't train triceps specifically, but i do split up benching and military pressing for the reason Cowpimp talked about.

If i put them on the same day, whichever comes second suffers a lot - sometimes to the point of not being able to do it at all.

I normally do chest and shoulders on the same day. I'm sure that's why I make bigger increases on bench press than I do on mil's. I've been toying with the idea of putting in a 4th training day. Maybe I'll split shoulders and include bi or tri's on that day.
The only exercise I do to target the bi's is on back day when I finish up with chins.
Typically, the back day consists of Bent rows, directly into pullups. Then I go into seated rows, then shrugs, then chins.
Chest day includes flat press, incline press, then hang cleans with your idea of doing a mil press with each clean rep. After that I superset arnies with lateral raises.

Just do a horizontal push/pull day and a vertical push/pull day. That way you're getting a bunch of bicep, tricep, and shoulder stimulation twice a week but you're not burning yourself out by focusing all of a workout's volume on one muscle group.

Do something like bench press and rows on one day and military press and pullups on another day imo.

I've tried seperating chest a tris and it just didn't work out. If I worked chest and bis on Tuesday, come Thursday when it's time to work back my bis are still sore so I can't work my back as hard as it needs. Same for back and tris, when chest day rolled around my tris weren't strong enough for an effective chest workout. I really think it has to do with age and/or recuperative ability. Young guns may be able to do this, us old farts need more rest between working the same body part.

My other thinking is that doing compound movements for the major muscle means you only need a few sets of isolation movements on the arm muscle to really finish it off. For instance, my last movement for chest is bench presses. When I'm done with regular bench presses I stay where I'm at and move straight into close grip benches. Two set of those and two sets of overhead triceps extension on a pulley have my tris absolutely fried. Same for back and bis. When I'm done with back I go straight to the preacher curl bench and three or four sets later my biceps are competely toasted.

Biceps and triceps are relatively small muscle groups compared to the chest and back muscles. I have experimented with triceps on back day and biceps on chest day but I felt that my chest and back workouts suffered because I was over training the arms. If you are working chest and back properly your biceps and triceps should be close to exhaustion when you finish. Because of this I always end my chest workout by with triceps and back with biceps. To protect my aged shoulders I bench with a closer grip and my triceps are more involved in the bench press.

Originally Posted by maturemuscle

If you are working chest and back properly your biceps and triceps should be close to exhaustion when you finish.

Exactly why I stick with compounds and barely, if any iso moves.
4 sets of bent rows into 4 sets of pullups and by biceps are shot. Finishing up with chins just puts the nail in the coffin. Same with tris on chest day.
I'm good for a week after that.

I do barbell curls after back mainly to work on the definition and make sure they . I alternate wide grip pull ups with close grips every other back workout. On the days I do the close grips my biceps are fried when I finish. I also do hammer curls to give me few extra yards when I drive the golf ball.