Training 1 part twice a week

[BusTa]

Yesterday was my chest day...i did 2 warm up sets of Incline, then 3 sets of regular incline, then 3 sets of incline flys...today, only the upper part of my pecs are sore....i really want to improve my chest this summer..what are the best days to do it if I train a body part twice a week? Also, is this a good routine?

Day 1
Incline Press
Incline Flys

Day 2
Flat Bench
Decline Bench

 

[ballast]

If you train a muscle group twice a week, you could alter the rep scheme on both workouts.Using your routine as an example:
Day 1
Incline Press 3x10-12
Incline Flys 2x10-12

Day 2
Flat Bench 3x4-6
Decline Press 2x4-6

This way you hit the different muscle fiber types and it gives a bit of variety.This is just one example.You could do high volume,low-mod intensity on session one and low volume,high intensity on session two,etc.The most important factor in training the muscles twice a week is allowing them enough recovery time between sessions.So the days you train should be dictated by your ability to recover.As for your listed routine, I think it looks good.Mostly basic exercises with some variety built-in.

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"I'm just here to kick a$$, sleep till noon"

<FONT COLOR="#000002" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">[Edited 1 time by ballast on 07-05-2001 at 12:02 PM]</font>

 

[TheSupremeBeing]

Do the low rep sets first. If you were to do the high rep sets you would create pre-mature ATP depletion and lactic acid build-up in muscle. Also, a 10-12 rep set in not high enough to exclude Type II (fast twitch) fiber, and these fibers are not resistant to fatigue at all. Type II fibers have the laargest potential for hypertrophy so fatigeuing them before actually training them would not be very wise.

On the other hand, training in the 4-6 range will stimulate the Type II fibers to the exclusion of the Type I (although the IIA's will be invloved, but they share the same hypertrophy potential as IIB's, and are actually regareded as more important), therefore training your Type II's will not fatigue your Type I's, but of course the pre-mature ATP depletion will still be a problem as well as lactic acid build-up, but it won't be as *much* of a problem if than if you trained the high rep range first.

Additionally, training Type I fibers does not train the nervous system to any significant degree, which should be a very important concern. You can't maximally stimulate muscle until the nervous system is optimized to do so, and fatigueing your IIB fibers before training them will limit the amount of stress you are able to put on it.

In conclusion, do you heavy sets first, and do your light sets afterwards.

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Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers.

<FONT COLOR="#000002" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">[Edited 1 time by TheSupremeBeing on 07-05-2001 at 01:29 PM]</font>

 

[Scotty the Body]

Your chest is still one muscle, two heads so your still hitting ALL of it with both incline, flat and decline.

If your going to do twice a week, do them at least 3 to 4 days apart to give it time to recover. You might want to do a two week with twice one week and once the next.

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Just another day in the gutter

 

[TheSupremeBeing]

I kinda agree with ballast, but I think doing both low and high reps in a single session would be a better route. If you insist on training chest twice per week than it would be wise to do as ballast suggested.

About trying to train the upper and lower chests on seperate days, that won't work. I know your upper chest is more sore than lower, but that doesn't mean it was trained moreso than the lower, which i can explain if you'd like.

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Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers.

 

[crmkorn]

ok i agree with supreme but i have a question about it. I'm curious,ballast and/or supreme, would you do the high reps first (lighter weight) and the low reps last (heaver weight) or vise versa......for example bench press, should one do 95x12 (1set) 135x10(1set) 170x5-8 for(2-3sets) or the other way?? thanks, oh yea Why would it be better either way????

 

[ballast]

Personally, after warming up, I would do the low reps/high weight first.This targets the fast-twitch "strength" muscle fibers.If you did the high reps/light weight first, it would cause you to have to reduce your weight on the low rep stuff.It also depends on your whether you are going for size or strength, but generally, I would do the heavier stuff first.Supreme could probably provide you with a better answer.

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"I'm just here to kick a$$, sleep till noon"

 

[Charger]

I agree with ballast also and only have one thing to add. From my own experience, if you are going to do this also watch your gains and plan on taking a break somewhere around 8 weeks. What I mean about watching your gains is you may actually make some good gains doing this(for a while) but eventually you will overtrain and start going the other way.
When I was doing this I enjoyed the gains but was not smart enough to take a break and eventually over trained to the point I screwed up a shoulder, then I got to see most of my gains go down the toilet, very frustrating.

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Can't never did nothin,(Dedicated to my father)