Pairing up Body Parts in Strength Training

[Lynn M.]

Hi all-

I'd like to get your opinion on what you like best as far as which bodyparts to pair up in a strength training workout.

I'm a big fan of working out 1 bodypart/day and as a rule that is what I normally do.

However, its time for me to switch it up for a few weeks to something different.

Also, I'd like to get your opinion on where you like to put your shoulder work in when you pair up the bodyparts? ( Shoulders are definitely an area I am always looking to improve)

Thanks in advance for the time to give me your suggestions!

Lynn M.

 

[Aquajock]

I would suggest the following pairing:

Chest and triceps, because when you do your push-ups and your bench presses for your chest work, the triceps are recruited as strong secondary muscles and will be warmed up already for you (no small issue considering how relatively small that muscle group is);

Back and rear deltoids, because again the rear delts are recruited as strong secondary muscles in traditional back work, thus you can hit them when they are already warmed up;

Anterior deltoids and biceps, again (snore) because the biceps are recruited as assisters in traditional anterior delt raises especially in the palms-up position;

Middle delts whenever you want; these seem to me to be a stand-alone group.

Re the lower body, I really believe you should do your leg work that hits all the muscles in one session, rather than segment out quads from hams, from glutes, from calves etc. Segmenting these is more trouble than it's worth.

Re core (including abs and low back), I would do that group whenever I want. In fact, I usually do core work with every workout session unless it's simply a lower-intensity thing like a power walk.

HTH! I'd be interested in others' opinions.

A-Jock

 

[Fitmommyof2]

Thanks for posting this. I was wondering the same thing and you gave some great tips.

 

[tneah]

In the past, I have experimented with the following.

Day 1: Back and Biceps/Abs

Day 2: Legs/Calves

Day 3: Chest/Shoulders/Triceps-I have never done alot for chest, so although this looks like alot of bodyparts at once, my chest workouts consisted of incline flyes with dumbells and cable flyes.

Day 4:Abs/Rest/Stretch

Or to to hit the shoulders harder, put them on a day all by themselves with abs/calves and up the weight, incorporate drop sets, giant sets, etc...

Day 1: Shoulders/Abs/Calves

Day 2: Legs

Day 3: Chest and Back

Day 4: Triceps and Biceps

You could work these combo's into a three day split as well, taking your rest day on Day 3.

 

[kathryn]

I agree with "The New Rules of Lifting" that a three-day split should be based around the three largest muscle groups: lower body, back, chest (working these larger groups gives the best stimulus for growth and for promoting growth hormone production, so spacing them through the week means more stimulus more often, and pairing them with smaller muscle groups allows one to put more effort/energy into the one larger muscle group). The smaller groups (shoulders, biceps, triceps) latch onto those, either pairing them with synergists--back and biceps; chest/shoulders/triceps---or with muscle groups that don't overlap as much (are not synergists)-- back and shoulders; chest and arms (though triceps are synergists for chest).

I do like shoulder/bi/tri workouts, because they can be put together in a circuit fashion for time-efficiency and muscle recovery time within the workout, but I'm not as fond of chest/back workouts (which they are paired with) for the reasons stated above.

In S&H, Cathe pairs shoulders with lower body, which is another way to do them (I'd just avoid doing chest/shoulders/triceps on back-to-back days--since this doesn't allow for as much recovery for shoulders as may be ideal--when I do a split that has two upper body and one lower body workout--like Gym styles, or Amy Bento's new "Slo-Mo workout---I find that doing upper body 1 on day 1, lower body on day 3, and upper body 2 on day 5 works best--rather than doing the lower body workout day 1, followed by the two upper body workouts on days 3 and 5, which means less recovery time between upper body work).

 

[pebblesus]

I have done them all in the past.. I also like to switch up regularly, like every 3-5 weeks.
I have done chest/tri's together and bi's/back.
I have also done back/chest together and bi/tri.
Cathe has done both push/pull methods as well as front/back so I have gotten lots of ideas from these!
I have done shoulders on days with any of the above as well as with leg days AND I have done them with just cardio days.
I have many times when I cannot get everything in for the week and I will throw in something quick on a cardio day--like some quick bi's.

 

[Lynn M.]

Thanks for all of your most excellent input..

For some reason, I've never thought about pairing up my shoulder work w/ a back workout ( other than when I do a full upper body workout)

Based on your suggestions, I'm now considering the pairing below..since shoulders are what I want to grow.. what do you think of this?

M:Chest/front delts
T: Legs (these are stand alone for me)
W: Back and Shoulders ( focusing on rear delts)
Th: Tris
Fri: Bis and Side delts
Sat: Cardio
Sun: Rest

Do you think this is overkill on the shoulder work? Probably will only do 2-3 different exercises for the shoulders each day at 3 sets of 8-12 reps.

As far as the rest of my workout:
In regard to abs, I work them 3-5x/week intensity varying depending on the frequency and my schedule.
Also, I do cardio 5-6x/week usually between 30-50 minutes, again intensity varies. Usually as a split in the AM and weights in the PM.

This could be pretty intense, but it may be what I need to shake things up...

Thanks, Lynn M.

 

[maddiesmum]

If you care about shoulder work that much, this plan might work well for you. Personally, I can't be bothered to split it all up this much and do all my shoulder work on the same day, whether once or twice per week.

Kathryn's answer seems to make the most sense to me. I tend to split chest and shoulders up. Doing chest first makes me able to lift a lot less for shoulders that I would normally lift if doing shoulders on their own. Linking shoulders with either back and biceps or with lower body makes the most sense to me and is what I do.

Clare