Questions about upper body work

[LeanneM]

Hi everyone,

I have a few questions about doing upper-body weights that I was hoping some of the educated folks could help me with.

Basically, today was my first day doing an old Tank Top Arms Rotation that was posted on the forums a few years ago. One day a week, the rotation calls for doing all of Pure Strength upper body. The PS series is divided up so that Back/Bis are in one workout and Chest/Shoulders/Tris are in another. I did the workout for the first time this morning, and was trying to work from larger muscles to smaller muscles.

The problem is that the DVD doesn't have a way to set up a custom workout using the two upper body workouts, so I had to keep switching around between then (hitting stop, having to go to the main menu, and then fast-forwarding through chapters each time). I basically went Chest, Back, Bis, Tris, and then Shoulders.

What I'm wondering is this: is it really important to work from larger muscles to smaller muscles if I do this workout just once a week? Would it be counter-productive to just do the Back/Bis workout first, followed immediately by the Chest/Shoulders/Tris workout (or vice versa) -- or should I switch around between them from larger muscles to small muscles like I did today?

I noticed that in some of her total-body workouts (like MM and MIS), Cathe follows this order: Chest, Back, Shoulders, Bis, and then Tris. Would that be a better order to follow?

Thanks in advance for any help and input! I really appreciate it!

 

[maddiesmum]

Leanne:

I always work chest and shoulders on different days because I never get a good shoulder workout if I have already done chest due to the muscle use overlap. But, if I were to do all upper body muscles on the same day I would use that order: chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps. Always.

However, I am someone who is happy to switch DVDs in and out in order to get the exact combination of muscle groups that I want, so, it's no biggie to me. You have to decide how much of a bother it is to you, that's all. I really don't think it is any heinous crime to do back/bis and then chest/shoulders/tris. Really. The only problem I have with this is why Cathe persists in putting chest and shoulders on the same workouts, over and over again. No two other upper body muscle groups have so much overlap and we are not all as phenomenally gifted with upper body strength as she is! Oh, and she's doing it again on STS...look like I shall be swapping DVDs in and out til Kingdom come!

Clare

 

[LeanneM]

Thanks so much, Clare, for getting back to me! I always appreciate your good advice and knowledge!

I know exactly what you mean about working chest and shoulders on the same day: doing chest presses and other exercises that recruit the shoulders always pulls in my shoulder muscles in ways that make them too tired for good form during the shoulder workout.

I love using the heavier lifting from series like S&H, GS, and 4DS and don't really like endurance lifting all that much, but I thought it would be good to try this rotation for a few weeks to see what kind of results I get.