split differences.

lamonster14

lamonster14

Member
Awards
0
Has anybody trained back and chest on the same day? Worth the effort? Im currently looking to change my routine and trigger some different growth. I train in the conventional back/ bi. Chest/tri. Shoulders/traps and leg day. Ill mix in abs and calves 3 days per week. And every other week ill give arms their own day along with the days I hit them with complementary muscle groups. Im open to any ideas as im looking to keep my body guessing.
 
bla55

bla55

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
I did so I could have an arms only day, when I was trying to get them bigger.

It wasn't bad, you just need enough rest in between.
 
lamonster14

lamonster14

Member
Awards
0
I kinda figured it would be pretty taxing. I love deadlifts and incline bench but throwing those two together on the same day would wipe me out. Looks like I may have to resort to rack deadlifts or something.
 
natandrb

natandrb

Member
Awards
0
I'll only combine chest/back if I have a completely free day to do it on. Get plenty of food in the morning, take my time in the gym so I'm not rushed. I'll then spend the rest of the day plastered to the couch, eating everything within reach. Can be a fun day, but usually prefer to split them up to give each the attention/intensity required for growth.
 
lamonster14

lamonster14

Member
Awards
0
Thanks for the advice. I guess there's only one way to really find out. Im gonna have to give it a shot and see I can do it with enough intensity to make a difference.
 
ZiR RED

ZiR RED

Well-known member
Awards
2
  • RockStar
  • Established
I combine by movements.

Upper body vertical, upper body horizontal.

Vertical: Pull ups and military press + ancillary work (dumbbell rows, pull downs, dumbbel over head presses, etc.)
Horizontal: Bench press and pendlay/bent over rows + ancillary work

The back is not just one muscle where as the pecs and delts are. The upper back is comprised of 2 major muscles with several functions (the traps and lats) plus two ancillary muscles (rhomboids and teres major). And thats just the upper back. Really don't understand why so many people jumble everything together into one day then spend the rest of the week on smaller muscle groups.

Br
 
Type O Hero

Type O Hero

Banned
Awards
1
  • Established
I combine by movements.

Upper body vertical, upper body horizontal.

Vertical: Pull ups and military press + ancillary work (dumbbell rows, pull downs, dumbbel over head presses, etc.)
Horizontal: Bench press and pendlay/bent over rows + ancillary work

The back is not just one muscle where as the pecs and delts are. The upper back is comprised of 2 major muscles with several functions (the traps and lats) plus two ancillary muscles (rhomboids and teres major). And thats just the upper back. Really don't understand why so many people jumble everything together into one day then spend the rest of the week on smaller muscle groups.

Br
So here are you saying you work your horizontal and vertical movements on different days or in the same workout?

Cause I've been doing chest and back on the same day and I try to do both. Well, with back anyway. I've been starting my workouts with a superset of weighted dips followed by pull-ups. So I'll do 8-10 reps of dips then just do as many pull-ups as I can. And sometimes at the end of a workout I may do another set of lat pulldowns. So my thinking is that I'm working the muscles involved in the vertical functions of the back. Then I'll do a rowing movement. I mostly stick with barbell rows but sometimes I'll switch it up and do something like cable rows and one-arm DB rows. So there's my horizontal work. I feel that if I make sure to work the pulldown motion as well as the rowing motion and by switching up what exercises I use to do those, I get a good back workout. Oh, I do deadlifts and SLDLs for lower back.

So far, to me, it seems to be working out quite well. Got any ideas on what I can be doing better?

_____________________________________________

To the OP, yeah, I like training chest and back on the same day. Since I've been doing this, I've seen the most improvement in my chest. My upper chest filled out more along with an overall increase in fullness. Not really so much in thickness, but then again my chest never did get really thick, even when I was doing heavy presses all the time. Something that's helped me has been doing supersets of incline DB flyes followed by incline DB presses (8-10 reps of flyes, then 6-10 reps of presses). You don't end up pressing as much weight but the muscles get a lot of stimulation. I follow these with DB pullovers. I've also done trisets of all three but it turns into more of an endurance workout, so I don't do it very often. As far as what I could consider using my pressing muscles, I get a lot of that when I do dips. I've never gotten much out of barbell presses of any kind, except very light weight neck presses for upper chest. Be skeptical all you want, but those actually work to a degree. But I don't do them anymore because I don't want to put any extra stress on my shoulders. If you respond well to presses, by all means, do them. If not, then do more dips and DB presses.

Make sure you stretch well after the workout.
 

mattsams89

New member
Awards
0
I combine by movements.

Upper body vertical, upper body horizontal.

Vertical: Pull ups and military press + ancillary work (dumbbell rows, pull downs, dumbbel over head presses, etc.)
Horizontal: Bench press and pendlay/bent over rows + ancillary work

The back is not just one muscle where as the pecs and delts are. The upper back is comprised of 2 major muscles with several functions (the traps and lats) plus two ancillary muscles (rhomboids and teres major). And thats just the upper back. Really don't understand why so many people jumble everything together into one day then spend the rest of the week on smaller muscle groups.

Br
I followed a similar program for a while. I would perform an upper horizontal day with lighter auxiliary vertical work on day one with day two emphasizing knee dominant exercises. I would take a day off then perform the inverse. I realize now I should have done a better job balancing fatigue between hip and knee dominant movements (balls to the walls squats and deads are hard to keep up for long; wish I had known more about periodization when I was younger), but I saw some great gains while training that way.
 
ZiR RED

ZiR RED

Well-known member
Awards
2
  • RockStar
  • Established
So here are you saying you work your horizontal and vertical movements on different days or in the same workout?
If I'm doing a push/pull in the same workout I'll work them separately, or like matt suggested, focus on one plane and then do some ancillary stuff on the other. For example, a horizontal focus might be:

Bench press, barbell row focus
Single arm over head press, chin ups for ancillary
Auxillary movements of scapula retraction and depression

Right now I have the bodybuilding team doing a 5 day split, and it runs something like this:

Dead lift and horizontal pull
Horizontal Push
Vertical Pull
Vertical Push
Squat and lower body.

Br
 

Similar threads


Top