should I train chest twice a week ?

ginge205

ginge205

Active member
Ive been training for to years an chest I lagging behind. I seem to have a v shape in it. It gets strong but never any real size. Should I train it twice a week instead of once ? Any advice appreciated thanks
 
Training chest twice per week doesn't really make sense, given that you are implying something like..

chest
back/bi
shoulder/tri
chest
legs
rest
rest

Most people recommend doing a body part once per week, but I have had nice gains from a 4 or 5 day cycle. Something like this might help to workout your body more often, as too many rest days are a waste of course.

Chest/Tri
Back/Bi
Shoulder/Traps
Legs/Abs
Rest

This 5 day cycle will workout your chest way more often, over the span of four months you will have hit your chest and every other body part 7 more times.

Just remember, to make hypertrophic gains, you need to be SWITCHING YOUR WORKOUTS. Look at plateau busting workouts anywhere on the internet. Switch what muscles you do with what other muscles, introduce pauses and drop sets, etc..

And don't workout without intensity, maybe you are just wasting your time.

Good luck
 
And also - about the V shape - stop benching and start throwing in way more dumbbell benches. It shapes the pec, although it slightly compromises gains, it is worth it if you are V'd up
 
jbonez said:
Training chest twice per week doesn't really make sense, given that you are implying something like..

chest
back/bi
shoulder/tri
chest
legs
rest
rest

Most people recommend doing a body part once per week, but I have had nice gains from a 4 or 5 day cycle. Something like this might help to workout your body more often, as too many rest days are a waste of course.

Chest/Tri
Back/Bi
Shoulder/Traps
Legs/Abs
Rest

This 5 day cycle will workout your chest way more often, over the span of four months you will have hit your chest and every other body part 7 more times.

Just remember, to make hypertrophic gains, you need to be SWITCHING YOUR WORKOUTS. Look at plateau busting workouts anywhere on the internet. Switch what muscles you do with what other muscles, introduce pauses and drop sets, etc..

And don't workout without intensity, maybe you are just wasting your time.

Good luck
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Thanks for the advice and tht training u said is what ive been doing all along mate
 
jbonez said:
And also - about the V shape - stop benching and start throwing in way more dumbbell benches. It shapes the pec, although it slightly compromises gains, it is worth it if you are V'd up
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Awsome mate wht I trys to do I one week bench second week dumbells any good ?
 
I believe training a body part 3 times in 2 weeks is optimal form the majority of people. It seems to be just about the perfect compromise between volume/frequency. Some people can progress with a tad more frequency and some need alil less but I think most should stertorous of with that setup and then adjust depending on how you feel. Below is a sample workout using push/pull/legs

Monday-push
Tuesdsy-pull
Thursday-legs
Friday-push
Monday-pull
Tuesday- legs
And so on and so on

As far as volume goes I would do one "big movement" and one small iso movement for each. Only 2 working sets for each . On the big movement go all out on those 2 sets getting very close to failure and the iso just get a good blood into the muscle, make sure it's Difficult but not to failure . Here's a Sample push workout showing only working sets

Incline bench x10-12 x6-8
Flat DB x12x2
Militery press x10-12 x6-8
Smith RGBPx10-12 x6-8
Superset (for time purpose) pulley tricep pushdown/front or lateral raises. 3x12

I have that order because I believe you should have your big exercises early in the workout when u have to most energy and save the fluffy stuff for the end . Hope that helps
 
When I do my four day split, I rotate with what muscle group should I work twice a week. It's been pretty effective, although I still prefer training only three days a week. Keeps me fresh, I don't get burnt out on the gym, and when I do lift, I kill my body but it's okay cause I have four days to recover
 
R1balla said:
When I do my four day split, I rotate with what muscle group should I work twice a week. It's been pretty effective, although I still prefer training only three days a week. Keeps me fresh, I don't get burnt out on the gym, and when I do lift, I kill my body but it's okay cause I have four days to recover
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Thanks for the advice bud. In need all the advice I can get. Any ideas on the v shape
 
ginge205 said:
Thanks for the advice bud. In need all the advice I can get. Any ideas on the v shape
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diet. also, DC training as gotten my back the way i want it. its something to look into. i rotate between about 4 different training routines throughout the year, but DC is my favorite.

exercises that come to mind for the V shape back are T bar Rows, wide grip pull ups, over head pulls (idk what exactly they are called), DB or BB Row.


edit: my bad, i didnt totally read your first post OP. i thought u were talking about your back. haha

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Google 'pec shape' you will get the following advice..

Dumbbells
Use good form
8-12 rep range
Mostly genetic, hard to change
Dedicate one of your gym days to only chest
Start with incline for square shape

Hope that helps, look into it on google theres a million things about pec shape
 
R1balla said:
diet. also, DC training as gotten my back the way i want it. its something to look into. i rotate between about 4 different training routines throughout the year, but DC is my favorite.

exercises that come to mind for the V shape back are T bar Rows, wide grip pull ups, over head pulls (idk what exactly they are called), DB or BB Row.

edit: my bad, i didnt totally read your first post OP. i thought u were talking about your back. haha

Invalid Link Removed
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Lol
 
jbonez said:
Google 'pec shape' you will get the following advice..

Dumbbells
Use good form
8-12 rep range
Mostly genetic, hard to change
Dedicate one of your gym days to only chest
Start with incline for square shape

Hope that helps, look into it on google theres a million things about pec shape
Click to expand...

U been great cheers mate
 
jbonez youre implying that most people work 2 muscles a day when in reality a lot of people (including myself) dont. because i feel like if you work 1 muscle a day you can hit every part which can take some time..compared to working 2 muscles and being in the gym for like 3 hours a day or just half assing each muscle. i wouldnt see any problem in working chest twice a week as long as there is good separation in the 2 days like monday and friday or tuesday/saturday etc. but on another note.. ginge how long has it been since youve like done some muscle confusion and switched up your chest workout? And since youre trying to build your chest up dont get your mind set on like "i have to use big weight to get a big chest" or anything like that do a weight that you can CONTROL on the positives And negatives and like jbonez said make sure you have good form when youre using the db's or whatever youre working out with
 
Masciaman said:
jbonez youre implying that most people work 2 muscles a day when in reality a lot of people (including myself) dont. because i feel like if you work 1 muscle a day you can hit every part which can take some time..compared to working 2 muscles and being in the gym for like 3 hours a day or just half assing each muscle. i wouldnt see any problem in working chest twice a week as long as there is good separation in the 2 days like monday and friday or tuesday/saturday etc. but on another note.. ginge how long has it been since youve like done some muscle confusion and switched up your chest workout? And since youre trying to build your chest up dont get your mind set on like "i have to use big weight to get a big chest" or anything like that do a weight that you can CONTROL on the positives And negatives and like jbonez said make sure you have good form when youre using the db's or whatever youre working out with
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I try to confuse them every other week so this week I will do barbell only with the normal flys next week it will be dumbell with cable crossover is that what u mean
 
Masciaman said:
jbonez youre implying that most people work 2 muscles a day when in reality a lot of people (including myself) dont. because i feel like if you work 1 muscle a day you can hit every part which can take some time..compared to working 2 muscles and being in the gym for like 3 hours a day or just half assing each muscle. i wouldnt see any problem in working chest twice a week as long as there is good separation in the 2 days like monday and friday or tuesday/saturday etc. but on another note.. ginge how long has it been since youve like done some muscle confusion and switched up your chest workout? And since youre trying to build your chest up dont get your mind set on like "i have to use big weight to get a big chest" or anything like that do a weight that you can CONTROL on the positives And negatives and like jbonez said make sure you have good form when youre using the db's or whatever youre working out with
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I am implying that most people work 2 muscles a day. Think of the contrapositive of that - that most people work each muscle separately. That is definitely not true. Theres only one way to do that, which is Chest-Back-Shoulders-Arms-Legs in any order. Then think about how many multiple muscles per day workouts there are .. hundreds.

Just my opinion though, I do agree that one muscle per day is awesome but to a limit. Doing Chest, then Back, then Shoulders, then Legs, then Biceps, then Triceps, then Traps is kind of crazy.

I would agree with you that throwing Chest and Back on their own day is quite nice. Shoulders/Traps and Arms and Legs go together after. But again, this is all up to the person.
 
actually thats just your opinion. A LOT of people ive met first hand and gotten tips from have been doing 1 muscle a day and they were way bigger than me so they must be doing something right lol. and you can do back then shoulders the next. bi's after shoulder day, tris after chest day etc. its still incorporating all the muscles because they were used the day before just not the max
 
If you have met someone that has a bicep day and a triceps day, they are idiots. it should be with a larger muscle or together (arms day). but yes it is common, I'm surprised uve met more people that do that than a standard breakdown. oh well, to each his own
 
Some real good opinions here every one trains different thats why I wont lots of pepoel to post. So I can find out every way and find what will work best for me cheers lads
 
i've been doing twice a week.. one day 6-10 reps and another 12-20 max reps.. the lighter workout takes less time to recover from
 
alexoc949 said:
i've been doing twice a week.. one day 6-10 reps and another 12-20 max reps.. the lighter workout takes less time to recover from
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I normal do 4-7 reps and 4 sets basicly start at fairly heavy the go to 4 rep max any good ?
 
I think most people would argue that training a specific body part 2 times a week would be over training. I read an article in a magazine the other day talking about how your body takes a couple of weeks to realize muscles are being over trained. I've seen quite a few workouts that have chest, back, or arms worked out twice in a 7 day span. I think it's not a bad idea to train your chest 2 times a week but just don't continually do it for weeks at a time. Just my personal opinion though.

OP: I have kinda the same problem with my chest. I posted a thread not too long ago about my chest lacking other body parts. Got lots of good feedback from everyone too.
 
lemke28 said:
I think most people would argue that training a specific body part 2 times a week would be over training. I read an article in a magazine the other day talking about how your body takes a couple of weeks to realize muscles are being over trained. I've seen quite a few workouts that have chest, back, or arms worked out twice in a 7 day span. I think it's not a bad idea to train your chest 2 times a week but just don't continually do it for weeks at a time. Just my personal opinion though.

OP: I have kinda the same problem with my chest. I posted a thread not too long ago about my chest lacking other body parts. Got lots of good feedback from everyone too.
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I see great progress when I train parts twice a week. Now, it's not 16 sets each time twice a week. I do like 8 or 10 but go all out twice a week. The only thing is it can make you feel tired all the time. But if you are on a cycle, I highly suggest doing twice a week training
 
R1balla said:
I see great progress when I train parts twice a week. Now, it's not 16 sets each time twice a week. I do like 8 or 10 but go all out twice a week. The only thing is it can make you feel tired all the time. But if you are on a cycle, I highly suggest doing twice a week training
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Big believer in hitting each body part twice a week also (upper/lower splits). Iirc muscle protein synthesis is elevated for 48 hours after hitting that body part ( atleast I remember reading that). If this is true it makes the most sense to hit each body part twice a week.
 
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