Questions from a new guy - Triathlon Week

Vash · 03-29-2003, 05:32 PM

I'm pretty new to weight training. I have only been doing it about a month. Here is my main question. I have heard that I should do chest/shoulders/tri's in one day. But when I get done doing chest I am so tired that shoulders are hard to do, let alone tri's. Is it still best to do all these in one day, or split them up. Thanks

Robert G. · 04-04-2003, 12:52 AM

Vash,

What does your chest routine look like? Even though the chest is a large muscle group, you should be able to do tri's afterwards...maybe move shoulders to your back day. You could also try incline press, which will work your chest and your shoulders.

Vash · 04-04-2003, 10:47 AM

I was doing bench/fly's/incline dumbell press.

After that when I would do something like military press, I was already spent. Maybe I'll move shoulders back and concentrate on chest and tri's on one day.

sf280 · 06-13-2003, 08:58 PM

I break my workout into 3 fairly distinct workouts. I would definitely break your shoulders into a separate day from your chest and tri's if you want to work them hard.

1. Chest and Tri's - Dumbell Press, Incline, sometime Decline, Flys, and then a number of Tricep pushdown variations with a heavier weight.

2. Back and Arms - Pull Ups, Lat Pull Downs, Cable Row, then a variety of curls and then some lighter weight curls

3. Legs and Shoulders - Squats, Calf raises, Hamstrings and then Quads. For shoulders I do military press, and then some shrugs and raises.

I generally rotate through this every 5-7 days depending on my schedule. Each workout I also run 3 or so miles and some abs.

Zylo · 09-19-2004, 02:45 PM

No offence, but doing legs and shoulders on the same day is counter productive.

You know that pump you feel when you are working out? That's the blood rushing into your muscles and filling up every vein and capillary in the area. It's then when your muscle is broken down and when your body is forced to rebuild it stronger.

So if all the blood is in your legs, how do you think you are going to get a good shoulder workout?

Chest/Shoulders/Tris are a great workout since they are all in the same area of the body.

Back/Biceps/Abs/Forearms Great.

Legs - Always give them a day by themselves. If you have enough energy left to do something else after a solid leg day of weight lifting. You didn't do it right...... They are the biggest muscles in your body. Give them the respect they deserve. A Full day all to themselves.

Back to the first post.

You say your shoulders are too tired after your chest workouts? This may be because when you do your flys and benchpresses etc. You are holding the weights to close to your shoulders.

When you are laying on the bench and doing dumbell presses etc. Hold the weights a little lower down your body. Over your chest. NOT your shoulders. You will use more of your chest muscles and less of your shoulders this way.

I know this because I was doing the same thing for two years before my buddy pointed it out to me.

Also, try using machines for your shoulder workouts and chest workouts. They help target the muscles better than dumbells do so your other muscles won't be as tired.

The reason dumbells are great is because they work all the smaller stabalizer muscles that help control the dumbell from falling forward/backward etc. This tires your muscles out more. If you haven't been lifting weights for a long time, this can tire you out VERY quickly.

The reason machines are great is because they will target the individual muscles better because you don't have to balance the weight with other muscles.

Try machines.
Try less weight with dumbells.
Try doing shoulders first.
Try holding the dumbells a little closer to your chest and away from your shoulders on the bench press and flys.

Good luck :)