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How much rest does each muscle group need?

post #1 of 14
8/8/07 at 12:46am
Thread Starter 
It seems like I'm making pretty good progress in defining my body- I've gone from skinny arms and a bit of a stomach to emerging muscles and a four-pack riding on a small paunch. Right now I want to maintain body weight or even lose 5 pounds, but keep muscle mass and power.

I see a lot of people talk about working only one or one-two muscle groups per workout day. How many exercises do you do on these days? I'm used to hitting the three times a week, and my routine goes something like:

Bench: 8x3
Incline bench: 10x3
Leg raises: 30,20,20
Wide pull-up: 12x2
Normal pull-up: 12x2
Sitting row: 12x2
Tricep curls: 12x3
Bicep curls: 12x3
Squats: 12x3

I do a circuit of the gym, working biceps/back after triceps/chest, and splitting things up with ab work. I'm done in under an hour, 40 minutes if I push it.

Am I missing something? It seems like if I only worked one muscle group a workout, my workout would be ridiculously short. How do you 4-6 day a week guys do it?

Also: I've heard three different descriptions of supersets. One site says they involve a compound followed by an isolation (to completely exhaust one muscle) , another says it's an isolation followed by a compound (because you use a helper muscle to push the isolated one further than it would usually be able to go), and the last says it's just working antagonistic muscle groups. Which is the 'standard' definition?
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post #2 of 14
8/8/07 at 1:18pm
Lately I've switched to a three day split where I'm doing 7 exercises with 4 sets of 10 reps each, with moderate to heavy weight. I'm lifting Tues, Thurs, Sat: Tues Arms day: 4 x 10 concentration curls 4 x 10 swing curls 4 x 10 straight bar curls 4 x 10 dips 4 x 10 machine dips 4 x 10 skullcrushers 4 x 10 pullups Thurs Chest day: 4 x 10 Bench Press 4 x 10 Dumbbell Bench Press 4 x 10 Incline Bench Press 4 x 10 Dumbbell Incline Bench Press 4 x 10 Decline Bench Press 4 x 10 Decline Dumbbell Bench Press 4 x 10 Wide Grip Bench Sat Back/Legs/Shoulders day: 4 x 10 Squat 4 x 10 Deadlift 4 x 10 Calf Raise 4 x 10 Rows 4 x 10 Pullups 4 x 10 Shoulder Press 4 x 10 Shrug
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post #3 of 14
8/8/07 at 2:02pm
You should work out enough that the muscle group is fatigued, but not completely exausted, which can lead to overtraining. Once a week for biceps/triceps is enough if you do a good workout, because you will also be working your triceps when you work chest, and your biceps when you work your back.
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post #4 of 14
8/8/07 at 4:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dshack View Post

Bench: 8x3
Incline bench: 10x3
Leg raises: 30,20,20
Wide pull-up: 12x2
Normal pull-up: 12x2
Sitting row: 12x2
Tricep curls: 12x3
Bicep curls: 12x3
Squats: 12x3


You can get all that in in under an hour?

How much rest you need is completely dependent on the volume and intensity you train with. You can work muscles nearly every day if you follow the right program.
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post #5 of 14
8/8/07 at 5:13pm
Thread Starter 
I do circuits, ie bench-pullup-leg raise, then incline bench-row-squat.

The guy at the gym told me today that if I work my whole body each workout, I'll burn more calories, but by not letting each muscle group rest, I'm preventing myself from building strength and mass.

QUOTE:
4 x 10 Bench Press
4 x 10 Dumbbell Bench Press
4 x 10 Incline Bench Press
4 x 10 Dumbbell Incline Bench Press
4 x 10 Decline Bench Press
4 x 10 Decline Dumbbell Bench Press
4 x 10 Wide Grip Bench

Something like this seems crazy. I'd have to move way down in weights to be able to do more than two different chest/tricep exercises, and even then I feel like I couldn't do seven. Do you use progressively less weight on each exercise?
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post #6 of 14
8/8/07 at 6:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by drizzt3117 View Post
Lately I've switched to a three day split where I'm doing 7 exercises with 4 sets of 10 reps each, with moderate to heavy weight. I'm lifting Tues, Thurs, Sat:

Tues Arms day:
4 x 10 concentration curls
4 x 10 swing curls
4 x 10 straight bar curls
4 x 10 dips
4 x 10 machine dips
4 x 10 skullcrushers
4 x 10 pullups

Thurs Chest day:
4 x 10 Bench Press
4 x 10 Dumbbell Bench Press
4 x 10 Incline Bench Press
4 x 10 Dumbbell Incline Bench Press
4 x 10 Decline Bench Press
4 x 10 Decline Dumbbell Bench Press
4 x 10 Wide Grip Bench

Sat Back/Legs/Shoulders day:
4 x 10 Squat
4 x 10 Deadlift
4 x 10 Calf Raise
4 x 10 Rows
4 x 10 Pullups
4 x 10 Shoulder Press
4 x 10 Shrug

280 reps for your arms.

280 reps for your chest (plus the extra arm work).

40 reps for your quads.

40 reps for your hamstrings.

Interesting.

lefty
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post #7 of 14
8/8/07 at 8:07pm
I could have told you that by looking at his pictures

For some reason, guys don't like to work out their legs. I like to completely neglect everything except the pecs, arms, and traps so the upper body looks even bigger by comparison
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post #8 of 14
8/8/07 at 8:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lefty View Post
280 reps for your arms. 280 reps for your chest (plus the extra arm work). 40 reps for your quads. 40 reps for your hamstrings. Interesting. lefty
2 surgeries on my left knee, 3 surgeries on my right knee, 1 surgery on my left ankle... I'm not going to be doing a lot of lower body work. I use dual knee braces during lower body exercises and am comfortable with squats in the 300 lb range now. I run a bit too, and have pretty decent lower body size/definition regardless of my relatively low workload on legs (I also don't think 40 reps a week on squat/DL or 120 total reps on legs is low, for most people, anyways). I used to squat 500+ easily but not going to put that much stress on my knees anymore.
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post #9 of 14
8/8/07 at 8:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dshack View Post
I do circuits, ie bench-pullup-leg raise, then incline bench-row-squat.

The guy at the gym told me today that if I work my whole body each workout, I'll burn more calories, but by not letting each muscle group rest, I'm preventing myself from building strength and mass.

QUOTE:
4 x 10 Bench Press
4 x 10 Dumbbell Bench Press
4 x 10 Incline Bench Press
4 x 10 Dumbbell Incline Bench Press
4 x 10 Decline Bench Press
4 x 10 Decline Dumbbell Bench Press
4 x 10 Wide Grip Bench

Something like this seems crazy. I'd have to move way down in weights to be able to do more than two different chest/tricep exercises, and even then I feel like I couldn't do seven. Do you use progressively less weight on each exercise?

Well I start with the exercise in which I'm doing the most weight, so sort of.

Right now my weights start at 225 on bench and go up to 315, with wide grip bench starting at 135 and going to 225. I do a bit less weight on incline than regular bench, and about the same on decline as regular bench.
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post #10 of 14
8/8/07 at 10:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by drizzt3117 View Post
2 surgeries on my left knee, 3 surgeries on my right knee, 1 surgery on my left ankle...
Also, you're including dips and pull-ups under "arms," and I think of those as working out quite a bit more than just the arms.
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post #11 of 14
8/8/07 at 10:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gvibes View Post
Also, you're including dips and pull-ups under "arms," and I think of those as working out quite a bit more than just the arms.

True. I did that so the arms day had a bit more variety.

I am pretty happy with my lower body size/definition in any case.
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post #12 of 14
8/9/07 at 9:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by drizzt3117 View Post
2 surgeries on my left knee, 3 surgeries on my right knee, 1 surgery on my left ankle...

I'm not going to be doing a lot of lower body work. I use dual knee braces during lower body exercises and am comfortable with squats in the 300 lb range now. I run a bit too, and have pretty decent lower body size/definition regardless of my relatively low workload on legs (I also don't think 40 reps a week on squat/DL or 120 total reps on legs is low, for most people, anyways). I used to squat 500+ easily but not going to put that much stress on my knees anymore.

It's not so much that the legs/back are underworked as it is the arms/chest are overworked. Bicep is what ... the size of an apple? Triceps a little larger. Shitload of work for relatively small muscles.

You kids reading this may want to look into a more balanced WO.

lefty
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post #13 of 14
8/9/07 at 11:43am
The reason I'm wary of that workout, drizzt, is that "chest day" is full of primarily tricep movements. In fact, only one movement is getting trained over and over again on that day. Have you thought of adding cable crossovers or flys? Or, better yet, weighted pushups.
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post #14 of 14
8/9/07 at 11:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ken View Post
The reason I'm wary of that workout, drizzt, is that "chest day" is full of primarily tricep movements. In fact, only one movement is getting trained over and over again on that day. Have you thought of adding cable crossovers or flys? Or, better yet, weighted pushups.

True, that might add a bit more variety to it. The reason I double up on dumbbell and barbell is b/c I like to work the stabilizer muscles as well as the whole chest. I might drop one set from each exercise and add a few more exercises, such as pec deck and weighted pushups.
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