3 hours too much for full body weightlifting 3 days/week?

[lordsservant121]

@godisworking101 I would suggest you consider reducing volume on biceps/triceps and increasing volume (or intensity) on chest/back. Also, why no squats? They are far superior to leg extensions.

 

[godisworking101]

@lordsservant121 i was actually doing squats, but i have a bad left knee, and i found that with extensions, i can stress my quads more without my knee feeling anything

 

[pc_home]

@godisworking101 Why are you doing biceps and triceps? (And even more important, why are you STARTING your workout with them)? Why are you doing calves? Why traps, when they could be included in a deadlift You could streamline a whole bunch by focusing on multi-joint exercises, both axially-loaded and otherwise, and cut out the "mirror muscles" stuff. Are you planning on competing in a bodybuilding contest soon? If not, focus on large-muscle strength.

 

[pjportma]

@pc_home Can you clarify why its bad to start with bicep and tricep?

 

[ladyfarrier]

@pjportma It’s generally recommended to start with the larger compound movements (rows, presses) and do the isolation movements for smaller muscle groups last. If you tire out your biceps and triceps with isolation movements and then do the compounds, your arms will likely fail first and it will be more difficult to hit your other muscle groups effectively.

 

[pc_home]

@ladyfarrier What he said. But I don’t think you should do isolation exercises for the smaller muscles at all! If you do the big 4 lifts — squats, deadlifts, press, & bench press, you’ll automatically be working the smaller muscles as well. Yes, throw in rows , also. Maybe lat exercises.

 

[sls]

@pc_home I finish my push and pull days with accessory exercises for tris and bis, respectively. But otherwise I agree. I don’t usually do more than 2 sets for them just to burn them out at the end.

 

[ladyfarrier]

@pc_home This depends - if your goals involve having bigger and stronger arms, lateral delts etc, then of course you’ll get better results if you also hit them directly.

 

[jmartian143]

@pc_home Of those 4 lifts though, none of them really involve movement along the biceps? Tris, definitely, traps and calves as synergists. Agree to do compounds first but isolation has its place (not to this extent, IMO). Especially if the synergists are limiting your big lifts

 

[nataliebrooke]

@pc_home Heavily depends on training age and goals. If you're just looking for aesthetics, you should start with your big compounds, and then do smaller muscles at the end as you have time and energy.

The newer you are to training the more your volume should be on those big RSM compounds. As you get more advanced (assuming aesthetics are your goal) you may need to play around more with isolations etc.

 

[mbennett024]

@godisworking101 how long are you resting in between sets?

i do similar full body workouts althought i keep the bicep tricep and core stuff to 4 sets instead of 9. i'd say total run time is still 90-120 minutes with only 60-90s rests in between sets.

i'm happy with how its working and i'm not accumulating any injuries.

 

[godisworking101]

@mbennett024 i mentioned my rest times in the post, but i'll clarify here a bit better

for my isolation exercises i'd take about a minute, but the ones that tire me out more (like RDLS and bent over rows) i'd take 3-5 minutes, basically however long i need to get my breath back

thanks for the suggestions, appreciate it

 

[mbennett024]

@godisworking101 my apologies, i did skim twice but i've gotten terrible about reading things fully in my advancing years lol.

not that i'd worry about overtraining since i think over training arms is basically impossible but i also think its fair to say some of those 9 arm sets might be treading into 'junk volume' territory. If the only concern is time, maybe cut some of those out and if your gains evaporate then bring them back but my guess is you'd still be fine between the compound movements and 4 sets of isolation

also fwiw: i used to also take like 3-5 minutes between sets on squats and DLs and fully needed it, then i started a program that was like "You're resting only 90s MF'er' and i was surprised how quickly i got used to it. I joke with my wife now about "cardio deadlifts". granted these are more in the 8-12 rep range and nothing super heavy. i imagine if it were like 4-6 reps 90s would not be enough, but i'm kinda of aging out of heavier lifts anyways.

 

[godisworking101]

@mbennett024 no need to apologize my friend

i can say with confidence that i would easily shave 20 minutes off my workouts if i wasn't watching an engrossing series during my workouts, sometimes i'd forget i was resting for 5 minutes when i could have done with 3 because i was glued to the screen lol (if anyone's wondering the series is The Man in the High Castle)

as an example, last friday i tried making the RDL reps longer than usual, and after each set my hamstrings felt like jelly, so i definitely took 4-5 minutes since i didn't want to do another set with jelly legs. however, today after massaging my sore hamstrings over the weekend (some yard work also helped keep the blood pumping), i didn't extend the reps so i rested 2 minutes... my workout today lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes

 

[mbennett024]

@godisworking101

if i wasn't watching an engrossing series during my workouts

this has burned me in the past

 

[yhdks]

@godisworking101 I love lifting but I don't have time or energy for that many movements and sets. I couldn't focus for that long.

I'm currently doing a full body split but try to split two days into upper lower focus... with way less exercises. I also do supersets and Myo rep sets.

E.g. full body with lower focus

Squats superset with Pull ups

RDL superset with Dips

Myo rep sets for biceps triceps and side delts.

Takes me less than an hour.

I think focussing on form and loading the muscle when it's lengthened does more for hypertrophy than going through almost every possible exercise there is for a muscle.

But if that's an enjoyable and sustainable way for you then keep at it.

The cycling part is cool for cardio and recovery.

 

[godisworking101]

@yhdks i tried supersets some months ago. i did shrugs and calf raises together

one day i did them separately and found i could lift way more than with supersets

since then i never really tried supersets anymore

was i doing something wrong maybe?

 

[irisheyez]

@godisworking101 Slightly lower weight is possible just from a fatigue standpoint. But they’re completely different muscles so they really shouldn’t affect each other. That’s the point of supersets. What do you mean by “way more”? Also shrugs and calf raises are isolated. You should be able to superset both without feeling too fatigued. Now if you were supersetting deadlifts and bench press, that’s different.

 

[godisworking101]

@irisheyez i understand, what i mean is when i'd do supersets, i had just barely enough energy left at the end of each superset

when i did them separately, it's basically half a superset so i had more energy left at the end of each set, so i found i could add 0.5-1 times more weight for each set and then have barely enough energy left

 

[learnandbloom]

@godisworking101 That looks like the body builder profile Marty Gallagher write’s about in The Purposeful Primitive. Great book.

If it’s what you want to do… great. Most of my workouts are 45 minutes. I run through Progressive Pulls in about that time (2 sets of overhead squat to warm up, 3-4 sets of snatches, 2-4 sets of cleans, 2-4 sets of high pulls, 3-4 sets of deadlifts, 1 set of heaves, 1 set of rows, 1 set of shrugs. And maybe one set of pull ups for good measure).