doing sets between sets

[samanthachapman]

Husband wants to ask the Follow:

I have just finished new workout routine and was wondering if I could do a set of something while I wait the 3 minutes for the other muscles to rest. For example, On Mondays I'm doing Chest and Triceps. So if I do a set of dumbbell flys for chest and then give it the 3 minute rest, can I do some triceps extensions during that 3 minute rest? Or is it 3 minutes of total body rest? The reason I ask is because I'm a father of 3 who works full time so I don't want to spend too much time doing and if I can speed things up a bit then I'm going to.
Thanks,
Daniel

[Boss Man]

I assume you logged on with your wifes account by accident .

I would cut the rest breaks to no more than 90-120 seconds, then do the Tricep stuff after the Chest stuff, not between sets.

Even if you did any Tricep stuff, that impacted little on the Chest, you'd still be depleting Oxygen from your system, which might impact on the Chest exercise, you'd be doing about a minute later.

So it's better if you do a workout like Chest, Triceps, to keep things in that order, rather than a muscle group cycling type setup were you go Chest, Triceps, Chest, Triceps etc etc.

[swanso5]

pair exercises up, but non competing exercises

so chest and tri exercises use tri's in both of them so they aren't a good pairing

chest and back on the other hand is

to go one better train movements over muscles so you can split your training up into pairs like this:

chest/rowing

shoulder press/pulldown

legs/core

bi/tri

[Boss Man]

so chest and tri exercises use tri's in both of them so they aren't a good pairing

I'd politely disagree on that one. The good thing about Chest exercises, mainly the pressing ones, are they serve as a good prep for Triceps, so you could then limit the amount of direct tricep stuff afterwards, which saves time.

Same as a Back / Biceps arrangement.

I would expand on the Chest / Back thing, to anyone readin this, by saying Chest is better done first, because the Bakc area is a stabilising component of things like Flyes and Bench Pressing, os fatiguing it first, may impede on the ability ot train your Chest in a desired way.

[swanso5]

why do tri's need a warm up? the tri's work just as much during a press then the chest...not to mention you'll also pre fatigue the front delts to some degree, again making your press weaker

and training back and chest together actually makes the other stronger during each set because after you do a set for chest it relaxes allowing the back to contract better and vice versa

[Boss Man]

Not concerned about the Back, Chest thing, but I believe it's better to do Chest first, then Back afterwards as a two stage workout, because the other way round, may hinder a Chest workout, if you've done about 20-30 minutes of Back stuff and fatigued it, because you'd need the Back muscles for Chest, more than the Chest muscles for Back, in terms of support and assistance.

I've done that before, when I couldn't do Chest stuff during workout and had to do Back stuff first, because the Gym was a bit full. Then I find Chest work tails off a little prematurely. No other muscle groups were affected by this impromptu change

Tri's don't need a warm-up specifically. Tri's can be worked more with a narrow grip, but pressing exercises for Chest, probably won't hit the Triceps in the same way as something like Skullcrushers could. There's a fair chance you'd get a partial impact in comparison.

[swanso5]

the back can and will stabilise all day long if it needs to

why wouldn't the stabilisation form all the chest work hinder the back workout then?

[Boss Man]

Because the Chest doesn't need to support the Back as much as the Back needs to support the Chest, because it's at the front. That's feeling anyway.

The only time I can think that wouldn't apply, is Lying Side Raises, where you lie Chest and face side down on a bench for the raises and do both arms at once, to work the rear delts and upper baack.

I'm mainly speaking from personal experience. I may not be speaking from a scientific standpoint, but then sometimes personal experience, can be more revealing than science itself .

I had to do some Back stuff first once or twice, when I couldn't do Chest first. Chest suffered. On those occasions however I never felt as if the Back stuff was a little easier, so I drew own conclusions, that Back fatigue impacts more on Chest than the oher way round.

It's just me though. it might be the same for others, but not for all I daresay.

[swanso5]

doing all back stuff first may have been the problem

i'm suggesting alternating chest and back sets

[Boss Man]

I figured that was the case.

Might be feasible if you did Front then Reverse Pec Deck, where you use the same equipment two ways, but in some places and with certain exercises, that sort of supersetting mentality, may prove problematic for some, because of space, or people using half the stuff they need.

I tried a lot of Superset stype stuff before. One I used to do was supersetting E-Z Bar Curls with Skullcrushers, but using two E-Z bars was not cool, as that place only had the two, so I could have ended up being Mr Nuicance, hogging them both .

[swanso5]

can do it easy enough with a crowd

bench press and bent row - same bar/bench but you'll need to change the wts
db press and db row - same bench/2 sets of db's
seated row and push ups - 1 machine and do pu's next to it