Arm day?

[#1can]

There are alot of ar-day-haters out there. Why?

I have divided my split into: upper body push, upper body pull, lower push, lower pull, and arms (incl. forearms/grip)

Don't worry, squats, front squats, deads, stiff leggs, bent rows, push press, bench press, and hang cleans are all in there so you hardcore PL's dont bash just yet.

The reason ive decided on an arm day is i feel as though my triceps especially are a limiting factor in my bench and overhead, so why not train them separately as well as on push day. BTW i am a college student with no job who doesn't go to class, thats where i get all the time for this stuff.

Opinions?

 

[Wrecking Ball]

If you're doing a decent routine you probably wont have enough time to recover, and progress. How exactly are you structuring your workout as far as calendar days? 5 seperate workouts is a lot to manage.

 

[anvar]

i personally feel it's a waste of training time, and if you also train in a martial arts (which i assume, because your on a fighting webpage)...it will be hard to balance everything and still recover.

 

[SmashiusClay]

i personally feel it's a waste of training time, and if you also train in a martial arts (which i assume, because your on a fighting webpage)...it will be hard to balance everything and still recover.

5 weight training days plus training in MA. Christ, you'd need to be a walking pharmacy.

 

[Eclypse]

Eh...I find arm days to be silly in terms of functionality. Look at the way you do your tricep exercises. When will you ever use those movements in real life? How many times will you be holding a weight behind your head and press it up with just your triceps? Think about that for a minute.

Anyway, your body has a very specific chain of command built in when doing movements, such as punching someone. Not only that, but there is a complex system of prime mover muscles and support muscles which keep the ligaments in proper proportion. So, if you build up your triceps a lot, never using the front deltoid and pectoralis major muscles, tendons, and ligaments that usually go with them, you will have a system that is too strong in one section and not in another. That gets you the whole "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link" thing. Worst case scenario: you try to press a workload that your triceps can handle but your shoulders can't, and boom, kiss some shoulder ligaments goodbye.

Getting back to your bench press, though. Why do you feel your triceps are a limiting factor? Do they burn out before your chest does? If not, then there's no problem; it's just your training that needs to be changed somehow.

As everyone else was saying, though, you have yourself down for a lot of days. I'd do contrasting movements on the same day, such as pressing and pulling. You can do a press exercise, then while you're letting those muscles recover, do a pull exercise. This is active recovery, a way to get more work done while still letting your muscles recharge for another set. It's useful to do three different exercises that all work different muscles like that. For instance, doing squats, bench press, and one-arm rows.

 

[yomon]

the main reason is that if your doing regular compound lifts our arms should already be dead. But i myself also find i need some arm work from time to time.

 

[Noskill]

An arm day is still silly. Especially with the kind of schedule you got. You train 2 muscles that are not meant to be trained together on a push/pull/squat split. Imo if you absolutely want to add extra volume of arm exercises, add the tricep work to press day and the bicep work to pull day.

 

[Madmick]

Eclypse answered your question. BTW, Eclypse, careful using "functional" in here: the term is misused frequently enough that there are several who will give you a hard time about it in here.

What leads you to believe your triceps are the limiting factor in your bench? If that's the case, you should address weak point in your upper body push day; this is far more effective than devoting an entire day to arms.

 

[#1can]

Madmick i just hate doing more than 4-5 exercises per day, so, say on my push day i do bench, incline press, reverse bench, and push press....adding 2 tricep exercises means im spending 50% more time in the gym....or am im doing too many push exercises to begin with?

And as for those who have shown concern, i do not train MA currently, im an armchair fighter, although a semi-elite athlete, just not at fighting.

 

[Eclypse]

Madmick: thanks for the heads-up. It's too bad that the term has been spoiled; it's good stuff! Think I can get away with "practical"? Or is there something else I should say altogether?

 

[Eclypse]

You train 2 muscles that are not meant to be trained together on a push/pull/squat split.

Why is that, do you think? What sort of limitations do you believe it imposes?

 

[Madmick]

Madmick i just hate doing more than 4-5 exercises per day, so, say on my push day i do bench, incline press, reverse bench, and push press....adding 2 tricep exercises means im spending 50% more time in the gym....or am im doing too many push exercises to begin with?

And as for those who have shown concern, i do not train MA currently, im an armchair fighter, although a semi-elite athlete, just not at fighting.

Yeah, I do.

I don't see why you do bench, incline, and reverse bench all in the same day. Choose one, up your sets in it, and make it your core lift for the day, then devote some assistance exercises to it.

Actually, I would consider the Reverse Bench an assistance lift already, and a tricep-intensive one at that. See what we mean? You're already hitting arms on this day.

If you don't have an OHP anywhere else in your program, I'd go with Incline. If you do, then go with the Flat Bench.

 

[Alon]

How much volume can you do with an arm day? For this reason I would just split the arm day into assistance exercises across the other days.

 

[Mark Limbaga]

You can add rack lockouts and close grip bench in push day