cant make it to biceps on chest/bi day

[riptyde4]

**title should say: cant make it to triceps on chest/tri day. My mistake.


Hey so I'm about 3 months into serious lifting and really pushing to make gains.

I've got what I think is a solid weekly workout plan, but as I'm increasing my weight on my exercises I'm running into a problem.

My current chest/tri workout is 3 sets, 6-8 reps all around:
Flat bench
Incline bench
Decline bench
Flys
Tricep pulldowns (cable)
Ez curl Skull crushers
Overhead tri exts

This week I got through my chest workout and but barely made it through my cable pulls.

My debate is do I drop my chest weights and sacrifice chest gains so i can get through my tri workouts or drop my tri weights?

I can normally get 6-8 reps for a 120lb cable pull but after my chest workout my tris are shot to the point where I have to drop that 120 to get my 6-8 reps in because I'm failing early. Does this even matter? I figure either way I'm murdering my triceps, I'm just not sure what to do...

[transamdroptp08]

You can't do the weight because your muscles are already exhausted. Don't focus on the weight but the muscle being worked instead.

[hanger1989]

The thing I would say is maybe your chest is already to far ahead of your triceps, hence the reason your triceps have no energy left after chest. Your tris really should only be warmed up a little after a chest workout, they shouldn't be completely exhausted.

The way to fix this would be if you have a few free weights at home maybe chuck in a few extra tricep isolation exercises on one of your rest days once a week. Make sure they're not next to your chest workout days days though. Preferably not the day before your shoulders workout either, as it could affect your overhead press

[RSP3CT]

Either split the exercises so you work each muscle group one after the other (e.g incline/flat bench press, then skull crushers, then flat/decline, then pulldowns etc.) or work two different days: lighter weights for the tricep based exercises on chest day, and then do a seperate tricep day where you work the tricep heavy and chest light -- though this would mean two separate days for tri's and chest. Hope this helped.

[TheMadPhysicist]

Eat more pre workout and get some more complex carbs in to your system. Increase rest times and drink a lot of water (may even want an intra [x-tend is great]).

I wouldn't change your routine because you cannot lift, that's the whole point! to get bigger, better and stronger and if you had a 40 set + programme before you hit the triceps then fair play, but your current programme should not prohibit you from working them after your chest. Assuming you've surpassed the newbies full body routines and have been spending a lot of time building your core, strength and increasing your stamina via full boy workouts and have not jumped straight into isolations the you should be fine....in fact it should not be an issue at all really.

If you haven't yet built that strong foundation and felt you can skip it, it's pretty evident that's not the case....

Unless you can manage triceps isolations post chest without having to change your splits, go back a few steps and get back to full body workouts.

**title should say: cant make it to triceps on chest/tri day. My mistake.


Hey so I'm about 3 months into serious lifting and really pushing to make gains.

I've got what I think is a solid weekly workout plan, but as I'm increasing my weight on my exercises I'm running into a problem.

My current chest/tri workout is 3 sets, 6-8 reps all around:
Flat bench
Incline bench
Decline bench
Flys
Tricep pulldowns (cable)
Ez curl Skull crushers
Overhead tri exts

This week I got through my chest workout and but barely made it through my cable pulls.

My debate is do I drop my chest weights and sacrifice chest gains so i can get through my tri workouts or drop my tri weights?

I can normally get 6-8 reps for a 120lb cable pull but after my chest workout my tris are shot to the point where I have to drop that 120 to get my 6-8 reps in because I'm failing early. Does this even matter? I figure either way I'm murdering my triceps, I'm just not sure what to do...

[mtownballer20]

You can't do the weight because your muscles are already exhausted. Don't focus on the weight but the muscle being worked instead.

This. It's a secondary movement, work it and no need to over worry about weight progress.

[skel1977]

Dont really need to do direct bicep work to make biceps grow anyways. As long as you are doing back exercises they will grow with the rest of your body.

[BlindSight720]

Where is your grip when you are doing bench? If you tend to grab the bar a bit close, this will work your triceps a lot more (CGBP). Your triceps will get worked during bench regardless, but a wider grip on the bar will be less taxing on them.

Also, don't worry about going too heavy on your tricep movements. Just do what you can. They will respond to frequency with a lighter weight; however, they won't respond to skipping them.

[pullfreak]

Agree with other posters.
Also if u want to isolate ur triceps but they're exhausted from being worked as a secondary muscle (from presses) u can replace some presses with some isolation movements (flyes, pec deck, crossovers etc.) This means when u get to ur tricep workout u still have enough in the tank to have a quality workout, whatever u do though dont decrease weights on the presses.

[GravityLee]

Just offhand agree with a lot of the other posters. I think you need to spend more time on mind muscle connection and consider dropping the weight on some exercises and going to a 10 rep set. When you are doing all those chest movements if you are throwing up a heavy weight without very controlled negatives and hard pectoral contractions at the top chances are your front delts and triceps are taking a beating because the mind muscle connection to the chest is not there. The way to build that connection is to do a weight that you can control the entire movement on and flex hard at the top. If you can't do this at a 10 or 12 rep set range you aren't going to do it at a 5 or 8 rep range. Also make sure your nutrition is there I was a very similar build and height at your age actually I don't think I got to your weight until I was closer to 23 I started at 17 I weighed 125. One other thing I listen to my body if my body says this is enough for right now sometimes I will leave gym and come back at night and finish triceps. I don't know if scientifically theres anything wrong with doing this but it works for me. I will occasionally just extend my routine out a day and do say legs the next day then add triceps to my back / bi routine the day after that. Make sure the nutrition is there, you are getting adequate sleep, you are taking a multi vitamin I like to also take joint supps and things as well.

One other thing if you are just hell bent on doing heavy sets like that 120 lb rope pushdown for 5-8 reps me personally I would get it down however I had to and contract hard but on the way back up I would slow that thing down to a crawl almost because that hits the muscle so good. Also if you are dead at rep 5 but really wanted to hit rep 7 or 8 you can hold on to the rope and take 3 breaths then finish the last couple reps. I am curious if you are a picky eater I have been a picky eater my whole life and it has held me back from gains. My advice pick a protein and calorie target and do not ever miss that target while you are putting on mass.