How many exercises should you do per muscle group?

[smuckers45]

This is something I've always been confused on. I'm unclear how many exercises I should do per muscle group. I do 2 days upper body and two days lower body. I was doing about 3 exercises per muscle group but I felt like it was too much. For upper body I was spending like 2 hours in the gym and I felt like I was overtraining. For chest I would do bench press, push ups, and cable flys. For my back I would do lat pulldowns, rows, and pull ups. For shoulders it was shoulder press, shoulder flys, and shrugs. I would do 3 exercises 3 sets each for chest, back, and shoulders, and then 2 exercises each for biceps and triceps. I felt like that was too much so I lowered it down to 2 exercises for everything and it still feels like too much. However one exercise per muscle group simply doesn't feel like enough, so I guess I'm having trouble striking the right balance.

I feel like two days of full upper body workouts is too much to begin with, but I can't figure out a way to evenly work out all the major muscle groups and still see progress. two days per week dedicated to upper body and two days for lower body just seems like a perfect amount, but I need some advice as to how much is too much, and how little is too little. Any suggestions?

[retardedhorse1]

hey man. First off i highly suggest 3times/week full body. Works best for us natties, trust me and the science.

Its not su much about how many exercises you do per muscle group but about if they do enough work. Also you have to look more closely at what muscles youre training...you cant really compare your back to your chest.
Your back is a complex bunch of muscles, your chest in comparison is rather simple. Heres what you need in your training for your upper body: a horizontal pushing movement (bench ), a horizontal pulling movement(row) , a vertical pushing movement(military press) a vertical pulling movement(chinups).
If you do enough of these 4 movement patterns, you pretty much hit everything in your upper body.
And keep in mind, both your pushing and both your pulling movements overlap, so basically you got 2 movements for each muscle group there.

[Sweetums6000]

You have overlap between different muscle groups, such as chest and shoulders, so it's not really as simple as 2 or 3 lifts for each group.

On my upper days I do two presses (bench and overhead), and then two types of rows, two types of pull-ups, lat pulldowns, some rear delt work, and one arm isolation.

So that’s one chest, one shoulder, one arm, and six back, by one way of looking at it; but really chest, shoulder, and arms overlap a lot so it’s more than one exercise for them. And I like spend more of my energy on one big lift for pushing exercises, and divide it up among more exercises at different angles with less intensity for my back, so it’s not really comparing the same thing.

[davisj3537]

You don't seem to understand overlap man. 3-4 back exercise, 2 presses and an arm iso or two is plenty. You can work every muscle adequately.

[TAWS6]

I do upper/lower and i'm out of the gym in 45-60 mins max.

upper: bench, pull down, ohp, row, bi/tri, face pull
lower: front squat, rdl, db lunge, leg curl, calf raise, abs

Done. Nice and simple.