Question about combining muscle groups and # of exercises per

[OathofStone]

I've been using the same routine for quite a while.

Chest, shoulders, arms, back, legs. 12/10/8/8

I've decided to try something new and combine some of them.

Chest & tri, back & bi, shoulders & abs, legs.



In my previous workouts I would do between 5 to 9 exercises per muscle group but now when I look at my combined chest and tri workout there's 14-15 exercises.

For the chest/tri and back/bi workouts how many exercises should I be doing for each?
For example would 5 chest exercises and 5 tricept exercises be too much? Maybe 4&3?

Also would it be more beneficial to switch back and forth during the work out or do all chest ones then tricept?

[drkelly74]

I'm currently doing a chest and tris then back and bis type split. I workout during my lunch hour, so am limited by time, but I am not sure that I would do more even if I had more time. I typically do 3 chest exercises followed by 1 or 2 tricep exercises. I prefer to exhaust the chest before moving on to tris. Back and bis workout is similar.

[OathofStone]

Thanks. Would doing more than 3-4 exercises on a muscle group be a waste of time/effort?

[drkelly74]

How many sets do you do per exercise? I typically do 1-3 warm up sets depending on the exercise and how that body part feels, then 3 or 4 'heavy working sets', followed by an optional 1 or 2 drop sets per exercise. Therefore I am usually doing between 4 and 9 total sets with an average of probably 6-7 sets per exercise. 6-7 sets x 3 exercises is 18-21 total sets. It seems about right.

I'm far from an expert, but have been lifting and learning for about 5 years now.

[OathofStone]

I'll usually do 12/10/8/8