What method is the best when trying to bring up lagging body part?

[lukas vis]

Hi,

Out of the below methods, which one is the most effective method of bringing up a body part? For the sake of argument lets use arms or biceps in particular, so obviously without impacting push and pull performance too much.

·        Training biceps with other non related muscle group (potentially prioritizing them) i.e. Biceps,legs / push / pull / Off / repeat.

·        Two a day sessions (giving them slight rest) i.e. training back in the morning then in the evening coming just to do biceps.

·        Training biceps at the end of the back session.

·        Training biceps the day after back session.

·        Training biceps the day before back session (giving them no rest).

·        Adding arm day(this confuses me a little bit, because if I do multiple sets of tricep compounds on the arm day, will my triceps recover for the following push session?) i.e. push / pull / legs / arms / off / push…

Didn’t mean to confuse you, but hopefully you understand where I’m coming from, would you list pros and cons of each method? And also is there something better that you could recommend?

[BryceBahm]

I wouldn’t advise the 2 a day training method. You would have to eat and sleep like a robot and most people don’t.

Don’t over complicate what is “right.” There is not right and wrong. If biceps are a priority, find a place to slide them into your split to get a few more working sets.

You can place them on a shoulder day. Or, prior to your leg training. Or, prior to your pull day.

The body cannot be compartmentalized as much as we would like to. On push, you will use triceps. On pull, you will do biceps. It’s just part of training. More muscles will get used in large ROM exercises.

Sprinkle your working sets out over the course of your split. Start it. Make adjustments according to what is working and what isn’t and keep plugging forward.

[Joe]

Like Bryce said, there isn’t an exact right way. But some of my thought process is depending on how lagging your arms are; how much should you prioritize them? Basically any time they are at the end of a session, they will not receive the highest level of stimulus possible (from accumulated fatigue). For some people that still enough to grow (which is why it’s not wrong). For some people they need to have arms first and fresh. Here are two different splits I’ve use. The top is mine and Terrence’s current split. It’s my current favorite. Arms get there own day once and hit again each on push and pull. So I get true priority one day and some frequency still. The second one has two true arm days. Neither right or wrong. Try which ever fits the best for you, measure progress. (Under my and Terrence’s “train with” sections, there are the full workout videos accompanying these splits)
–
Pull
Push
Off
Legs
Arms
Delts/lat
Off
–
Back, delt
Chest, biceps
Delts
Biceps and triceps
Legs
Chest, back, delt
2 Biceps and triceps
(Added off days as needed)

[Anonymous]

I don’t wanna sound like a douche but none of the ones you listed.
And please don’t take this as an offence or none of that.

Before going on to any specifics I’d like to know for how long have you been training consistently and progressively?
Also how much you weigh at the moment.

The reason why I’m asking these questions is, if you only have been training a year or two and/or haven’t build a somewhat decent foundation I really don’t think weak point training is something you should put too much focus on.

One major mistake I often times see some of these smaller guys (which I am as well) who obsess about having big arms make is, they start incorporating a lot more direct arm volume thinking that’s going to be the solution to the problem but then again what they are not considering is that the weight is not going up.

So before thinking of any prioritization phases or what you wanna call them ask yourself am I really that big and should I just focus on getting big on the basic heavy movements and also eating big, while not completely disregarding the direct arm work, and once you’ve managed to put a couple of pounds more muscle on your frame, then reassess whether your arms are a weak point anymore.

Hope this helps! ????

[Joe]

Anonymous wrote:

I don’t wanna sound like a douche but none of the ones you listed.
And please don’t take this as an offence or none of that.

Before going on to any specifics I’d like to know for how long have you been training consistently and progressively?
Also how much you weigh at the moment.

The reason why I’m asking these questions is, if you only have been training a year or two and/or haven’t build a somewhat decent foundation I really don’t think weak point training is something you should put too much focus on.

One major mistake I often s see some of these smaller guys (which I am as well) who obsess about having big arms make is, they start incorporating a lot more direct arm volume thinking that’s going to be the solution to the problem but then again what they are not considering is that the weight is not going up.

So before thinking of any prioritization phases or what you wanna call them ask yourself am I really that big and should I just focus on getting big on the basic heavy movements and also eating big, while not completely disregarding the direct arm work, and once you’ve managed to put a couple of pounds more muscle on your frame, then reassess whether your arms are a weak point anymore.

Hope this helps! ????

I don’t agree. Once you’ve trained people for 20 years, you perspective changes. You don’t need to get big and imbalanced before you address your imbalances.
–
I’ve seen it enough times – a decade of a “balanced” split applied to an imbalanced body, then take nearly as long to correct.
–
While the concept of total, half, and push/pull/lower splits is great – as much body part frequency as you can tolerate. People are turning into some sort of doctrine these days. Yes they “work” but so do “bro” splits.
–
When working with individuals as long as I have, you’ll find it’s generally somewhere in between with the “right” split. And the main type of client I work with now is people trying to balance their physique, after 10+ years of a program that didn’t align with their physique goals. Don’t wait until your imbalance are large, it’s easy enough to keep relatively high frequency, and address lagging body parts.
–
Most “normal” people (speaking to myself, and professional observation) that follow a full or push/pull program for too long and up looking like refrigerators. (Everything around torso and hips think, extremities suck)

[Anonymous]

Well of course, if having 20 inch arms is your ultimate goal then prioritizing arms is probable a very good idea. However the point I was (poorly) trying to make is there are people who may have gone to gym for years and they are still, what we would call novice level lifters. And if you happen to be one of those and you weigh like 140 lbs with clothes on, I would must rather see you spending some more time getting bigger and stronger overall before thinking of implementing individual arm days and what have you.

[Daniel Laws]

thanks for this thread! I think I can apply this to some quad work/growth.

Dlaws1

[Joe]

Daniel Laws wrote:

thanks for this thread! I think I can apply this to some quad work/growth.

????????????????

[George L]

Haha this was really interesting. Some great insights from experience. Thanks Joe.

[Author]

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