Problem Triceps!

[Gladiola]

My darn triceps seem to just be getting weaker!

I'm doing them the same day as Chest, after chest, of course. & I think I'm fatiguing them too much with my bench press & push-ups. But even if I don't go very heavy on chest, they just seem to fatigue SO quickly. I can do 12 reps at X weight, & by set #3, I can barely make 5 reps & they are in awful pain (way worse pain than any other body part by the 3rd set in the whole workout!).

I suppose then when I do chest heavy, triceps light & then the next week chest light, tris heavy?

Any other ideas? Is this common? I'm just getting frustrated with the disproportional lack of strength gain.

 

[Gladiola]

I thought doing triceps before chest was never a good option... since the triceps are the weakest link in the chain *as it is* when doing a bench press or push up, if they are already fatigued, then
I won't be able to push up enough weight to fatigure my pecs(whether prone, pushing-up my own weight, or supine pushing up a bar).

My tris get a little sore doing a bench press as it is, I can't imagine I'd be able to do much good to my pecs if they were already fatigued. Maybe I should try it anyway?

I haven't done tris with bis in a few months, so could changing my training split help?

 

[wilson6]

I don't see the problem here.

If you tris are fatigued, then they are done. Sure you could work them on another day, but it sounds like they are involved heavily on benches, so you'd just be overtraining them.

The real question is, are they growing well? If the answer is yes, then leave everything alone and quit worrying about weight. The bottom line is momentary failure. If you're pushing your bench harder, then the tris will be weaker, but it really doesn't matter.

When my clients squat heavier, their leg presses are weaker, but that doesn't mean they didn't get a good leg workout.

My clients work their arms with their shoulders. If it is heavy shoulder day, then we start with shoulders. If it is heavy arms, we start with tris and bis.

We do chest with back, and it is always heavy shoulders on a Fri or Sat if it is heavy chest on Mon or Tues. I never do heavy tris a couple of days before heavy chest for that reason. Should have at least a 3 day rest.

W6

 

[anthrax]

What about doing triceps with back the same day

and bi + chest on another day ?

 

[Gladiola]

What about doing triceps with back the same day

and bi + chest on another day ?

This split always seemed odd to me - I can see the justification behind the chest/tri split & the tri/bi split - although I also can see the justification for the tri/back - it's just unusual. Hmmm, perhaps that explains my apprehension - if it were a good split it might be more common???

Perhaps I ought to try it - I know that just cuz it's unusual prob doesn't make it bad! I've been changing my splits a LOT though (upper body all in 2 days per week, sometimes 3 days, etc.) I need to get consistent!

Thanks.

 

[anthrax]

1] it is always good to change your split from time to time (you don't want your body to get used to a routine)

2] when you have a chest day you work your triceps (with almost all free weights movements). By doing chest + bi, you work chest + tri + bi !

 

[Gladiola]

1] it is always good to change your split from time to time (you don't want your body to get used to a routine)

2] when you have a chest day you work your triceps (with almost all free weights movements). By doing chest + bi, you work chest + tri + bi !

1. I usually change from chest/tri to tri/bi every 6 weeks or so, my routines vary a lot.

2. Then I couldn't do Monday, chest/bi, & then Tuesday, tri/back cuz my tri's should be recovering?! or no?!

With the other splits I do, I don't have to worry about that.

Thanks again.

 

[MS]

I can't see reason to worry. Chest and tris should logically grow together. If your chest workout is trashing your tris, then your chest is obviously over strong relative to your tris. Two solutions are 1) don't worry about it since your tris are getting a good workout with chest, or 2) as Spats suggested where you have one week when you priorotize chest and the next week you prioritize tris. Moving tris to their own day (such as with bis or shoulders) also will help. As a genral rule of thumb it's best to focus on bringing up one or two lagging bodyparts at a time. If you want tris to grow, you may need to back off chest and shoulder work for a while. I have the opposite problem. My over strong triceps sometimes make it difficult for me to exhaustively work chest, so I might do tricep pre exhaustion exercises before chest work.