Prioritize for Greater SIZE

by: Pm - September 12th, 2007

Prioritize for Greater SIZE

Generally speaking, when working multiple body parts either together in the same workout, or in back-to-back workouts, it makes sense to work the muscles from the center of the body outward. This is because the muscle groups tend to get smaller and weaker as you move from the center of the body out toward the extremities (ex., chest/back > traps > delts > upper arms > forearms)

If, for example, your training split had you working delts, chest, and triceps all on the same day, conventional training wisdom says that you should work the different muscle groups in this order: chest first, delts second, and triceps third.

The chest is the largest of the muscle groups and closest to the center of the body; the triceps is the smallest of the three muscles and the furthest from the core. Since the triceps and delts are used in chest-building exercises like bench presses, if you work these muscle groups before your chest exercises, you risk fatiguing your triceps and delts before your pecs are fully exhausted. So, as a rule, this is a sound plan. But like all rules, this one was also made to be broken.

When you have a lagging body part, your program should be structured around it – even if that means training that body part out-of-order. Each of us is engineered slightly differently when it comes to body structure. Some are tall and lean, others are squat and stout. Some have to eat extraordinary amounts of food to add a single pound of lean mass, while others gain weight just by looking at the wrong kinds of food. The point is we all have our strengths and weaknesses. This is especially true when it comes to body building / sculpting.

Look around at the gym. You’ve all seen the guy with the disproportionately large back, but no chest and the woman with super skinny legs and an average sized torso. Some of this may be a result of following a poorly conceived and constructed training program, but, more likely than not, at least part of it’s due to genetics.

We all have are strong body parts and our weak ones. Personally, my back, quads, traps, and calves, grow much faster and easier than my arms, rear delts, hamstrings, and chest. To help overcome this, I will often prioritize a smaller muscle group like biceps over a larger muscle group like lats to help keep my physique more symmetrical. Sure, there may be times when my back muscles fibers aren’t completely stimulated before my arms give out. But, that’s okay, because my back grows more quickly than my biceps. And, in the end, as a body builder, I’m more concerned about size, shape, and symmetry than I am about strength and power (…not planning on entering power-lifting competitions any time soon).

There are a couple of advantages to training weaker body parts first. For starters, your “head” is likely to be into the workout at the start than it is at the end. No matter how motivated you are, as fatigue kicks in your focus and thus your motor unit activation will begin to wane; once this happens, workout intensity will take a nosedive.

By prioritizing a lagging body part when you’re fresh, you’ll be able to be able to use more resistance too – and, as we all know, if you want to get big, you need to lift big (at least some of the time).

Lastly, if you’re like me, you have a subconscious tendency to build your workouts around lifts that you’re good-and-strong at. By prioritizing weaker body parts first, you’ll force yourself to be a little less comfortable. Unlike most things in life, getting good at performing your lifting routine is not something to strive for. Weight-training is a journey without a final destination. Yes, you need goals, but these goals are ever-evolving. It’s not like you can ever really “arrive” and rest on your laurels. To the contrary, the more advanced you are, the harder you need to work to see the slightest difference (example: it’s much easier to go from 35% body fat to 30% body fat than it is to drop from 10% body fat to 5% body fat).

To wrap things up, it’s okay to break the rules once and awhile if it’s for the greater good – in this case a better looking, more balanced physique.

…till next time.

Happy Heaving,

PM

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