Target areas when strength training?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really depends on your goals, what kind of strength training you like, how much time you have - there is no single best strength routine.

Generally, you want to work your large muscle groups (legs, chest, back) before smaller (biceps, triceps), but most classes are structured that way. People go on about “leg day” or whatever, but it’s fine to train your whole body two or three times/week (more than three wouldn’t allow for adequate recovery). But hey, if you love leg day, have at it!

Most people start out with full body workouts. The reason people move to workouts targeting specific muscle groups on specific days is that it’s pretty common to progress to a point where you can’t continue to advance with full body workouts. When I was lifting seriously, my twice a week leg day as

3x5 squats @275-300
3x5 deadlift @350-400
4x12 leg press @450-550
Leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises

This was as a middle aged, not very strong dude with bad knees. Lots of guys at my gym lifted much more. It’s hard and takes too long to do other exercises after a workout like this, at least for me.

Now that I’m even older and even weaker, I’m back to full body workouts.

What are those numbers? Pounds??

Yes. Apparently, listing them upset another poster, but my point was just when I started out — like most people — I could get stronger based on 3 45 minute workouts per week. Pretty quickly - again like most people with a solid progressive overload program — I progressed to where I couldn’t keep keep getting stronger with full body workouts, so I split exercises by upper/lower body. I listed the weights and reps to give an idea of where an n=1 sample of a skinny, middle aged runner got to in a couple of years, and why it’s hard to do a full body workout and still get stronger after a while. If you powerlift at all, you’ll know those numbers are not much weight (especially for a man), but it was too much for me to do along with upper body stuff in the same day.

[Anonymous]

I hate full body workouts, because you never really pound muscle groups into submission due to time constraints. Much prefer whole days each dedicated to legs, core, back, and chest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really depends on your goals, what kind of strength training you like, how much time you have - there is no single best strength routine.

Generally, you want to work your large muscle groups (legs, chest, back) before smaller (biceps, triceps), but most classes are structured that way. People go on about “leg day” or whatever, but it’s fine to train your whole body two or three times/week (more than three wouldn’t allow for adequate recovery). But hey, if you love leg day, have at it!

Most people start out with full body workouts. The reason people move to workouts targeting specific muscle groups on specific days is that it’s pretty common to progress to a point where you can’t continue to advance with full body workouts. When I was lifting seriously, my twice a week leg day as

3x5 squats @275-300
3x5 deadlift @350-400
4x12 leg press @450-550
Leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises

This was as a middle aged, not very strong dude with bad knees. Lots of guys at my gym lifted much more. It’s hard and takes too long to do other exercises after a workout like this, at least for me.

Now that I’m even older and even weaker, I’m back to full body workouts.

Your point? I’ve done all kinds of strength training from Olympic lifting to powerlifting to solidcore to Peloton strength to yoga to my own random workouts at the gym. Neither I nor the OP need mansplaining about full body vs. accessory work. Your first sentence is somewhat helpful; the rest, not so much.

DP, but how is this mansplaining? I think of mansplaining as when a man tries to school me on a topic on which I’m more informed than he is, not someone trying to answer a question I’ve asked. I think your response was a bit aggressive for no apparent reason.

Read the full exchange above. I do know more than this guy, at least based on what he posted. There was very little reason for him to post that level of detail about leg day for someone inexperienced in strength training. Also, I wasn’t asking a question; I responded to OP’s post, and this guy saw fit to respond to mine even though I wasn’t asking for any kind of input or response from him.

As a woman who is more experienced with different styles of weight-lifting and strength training than most men, yeah, I do get annoyed when men proactively try to school me in it.

You sound insane.