i've just switched to doing multi-set split body routine from single set full body routine last week. i don't know much except the things i have read here and decided to give it a try. i have some questions regarding this.

for example, day 1 involves chest and triceps.

i will do bench press, chest fly, incline/decline bench and do couple triceps extension exercises, all 3 sets each.

my question is, do i need to do all my chest exercises consecutively and then do my triceps or can i mix in the triceps exercise in between? which is better?

it would make 9 straight chest exercise sets if i do in order, and i'm thinking switching off might give me better results. true?

also, this is my routine, how does it look? 3 days a week.

day 1: chest, triceps, and wrist/forearm
what i mentioned above + wrist curls

day 2: shoulders, biceps
seated shoulder press, reverse fly, rear deltoid row, lying bicep curl, standing bicep curl.

day 3: legs, abs
leg curls, leg extension, leg press, calf raises, squats, resisted reverse crunch, seated resisted crunch.

i'm not sure if my back is being worked, so i might add that to day 2. would you consider adding back exercises important?

thanks.

Back exercises are very important not only because it's a very large muscle group (I believe the lats are the largest upper body muscles?), but also if you overtain your chest and do no back work you'll end up with imbalances.

Add some rows/pullups/pulldowns as you have no direct targeted back exercises in there. A popular split being back/biceps & chest/triceps would make your day 2 the most logical place to add it.

ok, thanks. how about my original question of asking if it's a must that all exercises from the same muscle group have to be completed before moving to another group?

I've been doing a split similar to the one Cairbre suggested:

Chest/Triceps
Back/Biceps
Legs/Shoulders

(Abs every workout, with different emphasis on upper/lower each day.)

I like to set my workouts up to segue from larger groups to smaller ones, so my order for Chest/Triceps day looks like this:

Bench Press (wide grip)
Cable Crossovers
Dips
Skullcrushers (or French Curls, if you're squeamish :lol: )
Triceps Pushdowns
One-Arm Triceps DB Extensions (for a finishing pump)

This basically takes me from nearly all Chest (BP w/ wide grip) to mixed Chest/Tris (dips) to pure triceps. To answer your question straight-up, I personally don't like to mix them up.

Alternatively, there is nothing wrong with doing it the mix-and-match way, unless you find that wearing out your triceps first affects the chest exercises that follow.

Bottom line, I would stick with the sequence you have now for at least a few weeks, then don't be afraid to switch things up if you don't feel that you are making progress. There will probably be people who tell you that one way (or it's opposite) is the only "best" way to go, but I think this is one of those things that can vary from one individual to another. For example, I've had people ask me how I can really work my triceps effectively since they are already getting some work during the chest-emphasis part. For some, this would be true. For me, it has proven to be a great plateau buster for both body parts.

ok, thanks. how about my original question of asking if it's a must that all exercises from the same muscle group have to be completed before moving to another group?

I would mix up the exercises and save the isolation exercises for last. I also agree that you NEED to include back exercises. You can develop postural disorders if you ignore your back during strength training. I can't remember the specific name, but if you don't believe me I'll go back to my notes from last year.

thanks, i'll definitely try to do the back exercises on my shoulder day. so far i've done 1 cycle of the split routine and i like it much better than full body routine. i am actually sore as hell for one and it's psychologically much easier on me with the splits. i've been doing the full body routine for almost half a year without seeing desired results so i thought i'd give this a try.

Personally I'm not a fan of splits, but an interesting split I've seen lately is...

1 - Chest / Back
2 - Lower body
3 - Shoulders / Arms
4 - Rest

The idea behind it is that you hit your arms indirectly on day 1, give them a rest while you work lower body, then hit the arms again on day 3. Then recover and start over.

here's the split i'm currently doing:

Mon: Chest/Tri
Tue: HIIT/abs
Wed: Legs
Thur: Shoulders/abs
Fri: Back/Bi
Sat: HIIT -or- Rest
Sun: Rest

i like to leave a couple days rest between chest/tri and shoulders since most chest/tri exercises recruit the shoulders as well. in the past i've attempted a chest/tri/shoulder day but that led to an hour and a half workout.

ok, thanks. how about my original question of asking if it's a must that all exercises from the same muscle group have to be completed before moving to another group?

Just to clarify, are you referring to alternating exercises or alternating sets? I assume you mean exercises, e.g. 3 sets bench, then 3 sets triceps pushdown.

As has already been said, try both ways and see what works for you. There's certainly merit in doing it either way, so you will have to see which gives you better results. Mixing them up might allow you to pre-exhaust some of the muscles enabling you to focus harder in the following exercise (e.g. doing triceps before bench to focus on pecs). Mixing also has the benefit of giving your other muscle group a longer "rest" as they're not being directly hit, which may allow you to use more weight.

Personally I tended to group my exercises, starting with the large compounds first. Isolation exercises are much easier to control when your muscles are already fatigued so I would do them last. The exception was when I would do an antagonistic arm split I would alternate sets.