Working only one area of the body.

DarthH8

I have an amazingly cut lower body with pretty large muscles. Yet still a good amount of flab on my stomach and chest with very little muscle on my arms. I've had trouble adjusting to rest days they make me feel strange so I've been working out 4-5 days in a row doing the same exact chest/arm routines. I understand this isn't the way to maximize my gain but now I think I can handle rest days so I'm gonna re-strategize my routine.

I've read that your body can only repair/build so much muscle at a time. Does this mean that if I do lower and upper body workouts that my body has to split the work and build in different areas? Or each area has a maximium amount that it can be worked on at once?

In the case that the body has to split the work up between muscles. Do you think it would be viable to workout only arms/chest/back? With a rest day in between each of the 3 days I do it.

And in the case that each muscle group has a maximum work that can be done to it at once. I'm going to assume working everything out evenly will make your body push harder to repair as a whole and you will get better results than focusing on just one group in the end anyway.

My current routine: Monday-Fri - Chest/Arms, Sat/Sun - Mountain Biking
Routine I want to do: Mon-Chest/Arms/Back, Tues-Rest, Wed-Chest/Arms/Back, Thurs-Rest, Fri-Chest/Arms/Back, Sat- Mountainbiking, Sun-Rest/Light activity

I would really like to just do the chest/back/arms thing lol I'm hoping to get some good news on this one... I was thinking it could confuse my muscles a bit if I just switch the order I do them in each workout day. I have such awesome form with the chest and arm workouts that I have been doing and I love it. I understand that I need to start working on my back too so I don't throw it out making my front end all strong. But if it comes down to it I have a plan that I can follow that includes my entire body. I'll do the same workout/rest periods.

mustgetmuscles1

Personally I think that kind of routine is not going to give you the results you want and there is a reason no one else is doing a routine like that. The body NEEDS time to recover and rebuild to get bigger and stronger. With a program like that you are just tearing down your body and never letting it heal. The gym is for breaking down your body. Eating, sleeping and resting is when is actually grows. That does not mean you cant workout everyday but you should give each muscle group a minimum of two days to recover before hitting it again.

If you are totally against doing legs in your routine then you need to break up the upper body into smaller sections.

Like:
Day 1: Chest, shoulders
Day 2: Back, arms
Day 3: Rest
Then start over. That gives each part at least two days of rest but still lets you workout.

Or if you do start doing lower body
Day 1: Upper body
Day 2: Lower body
Day 3 Rest
Repeat

In my opinion you should just pick a proven routine instead of trying to make one up on your own. Not including squats and dead lifts you are missing out on two of the most important exercises there are for over all strength.

DarthH8

That settles it I'm just gonna find a routine that focuses on the upper body but includes everything.

I'm only a few weeks into lifting now so I'm still short on equipment. I've been using a bowflex at work to do press and curls and that's all, it's such a pain in the *kitten* to switch the machine around... and I'm all out of bars to use too so it's not gonna help me progress much more.

I was thinking of picking up some of the perfect pushup things, door pullup bar, some free weights, and a couple different sized bars for the weights. That should cover it yeah?