Compounds Vs Rest days

[euk888]

Hi guys, I see compound exercises are often recommended as working multiple muscle groups. If one day is spent on the biceps and the next day is shoulders and a compound exercise uses the biceps it would negate the recovery stage surely?

[Zack]

I'm confused trying to think of a shoulder exercise that uses biceps.

[bronco]

I'm confused trying to think of a shoulder exercise that uses biceps.

Rear delt rows. Probably also upright rows.

 

As for the original question, what exactly do you mean by negate the recovery stage?

[euk888]

A body part isn't being rested if it has consecutive days of compounds targetting it back to back?

[MaryStella]

I do crossfit with a lot of compounds. They run 3 on 1 off cycle. I tend to do 6 on 1 off.

[VeganEssentials]

A body part isn't being rested if it has consecutive days of compounds targetting it back to back?

 

To some degree, it depends on how much work you put on those body parts. I could squat light every day, and even though it's a compount movement, if I don't push myself and train hard/heavy/both, it won't have a major impact for training legs the following day. That being said....

 

If you're training compound movements that affect the same body parts over and over with minimal rest, then perhaps the best question is, why not train those parts more effectively the first time around and with less frequency? You'll build better muscular endurance with frequent training of a body part or higher-rep training, but if you want to maximize gains for size, strength or both, then working a muscle frequently with lower effort is not going to be the best way to achieve results. The comparison I like to use is, curling a 3 lb. dumbbell hundreds of times per day, every day, is not going to yield the same results as curling a 50 lb. dumbbell for 3 sets of 5 once per week. Sure, you may be doing more work overall through total poundage moved with the tiny dumbbell, but you're not going to stimulate enough for proper gains of size or strength by working something often at far below sub-maximal capacity.

 

What might be best is if you post a routine you're considering so that we can take a look - maybe we're getting the wrong idea based on the general questions, so any specifics for your upcoming routine ideas would definitely help!

 

Finally, one last thing to consider is that some muscles should be thought of as indirect movers vs. being directly worked for some compound exercises, with biceps being a good example. Truthfully, there's nothing for shoudlers that should actually incorporate biceps to a degree that they're being worked hard - triceps do some into play with many shoulder movements (particularly, anything that has overhead pressing), but biceps should have the bare minimum use for anything, and the little direct use they get shouldn't have much bearing on recovery. Like Bronco said, if it were a movement like upright rows, you shouldn't be using your biceps intentionally (excessive unintentional use is a sign of improper form and should be corrected), so the little you'd get from the movement shouldn't have a large impact on recovery or worry about training biceps soon afterward. So, you could easily do something like a back/biceps workout one day and do something with shoulders the next without any need to worry about the shoulder day affecting recovery, as none of the movements should impact back or biceps enough to actually tax them.

 

Hope this helps a bit!