Do you really need to do dedicated 'leg' or 'arm' days?
Do you really need to do dedicated 'leg' or 'arm' days?
I've been going to the gym for a few months, still feel like a noob tho.
I track what exercises I do, weight & reps, etc, and try to rotate between the different exercises I enjoy.
However I don't do leg-centric days or anything like that, I just try and do a variety each week and not go too long without exercising specific areas. Is that bad?
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It's definitely not required but people tend to dedicate a whole workout to the larger muscle groups for the sake of structure and focus.
Your legs have many large muscles so they require a lot of work and a variety of excersise. Combining these excises into a single workout helps ensure you target all of those muscles.
It also allows you to do compound excersise like squats followed up immediately by targeted excersise of individual muscles which I personally think is more efficient than doing them on different days.
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Exactly. Leg days are by far my longest workout for the week. It just takes so much time, especially if you're working a single leg at a time.
Also, you get a whole week for the muscle group to repair itself.
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It really depends on what type of program / split you go with. Are you following a program or just winging it? Generally speaking You are much better off with an established program that sorts this all out for you.
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Not a dedicated program, but not quite ‘winging’ it cause I am tracking the exercises to ensure each area gets targeted
I’ve looked at specific programs online but, find it confusing when there are exercises they recommend that I either don’t feel comfortable/confident doing, or my gym just doesn’t have the right equipment
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Following a premade program is not only about having the right exercises, but also the progression scheme, how to handle stalls, and programming in the recovery. If you have all of those down as well, then you'll likely be fine doing your own thing, but if you're new, chances are that you don't.
Maybe it would help if you shared a program that you like but that has exercises you can't do, and we can tell you how to modify it to your needs.
If you don't have any ideas, then some good beginner programs I can recommend off the top of my head are:
- GZCLP
- Ivysaur 448
- Stronglifts 5x5
- Starting Strength
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I’m not an expert or anything but IMO the best thing I ever did was get into barbell training and just sticking with the same program and being extremely consistent. Avoiding fuck-around-itis is key.
For me 5/3/1 Boring but big is ideal. Four lifting days per week, one main compound lift (8 sets total) and one accessory exercise (5 sets) per workout. Takes about an hour, and I can do it at home with a rack and a barbell. I eat hard and sleep hard and the results have been insane, and most importantly no injuries. You can get to an intermediate level with just compound lifts and a simple program like this
A little light reading if you’re interested:
https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/
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Check out AthleanX. The exercises are basically straight out of the physical therapy handbook. It actually made my shoulder labrum tear better for like 3 years (then I moved to AX-2 before I was ready).
They also have a calisthenics program that uses 0 weight, but pull muscle groups obviously aren't targeted super well.
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I’d say you should put some focus into leg days. I do once a week.
I do biceps on back day since those muscles are often used anyways so I do pull downs, superset of rows/bicep curls, superset pull downs/hammer curls, face pulls and usually hit shoulders after that.
I do triceps on chest day since I’m similarly working those muscles anyways.
It’s good to shake things up periodically too so don’t lock yourself into one program indefinitely. Be open to adding/removing or rotating new things to keep your muscles guessing and avoid imbalances.
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It's good to have a routine that targets a rounded balance of muscles, particularly stabilising ones to avoid injury.
It's actually counterproductive to do leg day vs arm day in theory, as the more tired you get the less effective other exercises are going to be and the higher the risk of injury.
In general though because we have lives to plan around, and often cardio or like a job which heavily relies on legs it kinda sucks to be doing that on tired legs all the time.
So while biologically less productive than splitting up different muscle groups through the whole body in practical terms it's often easier to practice.
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I used to do splits. Now I do full body variation every 3 days instead of every other day. Even though my workouts themselves are longer, the extra rest is worth it, as well as more time to do what you want on those 2 days off. Usually some type of core and cardio. Learned this program from Greg Doucette on YT. Great for older gym rats.
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Hell, some people split legs into quad and ham centric days, with good results.
Legs definitely deserves it's own day given how much work they can do. I personally just tack arms onto the end of my chest day, which is at the very end of my four day split.