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Can You Do Arms After Leg Day? (Explained For Beginners)

After you’ve finished a tough workout, you’ll likely want to spend a bit of time recovering.

However, by the time the next day comes around, it might be time to head back to the gym for another training session.

Knowing which muscle group to target at this point will play a huge role in how successful you are at moving towards your fitness goals.

So, in this article, we discuss whether you can do arms after leg day.

We look at the advantages and drawbacks of doing so, as well as thinking about other options you might have available for your next workout after leg day.

Can You Do Arms After Leg Day?

Training arms after leg day is perfectly fine to do and may be a good way of organizing your workouts.

During leg day, your arms won’t be working very hard.

They may need to assist in some lower body exercises by helping to support a bar or similar, but they won’t be one of the main working muscles.

This means that your arms will be fresh and ready to be trained to their full potential after leg day.

Leg day will likely be a very challenging workout where your lower body has to work extremely hard.

Training an upper body muscle group, like arms, the day after will give your legs time to recover and repair ready to be trained again when leg day comes back around.

Benefits of Doing Arms After Leg Day

It Gives Your Legs Time To Recover

After leg day, your lower body will likely be very fatigued and in need of some recovery time.

Doing arms after leg day means that your lower body won’t be needed during your training the following day.

This can make a huge difference in how quickly your lower body ultimately recovers.

Giving your body the time it needs to recover after a challenging workout can go a long way in helping you reach your fitness goals.

Doing arms after leg day is a simple way of helping this happen and can be very beneficial to your training results.

It Can Lead To Bigger Arms

There have been some studies that suggest that training your legs before your arms can result in your arms growing to a greater size than they would without training your legs first.

It appears to be related to testosterone and the amount produced after a heavy leg workout.

If you can increase the amount of testosterone in your body, your muscles will be able to grow bigger and stronger.

As your legs have some very large muscles, it makes sense that testosterone production is higher when you’re targeting these muscles.

If your testosterone levels remain high for a while after leg day, training your arms soon after would be a logical thing to do if you want as much growth in this area as possible.

Drawbacks of Doing Arms After Leg Day

Fatigue

After leg day, you may be feeling quite fatigued as leg sessions tend to be one of the most challenging workouts you do in your training week.

Fatigue can play a big part in your training, so it’s important to think about how fatigued you are and whether training again is the right thing to do or if a rest day would be the best decision.

While your arms won’t necessarily be feeling any fatigue (as they don’t work much during leg day), your overall levels of fatigue can make it impossible to train your arms to their full potential after leg day.

Should You Do Arms After Leg Day?

There aren’t many reasons why you shouldn’t do arms after leg day, but it may be that other options are suited to you and your fitness goals.

Some people prefer doing light cardio or having a rest day following a challenging leg session, but that doesn’t mean that’s the best thing for you to do.

If you’re feeling like you could go to the gym and your arm muscles are fresh, recovered from any previous exercise, and injury-free, doing arms after leg day could be a viable option for you.

Is It Better To Do Legs After Arms Day?

It’s usually a good idea to train larger muscle groups before targeting the smaller ones.

In this instance, that would mean it’s usually a better idea to do legs before you do arms.

Is It Safe To Do Arms After Leg Day?

It’s safe to do arms after leg day but you should always keep overtraining in mind.

There’s some confusion about overload (which is good and necessary for muscle growth and development), and overtraining (which is bad and can lead to fatigue and injury).

Although your arms won’t necessarily be working during your leg sessions, your core and other muscle groups will play a role in both workouts.

This can mean they’re placed under excessive stress and overtraining can occur.

As long as you’re careful and ensure you are training appropriately, doing arms after leg day is a safe thing to do.

Other Muscle Groups To Do After Leg Day

Cardio

After a heavy leg session, cardio might be one of the last things you want to do.

However, a light cardio session can help increase blood flow and it can help flush out any lactic acid that still remains in your leg muscles.

A gentle cardio session on an elliptical trainer or an upright bike can be enough to help your legs on their road to recovery while still helping you fit as much exercise as possible into your training week.

Chest

Training your chest after leg day can be an effective way of planning your workouts.

During your chest session, your legs won’t really be needed so they can continue to recover while you target a large upper body muscle group at the same time.

Many chest exercises are performed supported by a bench too so this can help keep pressure and stress off your legs while still providing you with a challenging workout for another part of your body.