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Can You Do Chest And Arms On The Same Day? (Solved!)

If you’re wondering whether you can do chest and arms on the same day, then you’ve come to the right place!

In this article, we discuss the pros and cons of training chest and arms on the same day, which one should be trained first, and more.

woman doing bench press on chest day

Can You Do Chest And Arms On The Same Day?

You can train chest and arms on the same day very effectively.

People often train chest and either biceps or triceps in the same workout, so it’s definitely possible to work both of these muscle groups on the same day.

As your arms and chest are so close together, they often work together to make many upper body movements happen anyway.

With this in mind, it makes sense to do arms and chest on the same day.

Benefits of Training Chest And Arms on the Same Day

It Saves Time

Training your chest and arms on the same day can save you a lot of time in your training week.

Training just 1 muscle group per day means you’ll likely have to train every single day to cover each muscle group.

For most people, this just isn’t realistic or sustainable.

If training every day is an option for you, then working each area of your body individually can certainly bring you benefits.

However, for most of us, having a few days out of the gym each week not only gives us appropriate recovery time, but it also allows us to do all the other things in our lives.

It Can Be A More Efficient Way Of Training

By training your chest and arms on the same day, you can actually be more efficient in your workouts.

If you think that in a lot of chest exercises, your arms will play quite a big role (bench press, chest flys, cable crossovers, etc), it makes sense that your arms will already be getting a good workout during your chest movements.

This means that your arms will have already been worked, so they could get even more benefits from a session that targets them specifically.

Overloading your arm muscles in this way can result in some big gains in size and strength.

It Can Reduce Workout Time

As your arms work so closely with your chest in many movements, you might find that your overall time spent working out is reduced.

The working muscles in your arms will likely tire quicker after training your chest on the same day as they’ve already been working hard in some of the chest-specific exercises.

This means that you might not need to train for as long, compared to if your arms were completely fresh going into your arm session.

Drawbacks of Training Chest And Arms On The Same Day

Fatigue

Training multiple muscle groups on the same day (like your arms and chest) can cause fatigue to kick in.

If this happens, you might find that your performance during your training suffers as a result.

Working 1 muscle group at a time typically involves fewer exercises, so you’ll probably be able to work out without worrying over fatigue.

Certain Exercises Could Be Negatively Impacted

As your arms and chest work closely together in a lot of movements, they could end up reducing your ability to perform other exercises if you’ve trained one before the other.

For example, if you’ve done a heavy biceps session and then you try and do bench press, the chances are you won’t be able to lift as much due to the discomfort felt in your biceps.

Lifting less in bench press may limit the progress you make in your chest development.

Should You Do Chest And Arms On The Same Day? 

Doing chest and arms on the same day is actually a very effective way of training your upper body.

The muscle groups work closely together and activate simultaneously in many different upper body movements.

While you might prefer training them individually, you’ll probably notice benefits in your arms during chest sessions anyways, so it makes sense to train them on the same day to optimize your results.

(Watch this short vid below for an excellent arms and chest workout!)

Should You Do Arms Before Or After Chest?

Usually, it’s a much better idea to train your arms after chest.

Mainly because during chest exercises, you’ll be lifting more than you’ll be during arm exercises.

This means that you need more effort and fresher working muscles to complete the heavier chest exercises effectively.

If you train your arms first, you could severely limit the effectiveness of your chest workout.

Should You Train Them In The Same Session or 2 Different Sessions?

Training your arms and chest in the same session is very common and is actually a very effective way of training these muscle groups.

While there’s no reason why you couldn’t split them into 2 different sessions on the same day, it makes more sense from a practical and effectiveness point of view to train them in one session.

Both muscle groups will be activating simultaneously in many exercises anyway, so 1 session to do them both will likely be enough for most gym-goers.

Conclusion

In summary:

  • You can do chest and arms on the same day with minimal problems.
  • If training this way, you should train your chest first followed by arms.

That’s all for this article, but can you do shoulders and back on the same day? Or can you do chest and shoulders on the same day?

Hope this helped!

Sources

https://goqii.com/blog/5-alarming-effects-of-overtraining-how-to-manage-them/