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

Most people train their body for a total of 5 hours over the course of a week.

To put that into perspective, most of us spend only 2% of our week in gym!

So, trying to get most out of each workout is ever-so important.

With limited time for training, other commitments, and trying to progress your fitness goals as much as possible, there’s a lot to consider when planning your sessions.

That’s why, in this article, we look at whether you can do back and chest on the same day.

We discuss the pros and cons of training in this way, the order you should train these big muscle groups in, as well as whether you should do them in 2 separate sessions or in the same session in a day.

Can You Do Back And Chest On The Same Day?

You can do back and chest on the same day and make some great progress towards your fitness goals as a result.

Your back and chest form an antagonistic pair.

(I.e. when one of them is working, the other is not working at all.)

This means that you can train both of these muscle groups to their full capacity without hindering the performance of the other.

You’ll need to be careful though when planning your workout to consider the other muscles working in each exercise…

…to make sure you’re not overloading one of the secondary muscle groups being worked in any movement.

For example, your shoulders will play a big role in bench press and in lat pulldown, so you’ll need to think about this when planning your training day.

Benefits Of Doing Back And Chest On The Same Day

It Saves Time

One of the biggest benefits is that you can reduce the number of times you need to train in a week.

For example, if you train each muscle group on separate days, you’ll likely need to train anywhere between 5 and 7 days a week.

This may be realistic and sustainable for some people, but for others, going to the gym this many times in a week is just not doable.

By combining muscle groups into a single day, like your back and your chest, you can reduce the number of times per week you go to the gym to between 2 and 4.

This then gives you more time for other commitments in your life outside of your exercise program.

It’s An Effective Muscle Pairing

As your back and your chest are an antagonistic pair, they actually work very well when training them on the same day.

In most movements, when your chest is activating, your back will be resting. And when your back is activating, your chest will be resting.

This allows you to work both muscle groups to a high level without reducing the effectiveness of the exercises targeting the other body area.

Drawbacks Of Doing Back And Chest On The Same Day

Fatigue

One issue you could face with training two large muscle groups on the same day is fatigue.

While each muscle group gets to rest while the other is working, each exercise that targets one of these areas will take a lot of overall effort.

This can result in you feeling fatigued causing poorer performance in later workouts.

For example, if you decide to do your back in the morning, you’ll work hard and use a lot of energy.

Your chest will be fresh and ready to train later on in the day, but you might feel too tired to do so effectively.

This can obviously have a detrimental impact on your training and progress towards your fitness goals.

Time Spent Training Each Day Increases

Even though combining multiple muscle groups into a single day can save you time throughout your week, the actual time spent in the gym on training days can increase.

If it takes you an hour to do your back and an hour to do your chest, you’ll need to spend at least 2 hours total time in the gym.

(This doesn’t include any warm-up time or any other aspect of your workouts either.)

This can be too much for some people so it’s an important point to consider when deciding whether to do back and chest on the same day.

Should You Do Back And Chest On The Same Day?

Depending on your fitness goals, there aren’t too many reasons why you couldn’t effectively do your back and your chest on the same day.

As long as both areas of your body are fully recovered from any previous exercise and are injury-free, training them both on the same day is absolutely fine.

Can You Superset Back And Chest?

Yes, you can superset back and chest and it’ll result in a very rewarding pump!

Supersetting these two big muscle groups will make for a very challenging workout, but it can bring a lot of benefits to your training.

(WATCH Below This Awesome Back And Chest Superset Workout For A Massive Pump!)

Should You Do Chest Before Back?

You can have equally effective workouts whether you train your back or your chest first.

One of the most important things to think about is which muscle group is weaker for you.

If your chest is quite a bit weaker than your back, then it would make more sense to train your chest first.

However, if your back seems to be the weaker of the two muscle groups, then doing your back first would be a better idea.

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

Either way can work well for you.

Whether you do your chest and back in the same session or 2 different sessions on the same day will likely be a decision you make based on time available, fitness goals, and your personal preferences.

Conclusion

In summary:

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

That’s all for this article, but can you do arms and cardio on the same day?

Hope this helped!

Sources

https://www.hss.edu/article_overtraining.asp