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Chest Day After Back Day (Pros, Cons & Safety Tips!)

If you’re wondering whether you can do chest day after back day, then you’ve come to the right place.

In this article, we look at the pros and cons of training chest after back, as well as how to do it safely.

We also look at other suitable muscle groups you can train after a heavy back workout.

Can You Do Chest Day After Back Day?

Yes, you can do chest after back day.

As many gym-goers use the PPL (push, pull, legs) training method, this is a convenient way of looking at this question.

Your back falls into the pull category (along with your biceps), whereas your chest falls into the push category (along with your shoulders and triceps).

This means that you can effectively train them on consecutive days as their function is different from the other.

During back day, your chest will not be working and during chest day, your back will not be working.

As they don’t work together in pretty much any movement, after training one, the other will likely still be in prime training condition.

All of this means that, after back day, your chest will be ready for a heavy workout.

Benefits of Doing Chest After Back Day

Your Chest Can Be Trained To Its Full Potential

As your chest has a minimal role to play on back day, it should be in a fully recovered state and ready to be trained to its full potential the day after back day.

On back day, you’ll likely be lifting some heavy weights and working your muscles pretty hard.

Once you’ve done this, it can be challenging to find another muscle group that you can work equally as hard the next day.

Your chest is another big muscle group that will need heavy weights to be lifted in order to train effectively too.

As it won’t have activated during your back session, your chest can still lift the heavy weights it needs to in order to keep growing, developing, and moving toward your fitness goals.

Target Two Large Muscle Groups Back To Back

Targeting two large muscle groups on consecutive days can be a great way of moving forwards toward your fitness goals.

You can burn more calories, increase your overall strength, and muscular endurance by doing two heavy workouts focusing on large muscle groups one after the other.

Not only that, but training in this way is a great way of challenging your body as a whole.

Challenging yourself like this can lead to improvements in your overall health, fitness, and wellbeing and can be a fantastic way of training.

Drawbacks of Doing Chest After Back Day

Fatigue

Lifting heavy weights and doing big movement exercises (like you do on back day) can leave you feeling fatigued and in need of some recovery time.

Doing more big movement exercises and lifting heavy weights (like you also do on chest day) in your next workout can prove to be too challenging for some people.

While your chest might be in prime training condition, the rest of your body might not be which can have a detrimental impact on the effectiveness of your workouts.

If you’re feeling heavily fatigued after back day, a rest day might be your best option.

Should You Do Chest After Back Day?

Many gym-goers train chest after back day and have good levels of success as a result.

That’s not to say that you definitely should do chest after back day, but it can be an effective way of training.

As long as your chest muscles are injury-free and fully recovered from any previous exercise, there aren’t too many reasons why you shouldn’t do chest after back day.

Is It Better To Do Back After Chest Day?

As they don’t work together very much, the order in which you train your chest and your back isn’t as important as it is for other muscle groups.

You may want to train the weaker area of your body first to give yourself the best chance of increasing performance in that area.

However, it will ultimately come down to your personal preference as to whether you do back after chest day or vice versa.

Is It Safe To Do Chest After Back Day?

As long as you’re free from injury and have the appropriate fitness and strength levels, it’s safe to do chest after back day.

The main safety concern comes from lifting heavy weights on two consecutive days.

But as long as you warm up and prepare properly, you shouldn’t have too many issues training in this way.

Conclusion

In summary:

  • Chest day after back day is a popular way to workout, especially if you’re doing PPL.
  • Since your chest is used little in back day, you should still be able to train your chest at full intensity.
  • As your back is a large muscle group, you may feel fatigued during your chest workout.

That’s all for this article, but can you do leg day after back day? Or can you do back after shoulder day?

Hope this helped!

Sources

https://www.verywellfit.com/overtraining-syndrome-and-athletes-3119386