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Can You Do Chest Day After Shoulder Day? (Solved!)

There are multiple factors which determine how effective your workouts are.

Common ones being:

  • Number of sets & reps
  • Rest time between sets
  • Amount of weight you lift

One of the less common ones, however, is the order in which you train different muscle groups throughout the week.

So, in this article, we discuss whether you can train chest after shoulder day.

We look at the pros and cons of doing so, as well as looking at other muscle groups that you may want to work out after a heavy shoulder day.

Ready?

Let’s get to it.

Can You Do Chest After Shoulder Day?

You can do chest after shoulder day but it’ll negatively impact your chest workout.

Many chest exercises require your shoulders to activate in order to make the movement happen.

If your shoulders are fatigued going into your chest session, you’ll likely miss out on some of the benefits of the workout.

As your shoulders play a role in many chest exercises, working them hard the previous day, in your shoulder session, can mean that they aren’t able to assist your chest as much as they need to.

If this is the case, you won’t be able to lift as much, or work your chest as hard as you need to, resulting in less progress being made toward your fitness goals.

It isn’t usually a good idea to do chest after shoulder day unless you have a specific reason to do so.

Benefits of Doing Chest After Shoulder Day

You Can Target A Large Muscle Group After A Small Muscle Group

You may not want to target small muscle groups on consecutive days.

As your shoulders are a small muscle group, it makes sense to target a large muscle group, like your chest, the following day.

This can help you burn more calories, get greater overall health benefits, and keep your training momentum going as you move toward your fitness goals.

Switching from targeting a small muscle group to a large muscle group can definitely help your training.

As long as you do it correctly and safely, you can get some great benefits from training in this way.

It Can Work Your Shoulders A Bit More

If you have a particular focus on developing your shoulders, doing chest after shoulder day can help you challenge your shoulders a little bit more which can help them grow in size, strength, and endurance.

As your shoulders play a pretty big role in many chest exercises, doing chest after shoulder day, when your shoulders are already fatigued, makes them work hard and can give you a little boost toward your fitness goals.

Obviously, overtraining needs to be kept in mind. But if you’re careful and plan things well, doing chest after shoulder day can bring some extra benefits to your shoulder gains.

Drawbacks of Doing Chest After Shoulder Day

Shoulder Fatigue Can Limit Chest Progress

Going into a chest workout with fatigued shoulders can quite severely limit your performance.

Your shoulders are big players in most chest exercises.

As they’re already one of the weakest components of chest exercises, fatiguing them prior to chest day limits the amount of weight you can lift and the developments you can make even further.

As a general rule, the less weight you lift or the fewer reps you do, the less progress you’ll make in chest development.

You Can Overtrain Your Shoulders

Overtraining can result in injury and time away from the gym.

If you do chest after shoulder day, there’s a real risk of overtraining your shoulders.

Obviously, your shoulders will be the focus of shoulder day but they’ll also be put under a lot of stress during chest day too.

Two consecutive workouts where your shoulders are under stress can easily lead to overtraining and injury.

Should You Do Chest After Shoulder Day?

Probably not, unless you have a specific reason for doing so.

Working your shoulders hard for two consecutive workouts isn’t usually a good idea.

You’ll probably find other muscle groups are better to focus on after shoulder day.

Is It Better To Do Shoulders After Chest Day?

It might be a better option but it’s not be the best option.

After chest day, your shoulders will still be pretty fatigued from all of the big movements that they assisted with.

This can mean that your shoulders won’t be able to perform as well as they need to in order to progress effectively toward your fitness goals.

Your shoulders and chest work closely together in many exercises, so it can be a good idea to not focus on them in consecutive workouts if you want to get the most out of each session.

Is It Safe To Do Chest After Shoulder Day?

It can be safe to do chest after shoulder day but a lot of care will need to be taken as there’s a very real risk of overtraining and injury.

Overtraining your shoulders can cause an injury that could potentially keep you out of the gym for a while.

If you want to do all you can to minimize your injury risk, it might be a good idea to avoid doing chest after shoulder day.

Conclusion

In summary, you can do chest after shoulder day although it may not be optimal. This is because many chest exercises work your shoulders, and if they’re fatigued from shoulder day, then you won’t be able to lift as much.

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

Hope this helped!

Sources

https://www.healthline.com/health/exercise-fitness/bench-press-muscles-worked