[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:
[quote]Professor X wrote:
[quote]steven alex wrote:
The sort that Alwyn Cosgrove outlines[/quote]
I don’t follow the current fitness writers so I would need more explanation.[/quote]
Cosgrove hasn’t written here since 2009. 
Anyhow, complexes are basically taking one weight (usually a barbell) and doing a “giant set” of several different exercises with little to no rest between them while using that same weight for everything. For example, all with a 65-pound bar: Barbell row 1x8, Romanian deadlift 1x8, upright row 1x8, overhead press 1x8, back squat 1x8. Rest a minute or two, then repeat for several total sets.[/quote]
Oh, then no, that isn’t what I am doing at all. I still pyramid up in weight on most exercises (if not all). I am still trying to work push myself with the weight used but I am doing more reps and sets (mostly because of an injury limiting my overall pressing weight so I compensate by increasing the amt of work in the time given.).
I basically just keep my rest times to “the time it takes to move from one exercise to the next”. If chest is my priority, in the past I have thrown in sets of triceps and even biceps in between sets…or calves. I would never throw in a large body part for this.
how does this method not make sense.
If you can’t curl as much post back workout this means your biceps have been fatigued some.
this means you gave them a training stimulus to hopefully spark some growth and by adding curls you are continuing to make them do work so that they will hopefully grow.
as long as your curl is progressively getting stronger over time who cares if you’re not fresh and doing 70lb db curls because you fatigued them a bit doing some lat pulldowns or rows.
okay, but what if i wasnt making progress on my back and i decided to hit it harder or longer. maybe i switched from weighted pullups to high reps with bodyweight, or i did alot of volume. then my curl strength would be even more screwed. i dont like such an enjoyable exercise being screwed up like that. i am not concerned with the weight being used but how it feels, and if it is as enjoyable as a rough dry handjob then i stop.
yeah i know i could get used to it. why even curl then.
i try to use biceps as little as possible. i only do a few back exercises that i think are the best and i spread them on two different days. vertical on monday, horizontal on wednesday.
If you think about C.T.'s layering. He breaks down certain lifts in how difficult they are. You might do something like a deadlift, to a clean, to a rack pull to a partial deadlift or something similar to train say the posterior chain.
Same concept with doing back and bi’s. While you are doing upper back/ pulls you are indubitably working your biceps some as well, it’s a compound movement. You might think of working your upper back/ lats + bi’s. If you were to layer, you might do weighted pullups, pullups, face pulls, then biceps… Bent over rows or similar movement is another lift capable of being somewhat heavy for your traps and bi’s as a compound, you can work consecutively lower weights, do dumbell row iso’s (like Matt Kroc), lots of stuff as long as you work down from heavy and difficult to lighter with volume. Then any iso movement you do for your biceps as simply that, and to do these movements on your back day/s to work your biceps brach as well.
Just a matter of Philosophy. You should maybe think about the big compound movements, the weight you move doing them, and the work your biceps brach in this case are doing. When you finish biceps, since you would have already worked heavy you will want to go for volume. A lot depends on your split, and what sort of program philosophy you follow.
[quote]eremesu wrote:
my curl strength would be even more screwed. i am not concerned with the weight being used but how it feels
[/quote]
You said both of these in the same paragraph. Just so you’re aware.
If you don’t like doing curls after back then don’t. Nobody’s making you.
Having an Arms day is orgasmic.
Forget the big heavy lifts for bi’s after Back. Incline curls or preacher curls, light weight, strong contraction…go for the pump.
[quote]giograves wrote:
Forget the big heavy lifts for bi’s after Back. Incline curls or preacher curls, light weight, strong contraction…go for the pump.[/quote]
This is what I was trying to say.
Sure, it’s great to have a day dedicated to arms. But, in the big picture what is more important? Back or bi’s?
I think it’s great to have a day dedicated to arms, but not if that day dedicated to arms is going to negatively impact your pullups, bench, or strict press (if you do this). I’m NOT saying that a dedicated arm day will do this, I’m saying you need to be aware of how long it takes for you to recover to implement such into your split. If your elbows, forarms and digits are beat to hell after a week, you might want to forgo the dedicated arm day. If your fully recovered and not feeling any stresses, then by all means, have that arm day and make the most of it!
Alternatively you can work arms in on days that you work upper back/ lats, or and on days you do traps which are both back days, not sure you do both the same day or what your split is. Ideally since you would have already worked heavy rows, or weighted pullups or regular pullups, you would have already done heavy work for your biceps, so you could implement volume work, do more sets with more reps and time under tension and lighter weight to get that “pump” your biceps, by doing biceps brach exercises as a follow up to heavy pullups or some kind of heavy rows.
This is why you need to get your training Philosophy down for yourself. Figure out what works best for you, try different things out. More than one way to do things the right way.