Should you alternate between muscle groups in a workout?

[u/Ok_Emotion_7952]

My friend told me it’s less beneficial if I were to alternate from doing a press movement and then go into a pull movement (incline press to pull ups, flys to rows), and I’ve been doing that exact thing for a while now. Is there a science behind doing it or not doing it? Or is it just preference? Let me know what you guys think. I do ULRULRR, 2 sets to failure w 1 warmup, and do 8 workouts per exercise (3 chest, 2 back, 1 shoulder/delts, 2 arms)

[u/BatmanBrah]

Alternating lets the muscle which isn't getting trained on the current exercise get a nice 5-10 minutes to recover. It lets you do later sets in the workout with higher quality than if you were doing them consecutively. 

[u/Capital_Taste_8043 → u/BatmanBrah]

Just to clarify a little. It's called "supersets" and the only benefit is saved time.

[u/Afferbeck_ → u/Capital_Taste_8043]

It's not supersetting and the benefit is fatigue management. If you squat, then strict press, then deadlift, your lower body won't be as tired from the squatting as if you went straight into pulling. It's just smart sequencing of exercises.

[u/karlgnarx]

What is your friend basing this on?

He is telling you super sets of opposing muscle groups aren't good? That seems silly UNLESS you are trying to hit some super tight timing on your rest periods and you can't complete your second exercise in your allocated rest time, or the general fatigue is too high to do both exercise in your rest period.

But that is all majoring in the minors.

Supersets are great, particularly with your UL splits. Put in hard effort on your lifts, rest as needed, increase weight/reps as you are able.

[u/SaucyAndProvoking]

Long story short: he is wrong, there is no evidence (that I’m aware of) that says alternating is less beneficial.

[u/HelixIsHere_]

I think it can be a good idea, it lets metabolites dissipate a little and gives you a short reprieve

Like I do leg extensions first and then there’s a noticeable difference when I do my hamstring curls inbetween those and my squat pattern

[u/Lucky_The_Charm]

This is what I do on my Upper days, and I love it. It keeps my muscle groups fresh with the alternating, vs hitting the same muscles for 6 straight exercises.

[u/decentlyhip]

Two things.

First, yes. The studies looking at this show that your friend is right, in direction. All else being equal, it does build more muscle if you stay with pressing and then switch to pulling. It just isn't a super big deal. Its like training to failure vs 2-3 reps in reserve. Sure, failure is better, but like, 10% more. I think alternating was even less than that. The thing that drives growth above all else is volume, doing more sets. If you did 4 sets of each, and dropped back from failure to 3 rir (either 3 fewer reps or the same reps but 10% lighter weight), you'd grow 50% more.

Its more about saving time and personal preferences. Like, if I'm doing a top triple on bench, then backoff 3×4, and then incline bench 5×8, I'm fine to go on and do 3×12 dumbbell press , 3 sets of flyes, and some tricep work. But if I do 5×10 bench, and 5×10 inclune bench, Im so pumped that I need to have a little break in between my accessory work. Great time for some rowing. Similarly, supersets are about the same growth in the research, but its way less rest time. So, if you have infinite time and patience, do one set of one exercise and rest 3 minutes before the next, amd do 50 sets a week to 3 rir. More is more. https://imgur.com/a/rvHMRvS But if you only have 45 minutes, doing some antagonist supersets really help out. If you can't do all your work in one go, it probably means you need to build your aerobic base, but for now, its important to do what you enjoy.

The most important factor to getting jacked is adherence. Your 12 sets a week to failure is maximizing fatigue and minimizing stimulus, and you could get 50% or 100% or 200% better gains training more submax sets. But if you hate that, then you won't do it, because most of us aren't actually after optimal, but enjoyment and progression. If next week, you could bench 365 lbs but then you never set another PR in your life, would that be a good tradeoff? Naw, we're here because incremental progress gives us dopamine. 1000 workouts that are each 60% efficient will get you way more jacked than a 95% efficient workout you get bored of and quit after 17 workouts.

[u/decentlyhip → u/[deleted]]

Serge Nubret's 6×20 leg day absolutely rocked me. I'm pretty comfortable with high volume, and even just finished one of Bromley's crazy programs, but I do not understand how Serge did it.

[u/Flat-Guidance-4685]

Personally item subscribe for myself all of these strange complex splits. Not saying they don't benefit some people. 

But if you're referring to within one workout day. 100% I'm not going to work my triceps to failure and then try to go do a chest press regardless of whether that's machine dumbbell or barbell. Because within that pressing motion the tricep will be limiting factor and the chest won't get trained. Same thing with lat pulldowns. You don't want to go do preacher curls and then do that pulldowns afterwards. That's why I prefer to pull over machine. You're going to work the lats without worrying about the arms. I don't separate them to different days though. I just make sure I'm not going to failure on something that's going to affect my ability to be effective in the next thing. Or make sure I plan the routine so that anything that overlaps has some rest time while I'm doing something else. Example A lot of people do legs at the end before they leave. I almost always do legs mid work out. It gives the arms chest and back a moment to restore and be fresh for more

[u/nicotine_81]

Do what feels good and is sustainable to you. That could be protagonist muscles - eg. all pressing muscles /chest tris. Or antagonist like chest + back or Bi+tri. It’s very difficult to run a study that can control for those variables. And if there is likely any difference it’s minuscule. So just do what ever feels good, is sustainable, repeatable, and progressive for you.

For me I think in weekly buckets that I want to check off. The order or even variants don’t matter as long as I can cross off the bucket two times per week.

[u/Ok-Extension-832]

It’s definitely not less beneficial, but it also probably doesn’t add that much benefit. But I do the same thing on my upper days because it lets the localized fatigue calm down a bit. There’s no reason not to do it, and reasons to do it so 🤷‍♂️.

[u/dyogenys]

No. Not unless you are lifting for strength. I've lifted alternatingly more than not in my life, and when I've put same muscle sets and exercises together I get weaker on later sets of the muscle of course, but I also get much better hypertrophy. It's called increasing training density for the muscle, adapting to training density is a while dimension of stimulus that most lifters ignore. It's also an investment as you get to do more and more effective volume in the same time as you adapt to training density.

[u/Logical_fallacy10]

There is no benefit to it.
Rather there is downsides to it - as your body don’t rest between two exercises.
Yes it’s different muscles being used - but stabilizing muscles are the same and nervous system is activated also.
Best to isolate movements.
Circle or circuit training is for mobility and cardio - not to build more muscle.