Splitting Up Triceps & Chest Workout

[Chris__D]

I've been working my triceps on the same day as my chest. I used to do dips before bench press, but have changed them to after that so that my arms aren't fatigued for bench press. But now I'm having a hard time doing as many dips. Would it hurt to do dips on a different day than chest? I know dips work triceps and chest both, but I'd like to split the workout up more to get more out of it. I'm also doing overhead dumbell extensions for triceps. The problem is that my triceps are already too fatigued after working my chest to get much out of the workout, and I'm afraid to go back to doing dips before bench press since bench press is more of a compound exercise, so it's obviously more important.

How would it be to do chest one day and triceps the next? I wouldn't actually be adding any more exercises in, I'd just be splitting them up more so I can get more out of them. If I do dips first, I can do weighted dips with a backpack and weight plate, but when I bench first I struggle even doing non-weighted dips.

Thanks.

Chris

[Todd]

Well, first off, if your triceps are that fatigued from doing chest, then logically it should not take you long to completely fatigue the triceps, which in itself is ok, that just means less time you have to spend working them. It is ok if you don't get as many reps in for dips as you'd normally would if you didn't do chest first. It just means that your triceps are already half fried and you won't need too much more to completely blast them and induce serious growth.

If you just simply feel that doing it that way is exhausting them too much, then you could do triceps with biceps as a day on their own, or you could couple triceps with back and do biceps after chest. Whatever you do, don't work triceps the day before chest, or else you won't lift ****!

You could also do triceps immediately after shoulders, this is a good combo as well. Again, just make sure triceps are not done the day before chest.

Do this until your triceps become stronger, then you may switch back to doing triceps right after chest on the same day with no problems of them fatiguing out too soon.

[Chris__D]

Thanks, Todd. I'll probably just keep it as is I guess. Good point about completely fatiguing your triceps. That makes sense that it'll take less work on dips to wear them out completely since they're already fatigued. Plus, it's been my goal all along to keep it simple with a 3 day per week workout, focusing mainly on bench press, deadlifts, and squats (although I think pullups and dips are great too, though not as important as the big 3).