Ask Rocco: Do Opposite Muscle Workouts Really Attract?
Question: I have heard that it's better to workout opposite muscles groups (i.e. back and chest, bi's and tri's) Is that really more beneficial than devoting a full workout to just one muscle group?
– wf_strength
Answer: It seems to me that more and more people are afraid to clue us in to their identity. It feels like Im fielding questions from MySpace friends. Everybodys got a handle. I think its because no one wants us to know how friggin stupid they really are. And that brings me to your question. What you heard about working opposite muscles is a bodybuilding myth that has been around as long as the so called sport (posing in Speedos, all oiled up) has been around. You have me confused, are you talking about working opposite muscles on different days, (back and chest-Mon-Thursday, Bis and Tris-Tuesday-Saturday) Or are you suggesting just working opposite muscle throughout your workout? Im going to take the liberty and accept that you are asking the stupider question which would be working the opposite muscles on different days.
There is no evidentiary research to prove that working opposite muscles on the same day is better or worse than any other ridiculous body building workout, but I will give you my opinion; Breaking up the workout into body segments doesnt allow the auxiliary muscle amble time to rest. Auxiliary muscles are biceps, triceps and shoulders and are used in almost every compound body movement. Compound body movements can be described as; Bench press, Lat Pulldowns, etc.
Now getting to your other unbelievably idiotic statement of focusing on one body part throughout the entire workout is not only absurd its downright insane. Why the hell would you train a muscle and than let it go untrained for five days or so. Its stupid. Your muscles need to be trained in tandem with themselves (meaning working all the muscle groups together) within at least two days of each workout and not more than three days between workouts. The reason is muscles will begin to atrophy (melt away) after 96 hours of no physical activity. So commonsense would tell you to workout every other day with a full body workout.
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