Comments on: Workout 4: Intermediate, 3-day split

By: Mistress Krista

Mistress Krista — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:53:25 +0000

@Serena: The logic is that chest/shoulders are typically involved in “pushing” movements, while back muscles are typically involved in “pulling” type movements. I view deadlifts as a full-body movement, with lower body being a prime mover assisted and stabilized (heavily) by the spinal musculature.

By: serena

serena — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:03:37 +0000

Why is it that many body part split routines call for working out the back muscles and chest muscles on separate days but call for training the legs only once a week? I see you have the deadlifts added into the “pull” days but more emphasis is placed in the upper body.

By: Amber

Amber — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:02:53 +0000

For everyone who wants links to see how to do the exercises, google “site:exrx.net shoulder press” or whatever exercise you’re looking for without the quotes.

By: Mistress Krista

Mistress Krista — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 11:26:39 +0000

Sure — close-grip pushups are a nice substitute.

By: Caly

Caly — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 02:39:50 +0000

Hey Krista – I can’t do the dips. Should I do something else in their place?

By: Cathy

Cathy — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:47:01 +0000

Mistress Krista, I’ve been reading you site for a couple of years now – awesome information! You have great instruction dished out with great wit! I was perusing this page of workouts, and have found that most of the links are dead! Will you fix these, please? Purty, purty please????
Thanks!

By: Mistress Krista

Mistress Krista — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:05:22 +0000

Erin, you can play with it a bit. 1-2 warmup sets are always a good idea. You can experiment with ramping up to the heaviest set on the last round, or you can keep the weight constant throughout. Some exercises, esp. those that are more technically complex (e.g. squats) seem to benefit from increasing weight from set to set. It seems to prime the body neurologically better — you “groove” the movement better. The major exception to that is pullups, which seem to start strong and degrade rapidly.

By: Erin

Erin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:51:57 +0000

Thanks for the workout ideas! I’m switching to this split from a 5×5 and have one question: Since you’re doing 3 sets, is that sets across or ramping up weight? Should I be doing 1-2 warm-up sets and then the 3 sets at my working weight?

By: om

om — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:24:02 +0000

Hi, just popping in to report annoyingly that the links for at least some of the exercises on this page are broken.

By: Tia

Tia — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:50:45 +0000

Thanks so much for these workout ideas and info, I’ve been looking for a woman’s weight training website for ages now -this is great.