Chest/tri and back/bi or...

I used to have a 5 day routine of Chest, Back, Legs, Arms, and Shoulders. I had to cut it down to 3 days (friggin work) and began doing Chest/Tris, Back/Bis, and Legs/Shoulders. Abs and cardio are done on the non-leg days.

A friend of mine has been doing a routine of Chest/Bis and Back/Tris. He claims he gets a better workout in his arms since they are not as tired because they aren't being used in 'bigger' exercises. I tried it this week and it seemed like it worked. Anyone else do this? Any reason not to?

Upper back work (Chins, bent-over barbell and dumbell rows, ect) do work the arms to a moderate degree. There is the potential of overworking your biceps and forearms. Ken

When you work your chest....bench press and incline bench your shoulders also assist in this. What you described is the push/pull split. One day you work muscles that push and then the ones that pull. Yes they are more tired, but when you want to build muscle you should be lifting to the point of fatigue. I finish my back and bi with a machine where I can stand on something where it can select weight to assist, and I do pull-ups w/o my full weight and do about 20-25 of them. Completely getting tired. The same is true on chest/shoulder/tri's..... I finish with dips which works all these muscles. How do you give your bi's a break (or tri's) on this other workout? They are almost always used when you work the major upper body muscles....