Nutrition & Health OnLine Magazine

BASICS OF TRAINING Part 5: Exercise Order

Davey Dunn

Exercise Order is a training principle that refers to the sequence in which different exercises should be performed. In order to get the most out of your workouts it is essential that you understand this principle and design your workouts so that each exercise is performed in the proper order.

Like some of the other training principles we have discussed in this series, Exercise Order is another principle that is fairly easy to grasp, yet it is rare to find anyone that has even heard of it. Most people end up developing their own exercise order based on what they see and hear at the gym. Unfortunately without a proper understanding of the principles behind exercise order most people's self defined exercise routine falls well short of optimum.

In their efforts to uncover the most efficient way to train, sport scientists quickly realized that certain exercises need to be performed at the beginning of the exercise session. Generally speaking, exercises that involve large muscle groups and have complex movements should be performed first. There are several reasons for this. Probably the most important is the fact that complex movements involving large muscle groups usually require the heaviest weights and the greatest amount of technique. You should perform such exercises when you are fresh instead of when you are tired.

Another important consideration is the amount of energy consumed during an exercise. Once again large muscle mass exercises with complex movements require the greatest energy expenditures. If you try to perform such exercise when you are already tired you will probably only be able to put forth a sub-maximal effort because of a lack of energy.

Proper exercise order makes a lot of sense when you stop and think about it. Put the harder exercises that use up the most resources first when you are fresh because that is when you have the most strength and energy. Unfortunately most people would rather perform their favorite exercise first instead of the hardest. This leads to smaller and slower gains because research has shown that large muscle mass exercises lead to the greatest improvements in strength and mass.¹

Now that I have convinced you that having the right exercise order is important you are probably still wondering how to order specific exercises. Squats, Deadlifts, and Powercleans are the hardest and most complex exercises so they should go first. The next tier includes exercises like the Benchpress, Pullups, Lat Pulls, and Leg Presses. Such exercises work fairly large muscle groups and usually involve more than one muscle at a time so they should be included near the beginning of the workout but only after Squats, Deadlifts and Powercleans. Exercises that should be scheduled for the later part of the workout include movements like Culs, Tricep Extensions, and Situps. Such exercises mainly target smaller muscles in an isolated way which requires the least amount of physical resources.

A well-designed workout routine will use proper exercise order to maximize the intensity of the workout. Intensity, of course, is the key to building muscle and increasing strength. By making a few simple adjustments in your exercise order you may be able to dramatically increase the intensity of your workouts and thus improve your chances of making substantial size and strength gains.

¹Stone,M. O'Bryant,H. Weight Training: A Scientific Approach. Minneapolis, Burgess Publishing Co., 1984.

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