TMU Mondays - Exercise order

I think exercise order is something a lot of people trying to get fit and strong overlook. Let’s take a lower body day for example. Someone who doesn’t know any better, for whatever reason, after warming up might start off with leg extensions or hamstring curls. These are what you call accessory or isolation exercises that involve you moving a weight around a single joint (in these examples, it’s your knee joint).

That’s fine if they’re injured and have been advised against compound exercises like squats or deadlifts by their healthcare professional but right after one is done warming up, the best way to start your exercise routine would be with compound lifts that have you moving/lifting the weight with multiple joints involved. The squat, for example, involves the hip, knee, and ankle joints in executing the exercise. The same goes for the conventional style deadlift too.

The mechanics behind this is that when multiple joints are involved in moving the weight then the muscle groups connected to those joints are also involved. The more joints involved, the more muscle groups. The more muscle groups involved, the more your nervous system has to work in making those muscles work. This is why one feels more tired after performing heavy back squats or deadlifts as opposed to doing leg extensions, hamstring curls, or calf raises.

The same logic applies to your upper body training as well but you won’t get as tired as your lower body training days because your nervous system doesn’t have to work as much during upper body days. This is because, during lower body heavy lifts, your upper body works to stabilize the weight.

If you’re going to have the compound exercises performed towards the end of the session, you’re going to be more tired when doing it. This is likely to bring down your performance in that exercise, affect your coordination, and put you at risk of injury.

So, practically, keeping this science in mind, a session should ideally look like this -

A. Warm-up block (10 minutes of light cardio or dynamic warm-ups)

B. Compound exercises block - one or two at the most. Examples - squats, deadlifts, lunges, bench presses, overhead presses, pull-ups)

C. Accessory exercises block - 3 to 4 single joint exercises. Examples - bicep curls, triceps extensions, leg extensions, calf raises, lateral raises.

D. Core exercises block - maximum 2 exercises.

E. Cool down

No matter what type of weekly workout split you like, whether it be a full-body routine, upper-lower splits, or body part splits, this structure works well because it is independent of the nature of the routine. So, if this is news to you, bring in this structure in your next session and see how your performance goes.