Exercises order

letorricelli

New Member
Hello everyone. I've been using HST for some months now, and I'm (as well as my friends and family) amazed at the results.
I'm going to start a new cycle after proper SD that should be run next week. The main doubt I have is about the order of the exercises It's very common to hear instructors say that one should start the workout with major muscle groups (back/legs) and finish the workout doing the minor muscle groups (biceps/triceps). Is that coherent? I mean, what if I want to do back followed by biceps then go for chest followed by triceps then shoulders and last legs and abs? Is there anything wrong with the order of the exercises?
 
The idea of starting with larger muscles is that since the exercise uses more muscle or larger muscles it requires more energy. A biceps isolation is great for the biceps but it requires less overall body energy. So when you start your workout with more energy you do the more energy-demanding exercises first while the tank is full and leave the less demanding ones last. Other idea for exercise order is to do the most important exercises first and leave the less important (like isolations) last. If you run out of gas you can ditch those without much weight in the conscience.
Just to restate, there is nothing wrong with your order but you might find that you are doing less then maximum effort (load wise) in your leg exercise with that order (specially if the leg exercise is a squat).
 
That's very informative indeed. Thank you very much electric. Sorry to bother you again, but I'd really appreciate if you could take a look at my workout routine:

CHEST
Inclined bench press
Dips

BACK / SHOULDER
Wide grip chin up
Bent Over Row with Dumbbell
Arnold Press

TRICEPS
Close grip bench press
Skullcrusher

BICEPS
Under Grip Close Handed Chin Up
Barbell curl

As you can see I used 1 compound exercise for triceps and 1 for biceps. Since the tri's compound works also chest and the bi's works also back, do you think it would be more useful if I did them right after chest/back exercises and left the iso ones for the end? Something like:

Inclined bench press
Dips
Close grip bench press

Wide grip chin up
Bent Over Row with Dumbbell
Under Grip Close Handed Chin Up
Arnold Press

Skullcrusher
Barbell curl

Isn't there a problem hitting the tri's with "close grip bench press" at the beginning of the workout and then hitting again with "skullcrusher" at the end?

Again, sorry bothering you guys but I definitely don't trust gym instructors, specially over here in Brazil. Oh, btw, my legs/abs workout I do on alternate days.
 
You are from Brazil? Me too! What state?

I'll have some trouble answering your question since I believe in the Simplify & Win style of training using a minimum of heavy compound exercises. In that sense I think your routine is excessive.
I would do something like:
Squat / deadlift
Inclined bench press / Dips
Wide grip chin up / Bent Over Row with Dumbbell
Arnold Press
Skullcrusher / Barbell curl

The / means you alternate these exercises every other workout (for example you do incline bench on one workout, dips on the next and so on). I removed closed grip bench since you are already doing regular bench (or dip). If you need more volume for some reason you can just do an additional set of the exercise. Note I included squats and deadlifts, those are fundamental exercises and were not listed on your routine. Doing exercises in this order allows you to ditch skullcrusher/curl if you start running out of energy towards the end of the workout instead of having to ditch a more important exercise like the deadlift or the bench press.
 
hauhauaha no way! I'm from Jundiai-SP.
Nice to see brazilians over here instead of silly forums on orkut (never helps me at all).
Anyway, I'll stick to that! Thank you very much!
 
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(electric @ Jul. 09 2008,4:02)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Note I included squats and deadlifts, those are fundamental exercises and were not listed on your routine. Doing exercises in this order allows you to ditch skullcrusher/curl if you start running out of energy towards the end of the workout instead of having to ditch a more important exercise like the deadlift or the bench press.</div>
Yup, do your squats or deadlifts first. They're the ones that work best to develop mass and strength for your whole body. Bicep and triceps isolation exercises are just extras. The real meat is in the compounds.

It may be a profit to you to read Fausto's Simplify and Win thread.

[I had a friend from Recife years ago]
 
I agree wholeheartedly with Electric. One other consideration when setting up YOUR routine is warmups. Most stuff I don't warm up for, because it's set up to take care of that. If you have a difficult movement for you, that is either position sensitive, injury sensitive, or ROM, you want a companion exersize before it or you'll have to do the movement with light sets to get up to the heavies. It saves time and unecessary energy losses by scheduling things in order to pre-warm (not exhaust) the muscles and joints.
 
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