The Best Exercise Order For Muscle Growth Workouts
Summary
TLDRIn this RP Strength video, Dr. Mike discusses the importance of exercise order in a workout routine, emphasizing the difference between natural and enhanced athletes. He outlines factors affecting exercise order, such as energy levels, performance goals, muscle stimulation, and mind-muscle connection. For naturals, he suggests prioritizing high-priority exercises and those requiring coordination early in a workout. Enhanced athletes should consider injury risk and might benefit from lighter, isolated exercises first, followed by heavier compound movements. The video provides practical advice for optimizing workout structure based on individual needs and goals.
Takeaways
- 🏋️ Exercise order is crucial as it affects energy levels, performance, and the stimulus muscles receive during a workout.
- 💪 Performing high-energy exercises first ensures optimal performance due to less fatigue.
- 🏋️♂️ Exercises that require significant coordination and focus should be done early in the workout to prevent decreased performance due to fatigue.
- 🧠 Mind-muscle connection is better later in a workout when the muscles are pumped and warmed up.
- 📉 First exercises reduce overall performance on subsequent exercises, necessitating strategic planning of the workout order.
- 👶 Beginners should prioritize compound movements with high technique and load early in their workouts.
- 🚫 For natural lifters (natty), heavy compound exercises are often best suited for early in the workout, while isolations can come later.
- ⚠️ Enhanced lifters should consider starting with lighter, isolated exercises to reduce injury risk and then move to heavier compound movements later.
- 💊 Enhanced athletes have an easier time stimulating muscle growth, so they might prioritize injury risk reduction over stimulus intensity.
- 🔁 The order of exercises should be periodically reassessed and adjusted based on individual progress and goals.
Q & A
Why does the order of exercises matter in a workout routine?
-The order of exercises matters because it affects energy levels, performance, muscle stimulation, mind-muscle connection, and the likelihood of injury. Performing high-energy exercises early in a workout can lead to better performance and muscle stimulation, while exercises that require focus and coordination are best done when you're not yet fatigued.
What is the recommended exercise order for someone who wants to prioritize squat performance?
-If squat performance is a priority, squats should be done early in the workout when energy levels are highest and before other exercises that might fatigue the muscles needed for squatting, such as leg press.
How can exercise order affect the mind-muscle connection?
-Exercises that require a good mind-muscle connection are best performed later in a workout when the muscles are warmed up and pumped, which can enhance the mind-muscle connection and the quality of the exercise.
What is the significance of exercise order for beginners in terms of technique learning?
-For beginners, it's crucial to perform exercises that require high technique early in the workout to ensure they are learning the correct form without the interference of fatigue, which can lead to poor form and potential injury.
Why might someone choose to perform isolation exercises before compound exercises?
-Performing isolation exercises before compound exercises can be beneficial for those looking to focus on specific muscle groups without the limiting factors of fatigue from larger muscle groups that are engaged in compound movements.
How does exercise order differ between natural (natty) and enhanced lifters?
-Enhanced lifters may prioritize lighter, more isolated exercises earlier in their workout to reduce injury risk, while saving heavier compound movements for later. Natural lifters might focus more on heavy compound exercises earlier to maximize strength gains.
What is the rationale behind performing high-rep exercises later in a workout for enhanced lifters?
-For enhanced lifters, performing high-rep exercises later in a workout can reduce injury risk associated with heavy loads and still provide significant muscle stimulation due to their ability to recover and grow muscle more easily with the aid of substances.
Why is it advised to perform exercises with a high systemic fatigue component later in a workout?
-Exercises that cause high systemic fatigue, like squats and deadlifts, can deplete energy and affect the performance of subsequent exercises. Performing them later ensures that they don't negatively impact the execution of other exercises earlier in the workout.
How can the order of exercises be adjusted to reduce the risk of injury?
-To reduce injury risk, one can prioritize exercises that pre-exhaust the target muscles with lower loads, perform isolation exercises before compound movements, and save high systemic fatigue exercises for later when the body is warmed up and less prone to injury.
What is the advice for intermediate lifters regarding exercise order?
-Intermediate lifters should focus on the net session stimulus to fatigue ratio, balancing the order of exercises to maximize muscle stimulation while minimizing fatigue. They should also consider their personal goals and the specific demands of their training program.
Outlines
🏋️♂️ Exercise Order for Optimal Performance
Dr. Mike from RP Strength discusses the importance of exercise order in a workout routine, emphasizing that it varies for 'naturals' and 'enhanced' individuals. He explains that the order affects energy levels, performance, muscle stimulation, and mind-muscle connection. For naturals, he suggests prioritizing exercises that require high energy and focus early in a workout, while for enhanced individuals, he advises considering injury risk and the ability to stimulate muscle growth despite potential limitations.
💪 Exercise Order for Beginners and Advanced Lifters
The paragraph delves into exercise order recommendations for different levels of lifters. Beginners are advised to focus on compound exercises with high technique and load early in their workouts, while intermediates should consider their net session stimulus to fatigue ratio. Advanced lifters, especially those enhanced, are encouraged to prioritize lighter, isolated exercises early to reduce injury risk, saving heavier compound movements for later when they are more fatigued and the injury risk is lower.
📚 Practical Tips for Exercise Order
Dr. Mike provides practical advice for structuring a workout routine based on exercise order. He suggests that exercises requiring high coordination and focus should be done early when the body is less fatigued. For enhanced individuals, he recommends starting with exercises that target the muscle group with less external load to reduce injury risk. Additionally, he advises putting exercises that have a high systemic fatigue component later in the workout to prevent them from affecting the performance of subsequent exercises.
🚫 Avoiding the Pitfalls of Ego and Steroids
In this final paragraph, Dr. Mike warns against the influence of ego and the potential misuse of steroids, which can lead to poor exercise order decisions. He emphasizes the importance of a balanced approach to exercise order that considers both performance goals and injury prevention. He also encourages viewers to explore more about the impact of steroids on training through his video series and to prioritize safety and effectiveness in their workout routines.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Exercise Order
💡Naturals (Natty)
💡Enhanced
💡Stimulus
💡Fatigue
💡Mind-Muscle Connection
💡Limiting Factors
💡Technique
💡Isolation Exercises
💡Compound Exercises
💡Injury Risk
Highlights
Exercise order is crucial for optimizing performance and training outcomes.
Performing squats before leg press can lead to suboptimal leg press performance due to fatigue.
The energy levels are highest at the start of a workout, making it ideal for energy-demanding exercises.
Exercises that are prioritized for performance should be placed earlier in the workout routine.
First exercises in a session provide the highest stimulus for muscle growth.
Exercises done early can limit the effectiveness of subsequent exercises due to muscle fatigue.
The mind-muscle connection is often better in later exercises when the muscles are warmed up and pumped.
Beginners should focus on compound exercises with high technique requirements early in their training.
For natural lifters, heavy compound exercises are often best suited for early in the workout.
Enhanced lifters may benefit from a different exercise order due to increased injury risks and muscle stimulation.
Enhanced athletes can use isolation exercises early to pre-exhaust muscles, reducing the load needed for compound movements.
Exercises with a high cardiovascular demand should be placed later in the workout to avoid excessive fatigue.
For enhanced lifters, exercises that are new or technically challenging should be done later in the session.
Advanced lifters should consider the net session stimulus to fatigue ratio when determining exercise order.
Heavy compound exercises like squats and deadlifts carry a higher injury risk and can be done later in an enhanced lifter's routine.
The ego can influence exercise order decisions; it's important to prioritize based on stimulus and fatigue rather than personal preference.
Transcripts
if you do squats first your leg press
will suffer if you do leg press first
your squats will suffer you'll have to
figure out what do I do first in order
to properly arrange your training so
that you're not like disappointed that
you did poorly on a movement even though
it was third and only would have done
really well on it if it was first so you
got to kind of know what you
want hey folks Dr Mike here for RP
strength today we're going to talk about
exercise
order but we are going to talk about how
it's different for Naturals and for
enhanced folks so we're we're going to
talk about exercise order in general and
then have two use cases if you're Natty
or if you're enhanced a little different
here it really accounts for a lot of the
differences of how Pros train versus how
you might be able to be training by
yourself copying the pros is not wise
you want to learn from the pros and take
what you need out of their programs not
just copy them verbate them because a
lot of the stuff they do is because
they're enhanced so let's look into it
why does order matter which exercises
you do first second third Etc let's talk
about some facts I would say highly High
likelihoods here and then we're going to
Overlay them into Natty versus enhanced
recommendations order matters in some of
the following ways first you'll have the
most energy on first
exercises you got something that
requires a crapload of energy to put in
it had better be early because you're
not tired yet next if performance is
your goal in a certain exercise it also
better be early because you'll perform
best on first exercises when you're not
tired if you got squats first versus leg
extensions first you want to perform
High L on squats you're going to do
squats first first exercises will
generally get the highest stimulus
compared to later exercises for that
exercise so if you want a huge squatting
stimulus do it first if you want a huge
leg press stimulus do that first instead
of
squats first exercises will make the
muscles trained more likely to be
limiting factors on later exercises so
for example if you do cable push Downs
first for your triceps and then you
dumbbell presses later for triceps and
chest because your triceps are
completely fried or very fried from that
first push down exercise your triceps
are more likely the limiting factor on
the presses which means they get even
more work from the presses leaving your
chest getting a little bit less work
than it wanted to so we can do this
limiting factor situation we'll have a
way that enhanc lifters can use this to
their advantage much later I'll talk
about
that first exercises because you're not
grooving in the session yet you don't
have a pump yet you haven't been moving
around much are unlikely to give you the
best mind muscle connection so if
there's an exercise that you just raw
fucking do good positioning good
movement and you get really strong in it
put that first instead of an exercise
that you really want an awesome mind
muscle connection with but you struggle
to get one maybe on that exercise I
would save that for later when you're
already pumped when you already moved
around a little bit nice and way way way
warmed up the Mind muscle connection is
better saved for later
exercises first exercises will reduce
overall performance on later exercises
thus you have to make a choice you can't
say I want squats and leg press to both
be really good you can in the grand
scheme but not in a given workout if you
do squats first your leg press will
suffer if you do leg press first your
squats will suffer so you'll have to
figure out what do I do first in order
to properly arrange your training so
that you're not like disappointed that
you did poorly on a movement even though
it was third and only would have done
really well on it if it was first so you
got to kind of know what you
want next and lastly for this
section for beginners especially
whatever actual exes you do first and
early will improve in technique much
more than exercises you do later because
technique has a fatigue component if
you're learning while you're highly
fatigued you're not learning technique
nearly as well so if you have uh if
you're a personal trainer or if you're a
beginner train yourself you really want
to master an exercise like squats and
leg extensions are pretty
straightforward you need a lot of
technical you don't need a lot of
technical background to learn them do
squats first because then you'll be
really good at learning them when
they're fresh don't do leg extensions
first and then squats after because
you're AIG ility to learn squats will be
a little bit
degraded all right so for the natties
what does that mean for exercise order
recommendations kind of taking all that
in together I would recommend that you
put exercises earlier in your program I
don't mean first first second third
whatever is early for you anywhere
earlier that meet four conditions not
all all conditions but at least one of
the four first you want to put in
exercises that you want to improve the
most on in performance if it really
matters to you how much you squat squats
better be first number two put exercises
earlier that you feel stimulate your
most high priority muscles the best if
I'm serious about getting big biceps I'm
doing bicep exercises first not back not
shoulders not shit biceps that makes a
lot of sense number three you want to
put in exercises earlier that require
the most coordination and focus if
you're doing some kind of program which
requires some overhead pressing takes a
lot of focus and coordination to get it
right if it's a standing barbell press I
just that first you do that shit later
you're going to be more fatigued various
muscles are going to be pre- exhausted
coordination and focus is going to be a
thing that's not as available so if you
really need a lot of coordination and
focus to get a real technical exercise
done real well real uh real well so you
can do well within your program I'd put
a little early in the program rather
than later and very importantly
exercises that you want to go stronger
on especially in the lower rep ranges
sets of 3 to six sets of 5 to 10 put
them earlier into your program if you
put in sets of 5 to 10 later in your
program yeah it sets a 5 to 10 but
you're so exhausted it's really with a
load that fresh you could have lifted
for 10 to 15 or even more repetitions if
real strength matters to you you're
going to train heavier earlier in your
exercises than later almost every single
time so this list means that for nates
they can train isolations first but can
also do heavy compounds first and it's
really going to be a matter of which one
fits the bill best and for natties a lot
of times heavy compounds are going to
win that battle not all the time but
much of the
time what about later which exercises
for nates are ones they want to
prioritize later rather than earlier I
can think of at least two situations
here you want to put exercises later
that have a large systemic or
cardiovascular component let's say ultra
high rep walking lunges like if you do
them first you're just going to be so
goddamn exhausted everything else is
going to kind of suck you do a ton of
high rep lunges multiple sets sets of 40
and then all of a sudden you're like I
got to do stiff leg a deadlifts but I
can't breathe and my fucking glutes
don't work anymore fuck that whereas if
you did High rep blocking lunges last
super tired and it doesn't matter
because you don't need them anymore you
just go home next put exercises later
that have limiting factor muscles that
will interfere with early exercises if
it's really important for you to get a
big back do not train your biceps and
rear adults first because they will keep
you from being able to use your back
musculature nearly as well because they
will be limiting factors not letting
your back do as much work
another one here is if you want to squat
and deadlift you should probably squat
first because if you deadlift first it
turns all the other squat sets into a
lower back exercise because your spinal
erees will be limiting no buer for your
legs so give that some
thought now enhanced exercise order when
you're no longer Natty what do you do
and here's the reminder on this one
enhanced means a few things two really
that we want to use to design our
program one is enhanced means a higher
injury risk at any given time steroids
do a good job of making your muscles
bigger but not nearly as good of a job
of making your tendons bigger and even
if they make your tendons bigger and
stronger they can make the muscle so big
that at an absolute scale they're more
likely to pop off the
tendon and you can try harder on
steroids sometimes you can't stop
yourself from trying harder it makes you
nice and psychotic further increasing
the risk of injury and a lot of times
when you're enhanced you experience
rapid regains and strength when you
become enhanced again off of just doing
trt and that can be one hell of a riot
so your injury risk is definitely a
bigger concern when you're enhanced
rather than when you're
natural however the enhanced have an
advantage they have an easier time
stimulating growth so they might be okay
with trading down a little injury risk
for a trade also down of stimulus but
that's not a big deal because the
stimulus they can always get no problem
the injury risk they have to really be
reverent about so
exercises earlier for enhanced folks I
can think of three situations you want
to put an exercise earlier or at least
consider doing so if you're enhanced
that train and pre-exhaust the target
muscle of the session with the least
external
load when you use high external loads
like a huge barbell back squat your
probability of getting hurt is decently
high but you might not even be searing
in that Target muscle a ton because it's
it's kind of whole body effect so maybe
you can do something like leg presses
first really zaps the quads do squats
after as a second exercise and now the
quads are the limiting factor again and
instead of using four plates on the
squat you can use three so that net
session kept you at least the same
stimulus probably even greater and
decreased the injury risk so Target
musculature first then Super hardcore
muscles that uh or super hardcore
exercises that require really high
external loads after
that in addition to that point number
two try to put an exercises earlier that
are often more isolation movement or at
least not postural movements
anti-gravity movements like bent rows
like deadlift SI squats save those for
later so leg extensions to start with
versus front squats leg presses versus
back squats things like that um you can
use let's say if you're doing a standing
dumbbell press for shoulders and triceps
do some push Downs first really
pre-exhaust the triceps and then the
postural exercise you don't have to use
as much load and you'll get a good
workout from that a good stimulus much
quicker and put in exercises earlier and
this sounds weird but it's true here's
that injury reduction thing they're in
the 10 to 20 rep range not the 5 to 10
you can still do the 5 to 10 rep range
in later exercises with a load on the
bar fresh is really more like 10 to
15 why are we doing this it's not doing
us any favors in strength but the
absolute load you use is smaller so thus
the injury risk is substantially less
remember gaining muscle on steroids is
not that hard or in other words not as
hard as it is Natty even sets of 20 to
start out with are amazing for
hypertrophy and sets a five to 10 or
cool later if you wanted to optimize for
being Natty you might flip those two to
get the real heavy work in first and
light work after but it might not be
worth the injury risk some enhanced
folks are squatting five six 700 lb for
reps benching three four 500 lb for reps
man I'm trying to do shit in the 10 to
20 rep range if I'm that strong first so
I get nice and tired before I go heavier
because if I go heavy first there might
not be a later because I'll be broken
into fucking
pieces and for enhanced folks try to put
in exercises later on average to your
program remember these are all soft
rules not hard rules that meet let's say
four criteria one is have shown a higher
injury higher injury risk to you in the
past so for example if you've had some
trouble with bench press before or
you've hurt your pecs with it before but
you want to do bench press again do some
chest flies first do some incline
dumbbell press to Second and then third
do some bench press you'll have to use
less load you'll be much more more
warmed up you'll be much more in the
groove technically and then all of a
sudden it's much less injurious and you
can still benefit a lot from it second
put exercises later that you struggle
with a mind muscle connection on it's
easier to get a mind muscle connection
when your muscles are a little bit pref
fatigued when they have a big pump it's
much easier to feel out that tension and
that burn so save those exercises for
later if there's a back machine you
don't super connect on do some lat
prayers first you get on the back
machine your lats are pre fatigued a
little bit you can really feel them mind
muscle connection might be better mind
muscle connection on a fresh exercise
kind of fucking weird
third exercises that have a really high
systemic fatigue component you should
try to do later because if you do them
first they'll zap you so much it'll fuck
up the rest of your workout but if do
the less fatiguing systemically
exercises first you can do the real
systemic ones last and then it doesn't
matter if you're tired because you just
leaving the gym squats fall under this
category deadlifts fall under this
category once you go out for many sets
the systemic fatigue is too high for
these to keep going if you do 5 by 12 in
the squat really do it and you're real
strong and real enhanced man whatever
you do after is kind of like man you're
not really doing shit anymore you're
just going through the motions but if
you do three really hard sets of lag
extensions three really hard sets of leg
and then three really hard sets of
squats by the end squats still fuck you
up they still systemically fuck you but
you have six good work sets before that
of quads not only are you done
systemically but your quads are done the
other way is if you do them first yeah
your quads are pretty cooked but they
could use more work but after five sets
of 12 you're systemically done you can't
do any more work that's of any high
quality bad way to do
that lastly number four as an enhanced
lifter you have to be real careful about
safety new exercises you just introduced
in your training you're just playing
around with you're not sure if they fit
you start them later in the plan do your
core exercises you know work well for
you first try and exercise third or
fourth that's uh something new you're
experimenting with that way you can
really work on the technique and you
don't have to push your performance to
the limits because like hey you're fresh
it's performance time early in the
workout performance time later in the
workout a little bit more attention to
quality time is kind of how you can
think about it so if you like that
exercise within the next metal cycle you
can bring it up to rank one or the first
priority first order exercise but new
exercise you're just starting out with
I'd say start out with them later in
your plan you know second third fourth
exercise something like that you could
it gives you chance to work out that
technique there's no high pressure for
you to perform a ton because you're
tired anyway if you like them maybe you
can move them up all right let's wrap
this up for everyone involved in the
iron game so to speak we got beginner
advice intermediate advice and advanced
advice for beginners stay Natty there's
nothing about fucking enhancements and
anabolics that you need in your life do
your compound High technique High load
movements first you can do some
isolations and higher reps last although
for beginners that's generally not
needed so a 5 to 10 compound Basics it's
probably all you need as a beginner for
years to get an unbelievable change in
your body for intermediates also stay
Natty it will be time for enhancements
the time is not now it's when you're
Advanced you want to determine the net
sorry I said that wrong you want to
determine your exercise order order how
you structure which exercises are first
last and in between by your net session
stimulus to fatigue ratio which order is
going to give you the most stimulus and
the least fatigue and that's a balancing
act all of the tips that I shared with
you you can use and combine it with your
own internal knowledge and
experimentation to see what kind of
exercise order definitely gives you an
amazing stimulus but doesn't make you so
fatigued that it makes the whole
stimulus maybe not worth the squeeze a
good way to ask a question about this to
try to get your head around this is to
ask what can stimulate my muscles the
most without limiting factors like other
muscles or systemic fatigue interfering
if you can answer that question with a
good exercise order you're in the
fucking money Advanced folks need to do
the same thing determine their exercise
order by net session sfr through the
same process and they'll probably be
quite good at it because they really
know what they're doing by it if
Advanced folks are also enhanced they
should highly consider pushing lighter
more isolated exercises first into their
plan saving the heavier more compound
movements for later in their plan for
injury risk reduction and it's not a big
deal because with extra sets and Reps
you can make up the volume and still get
an unbelievable
stimulus and especially heavier and
tougher compounds go later later your
ego will want you to reverse this your
ego will say come on dude you're
enhanced bro you can fucking squat the
world let's do it now while we're fresh
if it's strength you're looking for
that's absolutely what you should do
after a good warm-up if it's hypertrophy
you're looking for you don't need to do
that and you can way reduce your injury
Risk by saving those heavy super
technical compounds squats deadlifts etc
for later in your plan later in the day
third fourth some shit like that
exercise not first and second if you
want to learn more about how this whole
steroid game works we have steroid
videos just say Dr mik is Rec call
steroids RP strength steroids and you'll
find a bunch of stuff on
YouTube give that a look stay away from
the needle think about exercise order
let me know some questions in the
comments and I'll catch you guys next
time
[Music]
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