The way you organize your exercises for a day in your routine is extremely important.
Prioritizing compound lifts, giving certain muscle groups adequate rest between exercises and maximizing your strength can all seem overwhelming and too much to figure out in your head in a busy gym environment.
If you’re new to the gym, this is something you probably don’t know about and it took me a year to figure it out myself.
It’s going to require you to use your brain a bit, but after some practice, it’ll all become second nature and make you a more adaptive and smart gymrat.
Let’s dive into the tips.
COMPOUND LIFTS FIRST
Compound lifts are exercises that use more than one muscle group to lift a weight. You’ll often push the heaviest weight on these lifts and have the most mental and physical fatigue from them (they’ll need the most energy), which is why I always place them first in my routine.
Here’s some examples of compound lifts
| Compound Lift | Group of Muscles Stimulated |
|---|---|
| Squats & Leg Press | Quads, Glutes, Hamstrings, Abs |
| Bench Press (Flat or Incline) | Chest, Front Delts, Triceps, Abs |
| Deadlift | Lats, Glutes, Hamstrings, Lower Back, Rhomboids - Basically most muscles at the back of you - and Abs |
| Dumbbell Press (Flat or Incline) | Chest, Front Delts, Triceps, Abs |
| Lat Pulldown | Lats, Biceps, Forearms, Abs |
| Pull Ups | Lats, Biceps, Forearms, Abs |
| RDLs | Hamstrings, Glutes, Lowerback, Lats, Abs |
| Barbell Rows | Rhomboids, Rear Delts, Lats, Biceps, Forearams, Lower Back, Abs |
As you can see, these compound lifts utilize a whole bunch of muscles - the more muscles recruited, the more energy they use.
This is why I always do these exercises first in my workout - when I’m freshest, have the most energy and have no fatigue.
ALTERNATE MUSCLE GROUPS
I always try to give muscle groups a chance to rest exercise-to-exercise.
To simplify it, on a Leg Day, I’ll never do two exercises that require quads back-to-back.
So, I know that squats require mostly quads, therefore my next exercise won’t be something that also works quads, such as a leg extension. After I’ve completed all my sets on squats, my next exercise will be something that gives my quads a chance to rest (calf raises or a hamstring exercise like RDLs or Leg Curl). Thereafter, I’ll consider doing leg extension.
Essentially, while I’m working my hamstrings, my previously obliterated quads will have a chance to recover, flush out lactic acid (burn feeling) and be ready and rested for leg extensions next.
The same can be applied for chest or back days, but there’s a bit of a nuance for these.
On a chest day, I do allow myself to do chest exercises back-to-back, but I just won’t do two pressing or flying movements in sequence. I’ll rather break up a pressing movement with a fly. AFter the fly, I’ll still have done two chest exercises and would then move on to triceps or shoulders.
On a back day, I find it perfectly fine to do two back exercises back-to-back, just as long as they aren’t the same type of movement (row or pullup/down).
For example, a row trains the rhomboids primarily and pulldowns/pullups mostly train the lats. They stimulate back muscles differently - rows stimulate for thickness, while lats stimulate for width.
Therefore, I find no strength loss going directly from a row exercise, into a pulldown/up exercise.
ARMS LAST
I know you’re probably itching to get a juicy arm pump as soon as you step foot in the gym, but please, resist the urge.
Unless you’re doing a dedicated arm day, I recommend training arm muslces (biceps and triceps) only towards the end of your workout.
Your arm muscles serve as accessory workers during compound lifts. For example, biceps are used during pulldowns/ups and rows, and triceps are used in all chest press movements.
To me, it doesn’t make sense to train these arm muscles before your compound lift as introducing fatigue into them can actually cause you to be weaker on your compound lifts.
Keep them fresh for your compound lifts and work them once those heavy lifts are out of the way.
CARDIO ALWAYS LAST
I’ve said this before in other articles, and I’ll say it again.
Cardio should never be first in your routine if you’re aiming to build muscle.
It’s a proven fact that your physical strength is a measure of how much your muscle has grown. Conversely, if you’re trying to make gains, you should be prioritizing and utilizing your strength as much as reasonably possible.
Doing cardio first only introduces unnecessary fatigue before you’ve even started actually working muscles. Do cardio last.
PUTTING THEM ALL TOGETHER
I know it’s a lot to consider, but if you look back at the tips I’ve given you, they’re an ordered blueprint you can follow to organize any workout routine you have.
Let’s take a look at a practical example of Pull Day (Back and Biceps Workout):
GymGeek Tip: “COMPOUND LIFTS FIRST”
Any exercise that will take a lot out of me: Barbell rows (my heaviest back lift).
GymGeek Tip: “ALTERNATE MUSCLE GROUPS”
My next/second heaviest lift is a lat pull down (I’m going very heavy, but not as much as Rows), so it goes second.
This also works because a row and lat pull down are different back movements, so they can be done in sequence.
GymGeek Tip: “ALTERNATE MUSCLE GROUPS”
I’ve just finished my lat pulldown, so that means I shouldn’t do another pulldown/up variation… Ah! I’ll do horizontal cable rows.
This checks out because the sequence so far is now: Row -> Pulldown -> Row
GymGeek Tip: “ARMS LAST”
Now that all my back movements are out of the way, I can finally destory my biceps. I think I’ll go with dumbbell curls.
GymGeek Tip: “ALTERNATE MUSCLE GROUPS”
Okay, biceps are done and I can still feel that they’re weak so let’s do something else while they recover… Got it! I’ll do rear delt flies.
GymGeek Tip: “ARMS LAST” + “ALTERNATE MUSCLE GROUPS”
Rear delts are now done, and my biceps feel a bit more recoverd, I think I’ll do some cable hammer curls now.
GymGeek Tip: “CARDIO ALWAYS LAST”
Alrighty, my lift is finally done and I’ve used my strength properly, but the bulk gave me some September Spring Rolls. Let’s do some light incline treadmill walking for 20 mins.
And that is exactly how GymGeek goes about structuring his lifts day-to-day.
