Train Smart: How to Order Your Exercises

If you want to get the most benefit from your workouts with less time and effort, the order in which you do your exercises matters. You want to tackle the most demanding, technique-intensive movements when you’re fresh and have the most energy and focus. In other words, you want to start with the harder stuff and finish with the easier stuff. I must stress that by ‘harder,’ I mean what is most demanding on your body, not what feels harder. Just because you are out of breath, burning, sweating, or suffering, it doesn’t mean your body is going to respond best to that.

To train smarter, here are the rules I follow within a workout. Yes, you can be flexible with these rules, but try to follow them most of the time, or when you understand reasons to bend the rules.

1. Always warm up (foam rolling, static stretches, then dynamic stretches).
2. Corrective exercises (for injury and imbalances) after your warmup or during rest periods.
3. Train big muscles (like legs and back) before small muscles (like arms and abs).
4. Multi-joint (like overhead press) before single-joint (like triceps).
5. Free weights before machines.
6. More pulling than pushing.
7. For beginners, slow movements before fast movements. For advanced lifters, power before strength.
8. Functional core (like planks) before abs (like crunches).
9. Unsupported (like standing) before supported (like sitting).
10. Balanced before unbalanced (this really depends on several factors, because the reverse can be good too).
11. Strength before cardio. Intervals over cardio. Sprinting over jogging.
12. Always finish with a cooldown (foam rolling and/or stretching).
13. Bonus Tip: Pair a lower body exercise with an upper body exercise for maximum efficiency.