When doing a full body workout plan what exercises do you normally put first
I love ohp and do twice a week
But good dam I want a heavy bench
Or is it just prefence
Sorry for posting so much on the forum but I’m still kinda new and love the gym lol and the gainz why not get advice
Finally all this ohp and side lateral raise I can see bigger shoulders
What do you define as a heavy Bench?
Steve Reeves did upper body first…usually shoulders, back, chest, arms, and legs last…can’t remember when abs was performed
Arthur Jones thru the nautilus training did hip/back, legs, back, chest or shoulders, arms and finished with abs
Rotate them.
When I do full body, I start with compound movements - so vertical push, vertical pull, legs, horizontal push, horizontal pull, hinge movement.
Usually that feels like enough, but if you feel the need to add more, I move down the muscle chain.
If you’re working out twice a week, why not do one full-body day, then do a bench-specific day? Bench, triceps exercise, shoulder exercise, isolated pec exercise, some rotator cuff stuff, pushups. Then squats to finish for some balance.
That’s more for hypertrophy, but it can be adjusted depending on exercise selection.
I save my hardest/heaviest movements for last, so I can put all my effort into them and crawl home. Doing them first exhausts me too much for anything else.
I used to do lower body first, a la, Arthur Jones. Or at least I have traditionally done so. Now I leave legs for last, I start with abs, chest, lats, shoulders, an arm exercise, then legs.
I may be incorrect but I believe CT once wrote squats/deadlifts elicit more hormonal response (IGF –1, testosterone, HGH release) than any other movement. Therefore, I’ve been doing legs first.
Lower body (squat/deadlift)
Torso (chest/back)
Then, depending on programming
Torso (shoulders)
Upper body limbs (arms)
I always do my main movement first. It’s not necessarily objectively the most physically taxing but definitely the most mentally taxing
If I don’t get that done first I can’t focus on anything else
It’s the same reason I like doing heavy workouts first thing in the morning or having exams at the first slot
I do the hardest first, for me, squats.
I tend to do strength first, then higher rep work/conditioning after.
I have Upper and lower Focused days. So if it’s Upper Focused, I’ll either start with Chest, then shoulders, then back thickness, then back width, then compound thigh, then quad, then hamstring then calf and finish with abs or I’ll swap the pushing muscles with back first.
On lower Focused days, I superset the upper body work with antagonistic supersets. My order is pretty much always Compound thigh, quad, hamstring, adductor, calf, Chest/Back, Delts/Abs, biceps/triceps.
There’s not really a wrong answer and if you have a really lagging body part, you can throw it up front to give it your all while you’re freshest.
Prioritize your weaknesses or underdeveloped muscles / lifts.
The only reason this isn’t the best advice is that you don’t care about your weaknesses (maybe because all you care about is a big bench press or powerlifting total, or some other singular goal.)
Ya true… or we just prefer sticking with our strengths and ignoring them. I hit 315 on bench about 20 years ago. Probably had 325 or 330 in me. Didn’t try. Don’t care.
My most proud moment was 315 front squat to the basement for 6
NICE, same
i do lower, then a day later or 6-9 hours later upper.
the idea is that if you are exhausted from upper body work, you will lose productivity on lower body work(has happened, actually had an tear happen pushing myself on a2g squats after doing upper body work) it is always safer to do lower body first, but then you are pushing yourself so hard that the upper body work after suffers in intensity. SO doing lower body and upper body separately is justified.
however the rate of work suffers, it could be possible that doing them together back to back at lighter weight would still elicit greater intensity of effort and stimulus while impeding recovery much less. But i doubt it. I feel like my upper body lacks the required stimulus for growth if i hit them directly after legs, just not enough gas in the tank if you’re doing squats to true failure. Quads been blowing up tho!
the problem is that squats take so much out of you that your other lifts suffer. but yes i agree squats first.
It depends on your goal.
There are lots of routines that address programming and exercise selection based on various goals and supported by different methods, all valid in their respective lanes. Pre-fatigue is a big one as an example.
I personally prefer heavy compounds as primary lifts and hit them first. I’ll follow up with mid-range weight & reps for supplemental work (often compound lifts as well), and finally finish with high volume accessory work.
My primary goal is strength in the back squat, various presses and the deadlift and I believe giving my energy to full ROM and full effort while on a full tank supports that goal, and continuing to work involved muscle groups to fatigue beyond the heavy CNS stuff is the right method of support. Musculature for me is a welcome byproduct so I’m not focused on isolating a specific muscle head or fatiguing part of a movement chain to emphasize a particular set of muscle otherwise.
For clarity, how many days a week do you train?
OP has yet to respond in his own thread. I would think we need his feedback to help him in the right direction.
