Even if you’re that geezer who has trained the same way for a decade, take a note out of the Dallas Cowboy notebook: it is time to move on [A Lesson on Exercise Order]
I was at the gym the other morning, and a trainer ran a client through a workout. They started with barbell curls, followed by dumbbell curls, followed by machine curls, and ending right at about cable curls. Here’s how it goes: you hit the preworkout, get an immediate jolt of energy and once all the frat boys have congregated we hit the weights and chase the PUMP! That’s what it’s all about to harvest size and strength, right?
This is the WRONG way to do it! You can’t expect to grow in size, especially in strength, if you keep up this ordinary lifestyle with a mediocre mindset of training. Here’s a nice comparison:
The Dallas Cowboys, America’s Team (it’s not an opinion, it’s a fact son), have always landed the top premiere spots on television, getting fans attention from any part of any region. Yet, how can this happen if they are so mediocre…especially capping this season with an 8-8 record? It’s because they have GLAMOUR, they have STYLE, and they are POPULAR! But glamour, style, and being popular isn’t’ going to get you to the super bowl, let alone the NFC championship game. Even if you’re that geezer who has trained the same way for a decade, take a note out of the Dallas Cowboy notebook: it is time to move on. Now they have acquired one of the hottest free agent coaches Mike McCarthy. He has a track record of success, he even won the super bowl hosted in Cowboy Stadium! It’s time you start to rely on something consistent, something that has shown success and been able to produce championship effort…
It’s time to start lifting with your brain. Lift with intelligence, lift with wisdom, and seek the right resources. So where does this leave us? Well, you might have been wrong by lifting with glamour and style this whole time, or maybe you have been lifting the right way? Maybe, though, you have just been lifting in the wrong order…
There are plenty of people out there who are completing an appropriate workout, just lifting movements in the wrong order! We have two types of movements: multi-joint movements and single-joint movements. With mulit-joint movements, it implies we are hitting multiple muscle groups...which in return causes a higher metabolic response than those single-joint movements. Whether you’re looking for size or strength, the bigger movements should come first to (a) keep you fresh for complex movements, (b) keep you safe from previous fatigue of other movements that might impede or cause conflict with generating safe movements and (c) you’ll create a highly metabolic response that’ll help elicit higher levels of GH and other components of building size.
So when you’re hitting the gym and start with biceps, then go into cable rows...switch the order! You’ll be amazed at how you can not only grow more, but lift more! Sometimes these subtle changes are big factors with our chase to anabolic heaven! The video above demonstrates this mindset...but understand I am working towards a 1RM so don’t feel this has to be your routine...
Close Grip Pin Press-Heaviest Single
Speed Band Resisted Bench Press 6x2
Hammer Grip High Incline Press 4x6
Lateral Raises 5x10
Face Pulls 3x12
All these chumps talk about this “latest workout” from men’s fitness, but trust me, it’s all for show. Educate yourself and surround yourself with anabolic knowledge, not the catabolic gods that pour baby oil all over their pecs before they clip pictures of them hoisting faux weights. Always start from big to small. Kind of like your problems...Remember those golden days when you were a post-pubescent teen and had a million chores to do before your father came home? You started from big tasks to small tasks. With lifting, it’s the same concept. Should I hit bench first, then triceps extensions? Yes! Multi-joint movements are a highly metabolic catalyst to help with the individual isolated working sets that occur later. Go out there and get bigger than an infant blasting those bowls of ice cream at the local China King Buffet, brethren!