Brad Schoenfeld, PhD

First Exercise Boosts Strength, Not Hypertrophy, Regardless of Order

Common resistance training prescription is to perform multi-joint exercises before single-joint exercises. Our group, led by @joaonunesjpn, conducted a meta analysis to determine whether exercise order affects strength and muscle growth. Results indicated that strength gains were greatest for exercises performed first in the workout. OTOH, muscle hypertrophy was similar regardless of exercise order. There were some notable limitations. From a strength standpoint, all of the included studies assessed strength using repetition-maximum tests specific to the exercises performed in the study (e.g., if a squat was used in the workouts, 1RM testing was carried out in the squat). These results cannot necessarily be extrapolated to general strength, which would require testing a neutral modality (i.e., dynamometer). From a hypertrophy standpoint, most studies measured muscles that were the primary mover in only one of the exercises being compared. For example, the biceps is the main target during curls but only a synergist during lat pulldowns. Thus, the finding that exercise order doesn't affect hypertrophy may simply reflect that performing an indirect exercise before a direct one doesn't impair growth. That said, the only study to directly compared exercise order when both exercises targeted the same muscle group showed similar hypertrophy irrespective or exercise order. The general take-home from the evidence is: For strength, prioritize the exercises you most want to improve by performing them early in the workout. However, it remains unclear whether exercise order influences the transfer of strength gains to broader functional tasks and activities of daily living. For hypertrophy, exercise order appears to be largely a matter of preference, convenience, and individual training goals. That said, when training multiple muscle groups in the same session, it may be advantageous to prioritize lagging muscle groups. Mental focus and fatigue tend to decline as a workout progresses, potentially compromising training quality later in the session. Therefore, targeting less-developed muscles when you are freshest may help maximize the effectiveness of your efforts. https://t.co/o1SmtgRebg