The Best Exercise Sequence for Making Muscle Gains, Fast

Following a workout program can help maximize gains, but workout performance and progress benefit from an exercise sequence aligned with your training goals. For instance, training skull crushers before bench presses on push day can hinder results if the goal is a bigger chest.

On Sept. 12, 2024, exercise scientist Dr. Mike Israetel shares insights on exercise order for muscle growth for natural and enhanced bodybuilders.

[Related: Don’t Endanger Your Gains by Undereating]

Why Does Exercise Sequence Matter?

• Energy: One has the most energy during the first exercise.

Something that requires a load of energy better be early [when] you’re not tired yet. 

• Workout Performance: Most individuals tend to excel during their first exercise. If the goal is to maximize performance in a specific exercise, train it earlier.

If it’s squats first versus leg extensions first, and you want to perform highly on squats, do squats first.”

• Muscle Activation: Initial workout exercises receive the greatest stimulus than those performed later. Therefore, to maximize muscle activation from a squat, squat first. 
• Limiting Factors: When the initial exercise targets muscles that become limiting factors in subsequent exercises.

If triceps are fried from pushdowns, they’re likely the limiting factor on presses, meaning they get more work, leaving the chest with less work.

• Mind-Muscle Connection: First exercises are unlikely to establish an optimal mind-muscle connection.
• Fatigue: First exercises reduce performance on later exercises due to muscle fatigue.

Squats first; leg press will suffer. Leg presses first; squats will suffer. Figure out what to do first to arrange training properly. 

• Technique Performance: Beginners will experience the greatest technique improvement when focusing on exercises early in training.

You’re not learning technique as well while highly fatigued.

[Related: Sedentary Lifestyle Statistics, With Insight From a Board-Certified Physician]

Exercise Sequence for Natural Bodybuilders

Dr. Israetel recommends natural bodybuilders train exercises that meet the following four conditions early in their programs:

1. Exercises that improve most on performance.
2. Exercises that stimulate the highest priority muscles. 
3. Exercises that require the most coordination and focus.
4. Exercises to grow stronger, especially in lower rep ranges.

Exercises that involve significant systemic or cardiovascular engagement can disrupt workouts if performed too early (e.g., ultra-high-rep walking lunges). 

“If it’s important to get a big back, don’t train biceps and rear delts first. They will prevent you from using your back.”

Exercise Sequence for Enhanced Bodybuilders

Enhanced bodybuilders face a greater risk of injury but can also find it easier to stimulate gains. Dr. Israetel suggests enhanced bodybuilders consider the following criteria when selecting their beginning exercises:

1. Exercises should focus on training and pre-exhausting the target muscles using minimal external loads. Begin by targeting the specific musculature, then progress to more intense workouts that involve heavier external weights.
2. Perform exercises that offer more isolation, such as leg extensions and pushdowns. Avoid postural movements like deadlifts, squats, and rows. 
3. Train in the 10-20 rep range.

For later in a training program, Israetel recommends:

1. Exercises that have shown higher injury risks in the past.
2. Exercises athletes have struggled to develop a mind-muscle connection to.
3. Exercises that have a high systemic fatigue component, like squats and deadlifts.
4. Pushing new exercises that are introduced later in the program. 

Wrapping Up

Dr. Israetel advises natural, intermediate, and enhanced bodybuilders on the following recommendations:

Natural & Intermediate Bodybuilders

• Stay natural.
• Perform compound, highly technical, and heavier load movements first.
• Perform isolation exercises, and higher reps last.
• Determine exercise order by the net session stimulus-to-fatigue ratio.

Enhanced Bodybuilders

• Determine exercise order by the net session stimulus-to-fatigue ratio.
• Perform lighter exercises first, which are more isolated and heavier, and compound movements later to help minimize the risk of injuries.
• Drop the ego. 

More Bodybuilding Content

• Phil Heath’s 4-Exercise Arm Workout for a “Massive Pump”
• Merch and Muscles Collide at Gymshark’s LiftNYC Event
• Frank Zane’s Legendary Ab Workout, Explained

Featured Image via Shutterstock/Jacob Lund