3 Reasons to Complete Challenging Exercises First

How do you structure the order of exercises for your workouts?

I want to offer you 3 compelling reasons why you should complete the most challenging, intense exercises in the beginning of your workout, then move on to less strenuous exercises.

If you are using circuits – which I think is a very smart idea – you can follow the same strategy.

When I say “challenging” exercises, I mean you are focusing on the most challenging compound exercises that require multiple joints and a lot of effort, such as Squats, Lunges, Cleans, or Pullups for example. These exercises give you the most bang for your buck.

So here are 3 reasons to complete the most challenging exercises in the beginning of your workout or circuit:

1) You have the most energy

At the beginning of the workout after a light warm up, your muscles are likely filled with sufficient glycogen (energy for your body), your muscles and nervous system are fresh, and your cardiovascular capacity is the highest. Because you are ready to train hard, you might as well use this energy on the most important exercises that you get the best results. Starting out with shoulder raises or a biceps curl is not a great use of your energy.

2) You are more focused

Focus is very important during exercise to not only help you get the best results, but also to prevent injury.

When using heavy weights, or completing very challenging, structural exercises, you need to be very focused. After a long day at work when you have a lot on your mind, focus can be very difficult. Towards the end of your workout, you may not be able to focus at all!

When I was a college athlete, we always started our workouts with complicated Olympic movements like Power Cleans and Push Presses. Doing these types of exercises at the end of the workout could be dangerous. All it takes is one mental lapse, or one second where you lose your form to experience a very serious injury.

3) You get greatest benefits early in the workout

There are so many times when I hit the gym and I only have 20 minutes left before it closes, or I just don’t have the time for a full workout. By completing the most important exercises first, I get 80% of the benefits of the workout in the first 10-20 minutes. Later on in your workout, you can focus on assistance exercises if you must like lateral raises, dumbbell curls, or triceps press down, which give you minimal benefits.

The caveat with this approach is you have to be warmed up by (1) doing low intensity cardio with some dynamic stretching and (2) perform warm up sets of more complex exercises you choose. For example, if you’re doing a set of squats in the beginning of your workout, you should perform at least 1-2 warm up sets with 50% of your max effort, or around 70% of what you can do for 10 reps. If your body is ready to go, then you can start pushing yourself.

Putting the hardest exercises early on in your workout sounds pretty simple, but it really is powerful and will improve your workouts whether you want to lose fat, or build muscle. No doubt about it!