Which gym workout should be done first?

The default priority for most ordinary bodybuilders is to do heavy compound movements first, but this order is never fixed and can be adjusted at any time according to your training goals and physical condition.

Anyone knowledgeable knows that multi-joint compound movements such as bench presses, deadlifts, squats, and pull-ups mobilize many muscle groups, have high load limits, and require high nerve recruitment abilities. They should be completed when you are most energetic and in the best muscle condition. If you do bicep curls for half an hour as soon as you come in, your forearms are so sore that you can't hold the bar, and then you do a deadlift. In the end, your arms are all competing, and your latissimus dorsi, glutes and legs don't even feel a dime of contraction. Maybe you will slip to your waist because your core is unstable, and your efforts are all in vain.

However, if you stay in the gym for a long time, you will find that there are also many veterans who have been practicing for three to five years who do not agree with this dead rule of "get bigger first, then get smaller". They believe in "fighting where the weakest is first." I met an older brother who has been training for four years a while ago. His bench press was stuck at 100kg for almost half a year. I spent a long time looking for the reason because the posterior shoulder bundles were too weak. When the push reached the highest point, the bar shook so much that I couldn't add weight at all. Later, when he came in every chest training day, he would first do 20 sets of light-weight rear shoulder flyes. After practicing until the back curls were permed and swollen, he would go to the bench press. In less than two months, he had reached 110kg. In the past, who would dare to say that shoulder training should be done first on chest training days?

There are more flexible ways to adjust. For example, if you have fluid accumulation in your knees recently, don’t squat with heavy barbells as soon as you start your leg training day. First, step on the elliptical machine for 10 minutes to activate the quadriceps and hamstring muscles around the knees, and then slowly increase from freehand squats and light-weight front squats. It is better than crushing the weight and destroying the knees. If you just want to get a little bicep pump today and take a photo, then no one will say that you are wrong if you do curls first when you walk in.

To put it bluntly, it’s like whether you should eat the hard food or the soup first when you go out to eat. There is never a standard answer. There is only one core principle: the training content you want to get the most today should be done when you are in the best condition. Don’t be tied by the fixed procedures online. After all, fitness is training your body, and you are not required to give points based on standard answers in exam papers.