Order of exercises?

[Fillythebish]

When doing more than one exercise per body part, like say a circuit, should all the exercises for one body area/part be done in one go or do each body part after the other in a loop? Does one way of doing the routine have certain benefits over the other?

For example...

Upper body (all exercises)
Core (all exercises)
Legs (all exercises)

or

Upper body (1 exercise)
Core (1 exercise)
Legs (1 exercise)
Repeat till all exercises are done.

[Fish Of Doom]

i recommend core first

i've nearly puked more than once for trying to work my arms at the end of a heavy workout, even having to spend half an hour in a hot tub while having difficulty breathing once

[liero]

do it like so

a1 arms ex. 1
a2 legs ex. 1
a3 abs ex 1

(take break...e.g. 60 seconds and repeat for however many sets you do then move on)

b1 arms ex. 2
b2 legs ex. 2
b3 abs ex. 2

c1 arm 3
c2 leg 3
c3 abs 3

doing it this way makes it more time effective. you can work one part of the body then another area straight away without rest time, which means your workout will be quicker. its more efficent

[shuyun3]

my split used to be 4 days a week,


Chest
Back
Legs
Arms and shoulders


abs every time. (dang i miss my workout days)

I do arms last because I hit them anyway doing the power lifts. I'm partial to dumbbells so my arms don't assist each other. I get the same feel of resistance at 10-15 pounds less with dumbbells. Decline bench presses with dumbbells rock.

[Custom Volusia]

When I am doing my split, I always do the major exercises first. For example: on chest/tri days I do all 4-5 of my chest exercises and when I am done I work my triceps, and I even have a reason!

When ever you do chest you are working your triceps, so if you do a tricep specific exercise before or between chest exercises, you significantly lower how much you can lift on your chest exercises. Considering heavy weight is what it takes for most to develop their chest...that is a bad thing.

Same goes for back and biceps AND FOR CORE!!!! Specficially core!! ALWAYS do core at the end of your workouts! On almost EVERY exercise you are using your core in some manner...so if you weaken it before an exercise, you can not only lower what you end up doing on other exercises, you may end up hurting yourself. You can hurt yourself because you use your core to hold a perfect (hopefully) form, if it is weak, you may let your form relax and then you get hurt.

[seiken steve]

I couldn't agree with CV more.

Alot of the smart arses at my gym have a theory of pre-exhausting the tri's before chest to make the chest work harder. Bad idea, dangerous on a bench and IMO wont make your chest work any harder.

[Kuma]

Personally, for circuit training type workouts, I like to split them up this way your muscles get some "rest" while you're doing something else. For example, if you're doing a circuit of pull-ups, V-ups, and jumping lunges, after doing the pull-ups the next two don't tax that area again until you do the next exercise.

[Willsy]

Variety is the spice of life, and also one of the best ways to train your body. Not repeating the same thing from day to day or week to week is better for your body than sticking to one thing.

Circuit training is designed to add some cardio to your workout, so the constant stress of a muscle group can be good for it, whereas in regular weight training you need to let your muscles rest in between. But, sometimes it makes the circuit almost kill you, so I believe the best way is to switch up the order of your circuit, sometimes alternating muscle groups, sometimes loading them a couple times in a row.