We all have our biases when planning exercise order in training sessions. Maybe we do the lift we hate first to get it out of the way. Some people might do their favorite lift to start. But I would guess that most people perform their most important lift first.
Personally, I start training sessions with my heaviest compound movement first and move toward single-joint and accessory movements as the session progresses. However, I don’t know if that is the best way to plan.
Luckily, a new systematic review and meta-analysis investigating the effects of exercise order on strength gains and muscle hypertrophy was published in the European Journal of Sport Science.
This was the first combined systematic review and meta-analysis that looked at the influence of exercise order on muscular strength and hypertrophy.
For those unfamiliar with systematic reviews, here’s a brief overview.
Researchers scour scientific databases to find all the papers related to their keyword(s). They then read through their abstracts or full articles to weed out the ones that don’t really fit their research questions.
Once they have a list of all-relevant research papers they go through the papers and determine the findings. The authors compile all of these findings and summarize, compare and contrast between the papers to give a full overview of the topic.
Meta-analyses take this process one step further.
In meta-analyses, the authors of the new analysis take all of the relevant results from their list of relevant papers. They then compare these results and determine, based on all the published literature in the field, what the consensus result is.
Meta-analyses are the highest level of scientific evidence because the results are taken from all of the research in the field.
Now for why we’re really here – a break down of:
What influence does resistance exercise order have on muscular strength gains and muscle hypertrophy? A systematic review and meta-analysis
Nunes JP et al. (2020). European Journal of Sport Science.
Read it here.
Highlights (TL;DR):
1. There is a significant influence of EO on gains in muscular strength and the specificity principle is in play here
a. I.e. if you do multi-joint exercises first in your lift (followed by single-joint exercises), you see greater strength gains in similar/the same multi-joint exercises vs. if you did single-joint exercises first in your lift (followed by multi-joint) and then tested multi-joint exercises
b. Vice-versa applies for if you do single-joint exercises first
2. Regardless of exercise order, similar muscle hypertrophy effects were seen
Therefore, if you want to get stronger in multi-joint exercises – do them first, then move to single-joint. If you want to get stronger in single-joint exercises – do them first and move to multi-joint later.
It doesn’t matter what order you perform your lifts if hypertrophy is your goal.
Objectives:
The authors had 3 main objectives with this systematic review and meta-analysis:
1. Systematically review studies that explored the effects of exercise order (EO) on muscular strength and/or hypertrophy
2. Pool the results using a meta-analysis
3. Provide evidence-based recommendations for EO in resistance-training (RT) programs
Introduction:
We need to consider a number of training variables when we program training sessions: intensity, volume, RPE/effort, structure of session (EO and exercise selection).
The ACSM suggests that multi-joint exercises using large amounts of muscle mass (e.g. squat, bench, deadlift, row) should be performed first. Following that, single-joint exercises involving smaller muscle groups should be performed.
However, scientific literature suggests that exercises or muscle groups “considered most important to the goals” of the lifter should be performed at the beginning of a training session.
The majority of the literature on EO is of low scientific evidence level, mostly based on small and/or short studies. So, generalizing results from these small studies into practice, particularly for muscle strength and hypertrophy gains that take long periods of time, must be done with caution.
Based on the above, the authors set forth on this systematic review and meta-analysis.
Methods:
The authors searched 4 databases (Pubmed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Scielo, SPORTDiscus) then looked through reference lists of the found papers, and searched Google Scholar.
Inclusion Criteria:
The most important inclusion criteria (in my opinion) was that the “study design was a longitudinal investigation comparing the effects of different intra-session resistance EO on dynamic muscular strength and/or hypertrophy.”
The training intervention also had to be 6 weeks. [This is a sizable duration for most resistance-training studies].
Key Metrics Taken From Studies:
For the meta-analysis, the authors used the mean and standard deviation of pre- and post-training muscular strength and hypertrophy values.
They also determined training-history, classifying subjects as resistance-trained (6+ months of RT experience) vs. novice, and by age groups.
All studies were assessed for quality and classified as excellent, good fair or poor based on the TESTEX checklist.
Statistical Analysis:
Strength analysis (effect size) was run to determine:
1. Overall increase in strength between groups using different EO
2. The effects of MJ-to-SJ and SJ-to-MJ Eos on strength gains in MJ exercises and SJ exercises
3. Effect of training specificity on strength when considering all exercises
For #1 and #2, a positive effect meant that moving from a MJ to SJ exercise order (MJ first in your session) was more beneficial.
For #3, a positive effect meant that strength gains in tested exercises favoured the group that trained these exercises earlier in their training sessions.
When looking at muscle hypertrophy, the authors analyzed:
1. The effect of EO on site-specific muscle hypertrophy
2. The effect of EO on hypertrophy using indirect measures
3. The effect of EO on hypertrophy when using indirect and site-specific measures
In all analyses, effect size (ES) was calculated as:
ES = (post-test value – pre-test value) ÷ pooled standard deviation
Assessed Studies:
Methodological Characteristics:
- Studies included in analysis: 11
- Average duration: 9 weeks (range: 6-12)
Subject Characteristics:
- Total subjects: 268
- Average subjects: 12 (range: 8-19)
- 3 studies used resistance-trained subjects
- 3 studies used older adults
- 1 study used middle-aged adults
- 7 studies used young adults
- 2 studies only had female subjects
- 1 study used mixed-sex subjects
- 8 studies used only male subjects
Muscular strength assessment:
- 1RM: 8 studies
- 10RM: 2 studies
- 1RM and 10RM: 1 study
Muscle hypertrophy assessment:
- Indirect measures: 7
- DXA (2), air displacement plethysmography (1), bioimpedance (1), skinfolds (1), Muscle thickness (1), muscle volume estimation (1)
- Direct measures: 3
- B-mode ultrasound (3)
- 1 study used both DXA and ultrasound
Exercise Order and Muscular Strength:
Eight studies looked at how EO impacted muscle strength.
There was a significant effect of EO on strength gains in multi-joint exercises, favouring starting training sessions with multi-joint exercises.
Similarly, there was a significant effect of EO on strength gains in single-joint exercises. This time favouring starting training sessions with single-joint exercises.
The impact of specificity was also apparent. If subjects performed free-weight exercises, there were more strength gains in free-weight tests. The alternative was true for machine-based exercises and testing.
You might be curious about how often you should train if you’re looking to build strength. I recently wrote an article outlining the frequency, volume and intensity you should train at to efficiently maximize your strength gains. You can check it out here.
Exercise Order and Muscle Hypertrophy:
There was no significant effect of EO on muscle growth/hypertrophy when analyzing site-specific or indirect measures.
Discussion:
The findings support the importance of the SAID (specific adaptations to imposed demands) principle.
Exercises performed at the beginning of training sessions showed greater strength gains than those performed later in training sessions. The authors, and anecdotal evidence, suggest that higher loads can be used in exercises placed at the beginning of training sessions.
And, if you use higher loads, you will see greater strength gains. (Using high loads might lead to more muscle soreness though – learn all about why your muscles get sore here).
These results support previous findings that EO should be based on the goals of the individual, specifically when maximal strength development is of high priority.
It is suggested that fatigue has an impact on the load you can tolerate, and thus strength gains. Therefore, it makes sense that you should prioritize exercise order based on your training goals. As the training session progresses, muscular fatigue induced by previous exercises may decrease performance in the following exercises that use the same muscle groups.
This meta-analysis showed that similar muscle hypertrophy can be attained regardless of EO. However, there were few studies that looked at this. Additionally, those that did look at EO and muscle hypertrophy did not necessarily look at hypertrophy in the muscles most activated in the exercises that composed the training sessions.
Previously, authors have suggested that a progression from multi-joint to single-joint exercises in a training session may be optimal for overall increases in muscle mass. It is suggested that this order leads to greater overall training volume (volume-load).
However, it is may be more beneficial to perform single-joint exercises first if specific muscle hypertrophy is the priority (i.e. for the pec major). This could lead to greater stimulation for the specific muscle group.
Read More: What is overtraining? And what does the science have to say about it
Limitations:
The authors did note that 3 of the studies did not report data on training adherence. And within the review/meta-analysis, the authors of the current study did not mention adherence at all.
The biggest limitation that I see in this article is a lack of reporting of sets and reps/overall volume. If all of the studies were performing 7 sets of 1 at 92% of 1RM, then it makes sense that EO did not impact muscle hypertrophy.
These studies may have simply not had enough volume to elicit muscle hypertrophy changes, particularly in the studies that were only 6 weeks in length.
Also, only 3 of the 11 included studies used resistance-trained subject. I would speculate that the effect of EO on strength and hypertrophy would be smaller in untrained subjects because any stimulus will lead to improvements.
Therefore, the effect of EO on strength may actually be bigger than what is shown in this meta-analysis.
And EO MAY actually have an impact on hypertrophy. However, regardless of whether the untrained subjects move from SJ-to-MJ or MJ-to-SJ exercises, they will probably see the same hypertrophy results. Trained subjects, however, may see larger hypertrophy gains with one exercise order vs. the other.
Final Thoughts & Practical Implications:
This is the first meta-analysis looking at EO on strength and hypertrophy gains, so despite the limitations, this paper adds a large amount of knowledge to the strength and conditioning field.
There is no doubt that muscle strength gains are impacted by EO. However, this meta-analysis didn’t find an impact of EO on hypertrophy – but I speculate that there actually is an effect.
The practical implication is that you should plan your training sessions based on your goals. If you want to have a stronger squat, then you should squat first. If you want to be able to curl more weight, curl first in your workout.
Really, it all comes down to your body responding and adapting to the stress that is placed upon it.