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Published: 12/8/2025🏋 Fitness|🤸 Training plans
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Strength training - what is the right exercise order?
Do you want to start regular strength training or perhaps you're already working out, but keep on wondering why the results are not as spectacular as you expected? Exercise order matters a lot, and it’s something many beginners do not realise. Learn what a basic strength training plan should look like to ensure that your workout yields the quickest results.
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At-home strength training - a plan for working out various muscle groups together
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How to put together a strength workout plan - 10 rules to follow
Table of contents:
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Start your workout with compound exercises that engage multiple muscle groups. Compared to isolated exercises, compound ones are more challenging - but yield superior results.
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Start with exercises working out large muscle groups, and then move on to activities aimed at small muscle groups. Do more intense exercises at the beginning of your workout, when the energy is still high.
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Remember about proper muscle recovery after the workout.
Here's what you’ll learn from this article:
Strength training 101 - discover muscle groups
There are three types of muscles in our body - cardiac, smooth and skeletal. Cardiac muscles control the heart, smooth muscles are responsible for involuntary functions such as constriction of blood vessels, and the skeletal ones help us move.
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head muscles,
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trunk and abdominal muscles,
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back muscles,
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upper limb muscles,
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lower limb muscles,
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chest muscles.
The following are deemed to be the main muscle groups in our body:
Most exercises, with or without weights, require the effort of several muscles, rarely affecting just one of them. For example, when you do bicep curls, other muscles help bend your arm at the elbow. There are also stabilising muscles that tense the arm and core so that the weight can be lifted. When doing a popular squat, you engage the glutes, thighs, calves, and when bending the knees, you work hamstring muscles. When you straighten up, the quad muscles are starting to shape up. It is said that a squat can engage up to 80% of the muscles of the entire body.
It is worth knowing that it’s no easy feat to plan an effective strength training and it’s often necessary to seek the advice of a professional who develops a plan engaging proper muscle groups. What can you do on your own? Find a book on exercise physiology and even if you don’t learn by heart, at least explore the mechanics of how things work so that you have a better understanding of how your muscles function.
Keep in mind that strength training is not only about the right plan, but also about preparation. Browse gym apparel and look at the outfit below presenting a basic training outfit.
Maximum muscle gain demands the engagement of the greatest number of muscle fibres during exercise, which is why many athletes kick of their training session with squats. That’s what many bodybuilders believe, but recent studies have shown that this may not always be true (see the resources below the text). Authors demonstrate that there is no significant difference in workout results for those who exercise large muscle groups first compared to those who start the workout by engaging small muscle groups. They assert that as long as the volume of strength training remains the same, exercise order shouldn’t matter.
Other studies indicate that a training session that began with exercising large muscle groups helps maximise total resistance during a single workout. Further research also suggested that if you want to maximise the stimulus delivered to a specific muscle group, you should start your workout with it - no matter whether these are compound or isolating exercises. The further during a workout you perform a given move, the fewer repetitions will be performed while maintaining training intensity. Researchers suggest that it’s not the size of a muscle group that should determine exercise order, but the needs of an athlete - priority movements should come first.
Interestingly, contrary to the above research, many trainers recommend starting with compound exercises, such as barbell squat or barbell press. Why is this so? They demand more technique than exercises engaging a single muscle group. This means you will make fewer mistakes and reduce the risk of injury.
Even if you do strength training without equipment, it's a good idea to start with the most intense exercises that are the most energy-draining. This is especially important for beginners who are learning to control their bodies.
What about exercise order if you want to do cardio and strength exercises during one workout? Research shows that you should do cardio first, followed by elements of strength training such as weight lifting. Why? Researchers took a blood sample before, during and after the workout and found that the participants who did cardio before weight training had higher testosterone levels after completing the workout than those who lifted weights first and then did cardio. However, this finding is applicable to shorter cardio workouts of moderate intensity (lasting for about 20 minutes). What about those working out to improve muscle strength? Experts suggest that if you don't want to experience strength loss during resistance training and strive for fat burning, you should do the following: warm up, do strength training, and then finish with a longer cardio session.
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At-home strength training - a plan for working out various muscle groups together
There is no one correct way to group muscles together - if you are training to improve overall fitness, you can follow a programme that balances all muscle groups. If you want to emphasise certain muscles in your body, then focus your efforts on them. Why divide muscles into groups? This method gives each of them more rest. If you train every day, it's a good idea to devote particular workouts to a given group; e.g. make Monday a back and arm day while Tuesdays are all about chest and triceps. This division combines different movement patterns, effectively boosting muscle gain and reducing the risk of injury. If you follow the same workout routine every time, you should change exercise order.
How to put together a strength workout plan - 10 rules to follow
You already know what the research says, what are the basic muscle group divisions and why it's important to perform the exercises consciously. So how to build a simple workout routine and what rules to follow if you are a beginner?
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Start with the most demanding exercises that require the highest fitness and strength. However, if you want to strengthen a specific muscle group that isn’t targeted during a compound exercise, skip this rule - start with the weakest muscles. Compound exercises are nothing more than movement in more than one joint - these include, for example, squats and deadlifts.
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Compound exercises should be performed before isolated ones - for example, start with chest exercises before arms, biceps or triceps. Work on your quads before exercising calves and abdominal muscles.
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If your training goal is to lift heavier weights, start with explosive strength exercises. Such training may not be long, but it is really demanding, as it is meant to improve the ability to produce strength in a shorter period of time.
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If your training goal is power gain, start with strength exercises, then focus on power.
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Start your workout with more intense exercises that trigger adaptive responses.
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You can follow the principle of muscle pre-fatigue, which is best for athletes who want to get muscle mass and definition. If you aim for strength gain and stimulating muscles, skip it.
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If you are intermediate, you can use so-called supersets, that is, combining two exercises for opposite muscle groups - for example, for triceps and biceps.
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Ensure adequate muscle recovery time to boost the effectiveness of a workout. At low intensity, each muscle group should rest an average of 2-3 days, and with higher intensity up to as many as 6 days.
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Apply the principle of reducing the intensity of training so that the body can develop correct adaptive responses.
Muscle growth and exercise order
Gaining muscle and strength depends not only on exercise order, but also on genetics, nutrition, supplementation and even post-workout recovery. When building a strength workout plan, remember that you need to get to know your own body and learn the correct movement patterns. Without them, there’s no way to grow without the risk of injury. You should always start by strengthening weakened muscles and stretching contracted tendons to eliminate weak links in the movement chain. Once you've done that, set a specific goal - muscle gain, body fat reduction - and remember to adjust the plan depending on whether it yields the desired results.
Are you ready for strength training and cardio? Or maybe you want to incorporate outdoor workouts into your routine? Browse the best activewear by 4F and see what your body is capable of!
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Sources:
https://www.healthline.com/health/exercise-fitness/muscle-groups-to-workout-together
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4836564/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269878332_DOES_THE_SEQUENCE_OF_EXERCISE_IN_A_RESISTANCE_TRAINING_SESSION_AFFECT_STRENGTH_GAINS_AND_MUSCULAR_HYPERTROPHY_A_CRITICAL_EXAMINATION_OF_THE_EVIDENCE_Ralph_N_Carpinelli
https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/ExerciseOrderinRT.html
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221793787_Exercise_Order_in_Resistance_Training
4F Editorial Team
The 4F editorial team is a group of experts who live and breathe sports and value an active lifestyle. Drawing on the experience of the 4F brand, we show that exercise is a source of energy, balance, and well-being. We provide reliable training advice, follow trends in sports fashion, and support our readers in discovering their motivation to take action.
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