THE PERFECT ORDER

Again and again one can ask oneself what the perfect order is. Which exercises do I do first or on which day of the week should I train my strength, go for a run or when is the best time to do yoga? When I do strength training, do I do the heavy exercises first or the easy ones first? Where I'm good or where I'm bad, what do I do first? There are different opinions. Some say you should do the most important things first when you're still fresh. Others say you should attack your weak spots first so you're pre-fatigued there, and then don't over-heavy the compound lifts for the weakest links in the chain. Personally, I do it by simply tackling my weak points first and then moving on to the strengths in turn. This also means that I use more time for my weak points. In the past, I actually tended to do the things that I enjoyed the most. The weak points would always fall back, which would eventually lead to pain or injury spoiling all the fun for me. For example, when it comes to cardiovascular training, I'm not putting that on the back burner because some training scientist said you should train for strength first, then endurance. I do that at the very beginning because that is the most important thing to me. Then I target my weak areas like my triceps, hamstrings, and lower back. Finally, I do the exercises where I'm already strong, e.g. bench press or pull-ups. I'm strong enough anyway. I can then quickly power through them at the very end and that's it.

STRENGTHEN THE WEAKEST LINK

Sometimes, like once a year, I test my different exercises to see where my weaknesses are.

Then I know which exercises I need to train more in the future

in order to bring the ratio between different exercises to a reasonable level.

This helps with injury prevention. 

For the appropriate proportions between the various exercises,

I have created a table based on tests by Charles Poliquin.

Ideally, the exercises should all come out in one line.

For example, I'll take a 95 kg bench press.

Then all the other exercises should also be in the row where the bench press is 95 kg.

I can find out where my strongest exercise is based on my current training.

For example, if I now do 30 repetitions on the bench press with 40 kilos,

then I know exactly which row I have to look at

in order to do the other exercises with 30 repetitions as well.

For example, I find out that I'm much weaker at triceps overhead extension

and then I also know that I have to work on this weakness in the next time

until I'm there on the same row.

 

For example, with the bench press, I know that all I have to do is maintain the strength.

I work the other exercises more to get it all into that row.

 

The optimal ratio is of course wishful thinking, because we do not live in an ideal world.

However, it's always good when you get the exercises very close to each other.

 

The typical weak points are often triceps, hamstrings and lower back.

Then there is often a disproportion between the upper body and the legs.

You can always work on that.