SCIENCE
BY WERNER BEUKES, EDITOR. PHOTOGRAPHY BY SOULBY JACKSON WWW.SKJPHOTOGRAPHY.CO.ZA
ATHLETE: JACO VENTER, SHOT ON LOCATION AT HOME OF RHINO POWERLIFTING CLUB, RHINO POWERLIFTING CLUB, THE WAREHOUSE
WHAT THE
DATA SAYS
YOU SHOULD
DO TO GET
THE BEST
RESULTS
GYM
SCIENCE
B
ODYBUILDERS AND STRENGTH ATHLETES HAVE THROUGH THE
AGES ALWAYS RELIED ON SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE TO GET AS
JACKED AND AS STRONG AS POSSIBLE. HOW THEN CAN YOU USE
ALL THE INFORMATION THAT IS OUT THERE TO YOUR ADVANTAGE?
Don’t stress – Here’s the latest research to “help” find your way through the
world of barbells, dumbbells and machines for the best results.
TRAINING VARIABLE #1
EXERCISE ORDER
72
❱❱ FOR STRENGTH ❱❱ FOR HYPERTROPHY ❱❱ IN PRACTICE
Basic moves such as barbell squats,
bench presses and deadlifts are
typically placed at the beginning of
a workout session. If an athlete’s aim
is strength based, multi-joint muscle
group exercises are done first before
exercise fatigue sets in. According to
Dias et al. (2010) athletes improved
the most on exercises that are
performed first during an experiment
on 48 young untrained men over
a period of 8 weeks. Dias and
colleagues stated: “If an exercise
is important for the training goals
of a programme, then it should be
placed at the beginning of the training
session, whether or not it is a large or
a small muscle group exercise”. Bodybuilders have for years used
various pre-exhaustion techniques
(isolation moves before compounds)
to induce hypertrophy. On the other
hand, depending on an athlete’s
specific goals, they can do more
repetitions if the compound moves are
done first in the workout. Looking at
scientific literature, Fisher et al. (2014)
found no difference between a pre-
exhaustion group and normal exercise
order group in terms of muscle mass
and strength after observing lifters
over a 12-week training period. There are studies that have shown
lifters getting better gains from
exercises they perform early in the
gym (Simão et al., 2012, Dias et al
2010) and others, such as Fisher et
al. (2014), that show the opposite:
“Strength gains are not influenced by the
use of (pre-exhaustion), exercise order,
or between-exercise rest intervals.” It
might be a good idea to arrange the
order in which you tackle your exercises
in the gym based on how important
they are to you and what your individual
strengths and weaknesses are.
Muscle Evolution
“FOR STRENGTH, MULTI-JOINT MUSCLE GROUP
EXERCISES ARE DONE FIRST BEFORE FATIGUE SETS IN.”