Whether you are training as an athlete, bodybuilder, strongman, or powerlifter, understanding intelligent exercise structure and how to apply it is the most important thing that you can do to ensure success in sport.
Here's a basic rundown of the way that you should structure exercises, followed by an explanation on the WHY.
General and specific warm-up
Plyometric exercises
Power exercises
Strength exercises
Assistance exercises
Aerobic training
As you can see, the general and specific warm-up is always the first priority. We need to protect our body from injury and prepare the body for the activities ahead of it. The warm-up provides an increase in blood flow to working muscles, lowered viscosity in muscles and joints, and enhanced psychological preparedness.
Following the warm-up, depending on training goals, plyometric exercises and power exercises are done. If these exercises hold high training priority, they must be done before any strength work because they demand speed and activation of high-threshold motor units in a non-fatigued state.
Next up, strength and assistance exercises follow. Depending on your training goals, there may not be a need to do plyometric or power exercises at all, so skip right into the strength and assistance exercises directly. These exercises promote increases in strength and hypertrophy of muscle fibers.
Lastly, if done in the same session, aerobic training should be performed last. The reason for this is because it is very difficult to get quality training in after expending so much fuel. Avoid doing weight training after aerobic training at all costs, or separate them if done in the same day.
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