SL 5x5, does the order matter?

subversive99

Hey, my wife and I are doing SL 5x5 using a power cage in our basement. Often (usually) she will exercise earlier in the day than me, and so I just start with whatever exercise she finished with (ex: today is Squat, OH Press, Deadlift), so the bar is sitting on the floor, so I am thinking to start with deadlifts to minimize shuffling of the stuff around). In my mind it matters more that I continue to progress than it does what order I do the particular lifts in. Agree or disagree?

maxit

My thought is that squats and deadlifts hit many of the same large muscle groups so I would put that OHP in the middle.

kandeye

Read the 5x5 report by Mehdi. It explains the why's, but to answer your question yes order matters, at least if you to follow the 5x5 program. Squats are ordered first because they are deemed the most important. Then bench/press to give your lower back and legs a break, then rows/deadlift to work posterior chain again. Also it's easier to track your progress if you stick to the same order because no variables change.

3laine75

Your missus doesn't rack her weights?!

subversive99

Well, neither of us do. Maybe we should institute a policy.

dbmata

I would institute fines. lol.

FullOnBurn

I think the only one that really matters is squats before deads

uconnwinsnc1

In reaility, it probably doesn't matter, although you should just go with what the program says if you can.

hill8570

FullOnBurn wrote: »

I think the only one that really matters is squats before deads

Agreed. While I'm sure it can be done, the thought of doing squats after deadlifts hurts just thinking about it...even with the bench in between. If you're using the app for programming, be sure to do more warmups than the app says for deadlifts, since I'm pretty sure it's programmed with the assumption that you've already warmed up pretty well with the squats (and, contrawise, you don't really need to warm up the squats quite as much). And don't be surprised to have a few more squat fails on the deadlift-to-squat day.

subversive99

I'm not using the app but my wife is. I'm up to 85 pounds on my 5x5 squats as of today, not approaching failure yet, but it's at least starting to feel like work. I did a warmup with 60 for 2 sets, then my 5x5 at the full weight. For deadlifts at 105 today I did a one set warmup at 70, then 1x5 at 105.

hill8570

subversive99 wrote: »

I'm not using the app but my wife is. I'm up to 85 pounds on my 5x5 squats as of today, not approaching failure yet, but it's at least starting to feel like work. I did a warmup with 60 for 2 sets, then my 5x5 at the full weight. For deadlifts at 105 today I did a one set warmup at 70, then 1x5 at 105.

kk...once squats and deads start getting over body weight (which really doesn't take all that long on SL), you'll definitely start feeling the difference in ordering.

yhealthy2000

I take Body Pump class for my weight training for several years. This is the order we follow & it's beneficial to go in this order - Warm up (a must), squats, chest, back & shoulders, triceps, biceps, lunges, shoulders, abs and lastly, cool down. This allows the necessary breaks the muscle groups need in order to progress through this workout. Hope this helps.

subversive99

hill8570 wrote: »

kk...once squats and deads start getting over body weight (which really doesn't take all that long on SL), you'll definitely start feeling the difference in ordering.

Well, I'm still over 250 pounds, so it's gonna take a little while to get to my body weight... but anyway, I'll stick to the right order. It's really not that much work to move the weights around, and we agreed that a 'rack the weights' policy is a good one in any case, so we'll do that going forward.

jenglish712

I have done reverse order on the other workout rows, bench, squat... but wouldn't DL before squats. But I had recently deloaded rows and squat so bench was the only one I was really pushing for a PR that day.

It gets a lot harder when the weight piles on.

dbmata

I'll try to find it, but a couple years back I read some research suggesting that large recruitment compound movements should be prioritized as first in a training session due to muscle growth and utilization hormone stimulation for and after the session.

If I find it i'll post it up, but since then, I don't care what's up, I do my big lifts first. Then hit the other stuff.