From LOSING IT! With Jillian Michaels
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Timing Is Everything
Do you have a haphazard approach to circuit training? What I mean is, do you just do whatever exercise suits you at that particular moment?
Knowing the best sequence when performing your exercises is crucial. To prevent undue fatigue, you always want to train the muscles from largest to smallest.
Here's the logic: When you exercise one of the big muscle groups, say the chest, you also recruit the smaller muscles nearby, like the triceps, in a secondary or helper capacity. Your triceps will not work as hard during a chest press as they will in a triceps press, but if you exhaust your triceps before you even get to your chest, they'll be weak. As a result, you will not be able to give your chest the best workout possible.
So if you get the big ones out of the way before you spotlight the smaller ones, your performance will improve, and this means more fat-burning lean muscle in less time!