How To Structure Your Workouts (No matter the goal)

Structuring your workouts correctly plays a significant role in performance during that session and subsequent performance as well. Placing movements too early or too late in the training session is a common yet overlooked mistake amongst all categories of trainees; whether you train for size, strength or speed. Here's how I personally structure workouts for myself and for clients:

1. Max Effort Work

If you have programmed a max effort movement, it should be during the start of your workout. A 'max' effort movement here is defined as an exercise in which your goal is to set a PR. So, for example, a max effort movement could include ramping up to a heavy set of 5 reps on the back squat. Most max effort movements will be a squat, bench, deadlift, overhead press, snatch, and clean & jerk. 

Max effort movements are put first in the workout since our soul aim with them is to increase the weight we lift. However, these max effort movements should be done at a LOW volume. The maximum amount of volume you would want to do is a single heavy set, with maybe 2-3 backoff sets. The reason we want to keep volume low is so that we have enough energy to do the explosive work AFTER the max effort work. With explosive exercise like resisted sprints, we are less concerned with the weight and more concerned with positioning and speed. Volume work is VERY fatiguing on the body and will significantly impede explosive performance.

For most people, I would recommend to just do 1 max effort exercise per session. But for those who do 2 max effort exercises in a single session, I would start with the more technical/less fatiguing exercise. So if I was doing heavy snatches and heavy bench presses, I would start with the snatch as it is a far more technical lift and it requires the body and mind to be fresh. If I was doing heavy back squats and deadlifts, I would start with the back squat as it is more technical and far less fatiguing than the deadlift. Of course, the order of exercises here can change if you are significantly weaker on a specific lift. For example, if your deadlift is weak compared to your back squat, you could start with the deadlift.

2. Explosive Work

We then do our explosive work for the workout. Performance here will feel much better due to the post-activation potentiation effect after the heavy maximal effort sets previously performed. Here, the order of exercises will simply depend on the goal. If your goal is to get faster, start with sprints and then do plyometrics. If your main goal is vertical jumping, start with jumps and then do light power cleans. Most trainees won't be doing more than 2 explosive exercises per session.

3. Volume Work 

Volume work can be split into 2 categories:

Heavy/Assistance Volume Work

This includes volume work for the maximal lifts mentioned earlier. Here, you could do 5 x 5 with your squats, bench presses and deadlifts, as well as assistance exercises for your main movements (ie. incline bench press, pause deadlifts, belt squats, hyperextensions). These movements will come first as they are quite a high priority for an athlete who wants to increase maximal strength or performance in the most important movement patterns. Most trainees will have around 1-2 assistance exercises per workout. These will probably be the most fatiguing exercises in your workout, as they require a good mix of both intensity and volume.

Light/Hypertrophy Volume Work

Here, we do movements which are targeted for hypertrophy and longevity and thus require less loading. This could include weighted chin-ups, curls and tricep extensions, hip flexor work, hip thrusts, and core exercises. These exercises generally require less intensity and so can be performed towards the end of the workout. Trainees could have up to 3 exercises in this category.

4. Miscellaneous Work

This can include basically any exercise that isn't a high priority and more optional and prone frequent changes. For myself, I include calf work, static holds for grip strength, and neck curls in this slot. These exercises aren't as important for the goals of strength, size and speed to be considered 'volume' work, but they still provide some benefits. This slot is optional and not everyone will need to do these types of exercises, and most should be fine by just doing the first 3 exercise categories I just mentioned. I would only do 1 exercise in this slot per session.

But Hawtsauce, how many exercises should I do per session?

I would say 6(not including the miscellaneous exercise). I have found experimentally that 6 exercises is the maximum number of exercises any trainee can tolerate in a single session with a generally high level of intensity. Maybe if you are on a very low frequency split (2-3x per week) you can add a handful mor exercises, but anyone training 4-5 times a week should keep 6 exercises the cap. If you train high frequency 5+ times a week, you should probably do even less than 6 exercises per session. 

Below, I have outlined how each type of trainee can allocate these 6 exercises in their workout:

Strength Athlete:

1. Max Effort Lift
2. Explosive Exercise
3. Assistance Volume Work
4. Assistance Volume Work
5. Hypertrophy Volume Work
6. Hypertrophy Volume Work

Physique Trainee:

1. Max Effort Lift
2. Assistance Volume Work
3. Hypertrophy Volume Work
4. Hypertrophy Volume Work
5. Hypertrophy Volume Work
6. Hypertrophy Volume Work

Hybrid Athlete (ie. sprinter, soccer player, fighter):

1. Max Effort Lift
2. Explosive Exercise
3. Explosive Exercise
4. Assistance Volume Work
5. Assistance Volume Work
6. Hypertrophy Volume Work

Overall, this is a solid way to structure workouts, and it WILL provide optimal results no matter your training goal! 

- Hawtsauce