Mixing up sequence of workouts within a program?

[teiresias]

I'm currently finishing up doing Hypertrophy 1 & 2 and intend to move on to Strength 1. At that point, I'll either do Strength 2 and then Hypertrophy 3 or go straight to H3.

In any case, after that (unless I finish up the strength programs) it will be about time to get back into burning calories and eating at a deficit so I'm going to go back to the fat-loss programs.

My question is if it is ill-advised to mix up the sequence of the fat-loss programs? For instance, do FL2, then FL1, then FL3. To go even further, how about mixing it up on a week-to-week basis? For example, first week, do one week of FL2, second week do the first week of FL3, third week do the first week of FL1, then repeat (or even mix it up even more).

I'm guessing this latter type wouldn't be advisable on a hypertrophy or strength program, but I'm wondering if it will just further keep your body guessing if you're doing the fat-loss programs, or am I just asking for trouble?

[Lost Dog]

Your body's not THAT adaptable. You don't need to shuffle the order of FL1, 2 and 3. I don't think it hurts, per se, but there may be a flow, where you learn one thing, then follow a progression of it with a slightly different exercise.

The week to week idea would be be way more trouble than it's worth. Plus, there's something to be said for getting "good" at an exercise, which allows you to lift more weight. You just don't want to fully adapt to it.

For most people, it takes longer than a month to really adapt, and even then, it's not like a switch goes off. It just gets slightly less effective over time.

[teiresias]

Originally Posted by Lost Dog

The week to week idea would be be way more trouble than it's worth. Plus, there's something to be said for getting "good" at an exercise, which allows you to lift more weight. You just don't want to fully adapt to it.

That's true, but this will be my second time through the fat-loss programs, so I'm pretty comfortable with every exercise used in the workouts. I'll also have just come off of more than four months of hypertrophy and strength work, so I'd think making substantial weight increases isn't quite as important at that point (though obviously one needs to be able to up the weight throughout the progression).

[tbartman]

I have a related question. Sometimes I find I don't completely finish a workout (run out of time, or fatigue if I pushed it too hard at the beginning, or maybe just having a bad day). I don't want to miss out on the same lift each time I do this. Does it matter which order I do the supersets in a program. For example, if I'm supposed to do A/B then C/D then E/F as supersets, can I do E/F to start my next workout and end with A/B? Would there actually be a benefit since I get to do each exercise some times when I'm fresh and can lift more and other times when I'm nearing fatigue?

[Hunter]

Originally Posted by tbartman

I have a related question. Sometimes I find I don't completely finish a workout (run out of time, or fatigue if I pushed it too hard at the beginning, or maybe just having a bad day). I don't want to miss out on the same lift each time I do this. Does it matter which order I do the supersets in a program. For example, if I'm supposed to do A/B then C/D then E/F as supersets, can I do E/F to start my next workout and end with A/B? Would there actually be a benefit since I get to do each exercise some times when I'm fresh and can lift more and other times when I'm nearing fatigue?

I don't think you want to do that because you're generally starting with the bigger lifts then moving to the ancillary/support exercises. You want to do the big lifts while you're fresh.