It can be difficult to decide which muscle group to train first in a workout, especially when training two muscles such as shoulders and triceps that work together in many exercises. Determining whether to train shoulders before triceps, or triceps before shoulders during a weight training session can vary considerably depending on your training style, the exercises you are performing and your overall training goals.
Weak Point
Determine which muscle group needs to most improvement. Everyone, even elite athletes, has weaker points in fitness and strength. Train your weaker muscle group first in your workouts when you are fresh, notes Chad Shaw of Bodybuilding.com. If your shoulders are underdeveloped and hindering your progress in an exercise such as the bench press, then make your shoulders your primary focus of your workout and train them first. It is not beneficial to train your stronger muscle group first, then your weaker area second.
Compound Exercises
Perform the exercises that require the greatest amount of strength first in your workout. Compound exercises involve two or more joint movements. These exercises will require the use of more than one muscle group and are more intense than isolation exercises, performed before isolation exercises that involve only one joint movement and one specific muscle. There are more compound exercises for the shoulders than there are for the triceps. Compound shoulder exercises include military press, Arnold press, upright rows and dumbbell shoulder press. Compound exercise for the triceps include triceps dips and close-grip bench press or pushups.
Supersets
Incorporate supersets into your workouts to train both muscles together throughout the workout. Supersets are when one exercise for a muscle group is performed, then followed immediately by a different exercise for a different muscle group with little to no rest between exercises. For example, perform one set of military press followed by a superset of close-grip bench presses. Supersets can develop muscularity, but are not overly effective for building strength because of a reduction in the amount of weight you can handle, according to Bodybuilding.com. Alternating which muscle group comes first each week may help to overcome this and maintain balance between muscles.
Sample Workouts
A workout in which shoulders come first could look like this: military press, Arnold press, lateral raise, lying overhead EZ curl extensions, triceps kickbacks and cable pressdowns. Exercise order for a triceps first workout might look like this: close-grip bench press, triceps dips, dumbbell triceps extensions, dumbbell shoulder press, bent-over lateral raise and front raises. A superset workout might look like this: military press/close-grip pushups, dumbbell shoulder press/triceps dips and lateral raises/triceps pressdown.
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