What other habits run in your family? Do any of your relatives smoke or drink excessively? Do most of them turn into couch potatoes once they get out of school? These are sure setups for health problems later in life. While it's tough enough to quit a bad habit like smoking (it's really better to never start at all), it may be even tougher to begin a good habit and stick to it. The effort is worthwhile, however - regular exercise lowers your risk of developing, among other things, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and osteoporosis. If any of these diseases run in your family, it should be a good incentive to get moving. Exercise will enhance your health, no matter what type of genetics you may have been born with.

Perhaps most insidious family trait is mental attitude. If you come from a family that, as a whole, presents a youthful, positive attitude towards life, you are probably same way. On other hand, if older members of your family seem to age prematurely, or if they let life drag them down, then it's possible their attitudes are dragging you down, too. A negative mental attitude is one of hardest habits to break away from - to do so requires a high level of awareness. If you observe your family and yourself for a while you'll realize that you are all talking yourselves into certain behaviors. Someone who blames his aches and pains on "getting old" is actually giving himself permission to have those aches and pains since it is impossible to stop time. If same person decides to take up Yoga to deal with, say, morning stiffness or minor back pain, he is taking control of situation and being an active participant in his wellbeing. When it comes to your health - and many other aspects of life - it's important to think actively. To think passively is to give up, to find excuses to be less active, less of a participant in life. We all have limitations, of course, but how do we know what our limits are if we don't test them? And only way to test them is to first drop your preconceived notions of what is and what isn't.

All of us carry some sort of baggage left over from atmosphere we grew up in. That doesn't mean you should disinherit your family - you no doubt inherited quite a few good qualities and values from them too - but do disinherit bad habits and negative mental attitudes that may have been handed down through generations. No matter where you come from, ultimately you create your own destiny. Taking charge of your wellbeing and your life could even rub off on some of your relatives, creating a legacy you can be proud of.

Of course, there are exceptions to rule. Such is case when using pre-exhaustion technique. For example, perform a set of dumbbell flys to exhaust pectorals then going directly to a set of bench press. In this case, however, you are pre-exhausting larger muscle group, not smaller muscle group.

Single-joint Exercises

Since single-joint movements typically require less skill to perform and are not as taxing on body, perform them after multi-joint exercises. Performing single-joint movements at end of a workout session will ensure a more efficient and effective routine. Of course, there will be exceptions, which should be addressed on an individual basis.

Note: Agility drills & Olympic lifts have been excluded from discussion of exercise order. However, typically agility drills & Olympic lifts, respectively, should be performed before multi-joint exercises.