Hypertrophy researcher Chris Beardsley has said that your nervous system gets less efficient with each set you perform through your workout…
And it’s not just in the muscle group you’re training. In other words, your chest work early in your workout reduces nervous system efficiency for your shoulder training 15 minutes later…
The muscles you train early get better activation due to your fresher nervous system.
Understanding that, it makes sense that when you train a muscle group unilaterally, or one limb at a time, you want to work your non-dominant side first…
If you’re right-handed, start with your left side, train it completely, then do your dominant right side. Why?
Because your left side has less neuromuscular efficiency than your right because our left gets used less.
Giving your left priority should even out the neuromuscular deficiency.
For example, if you’re doing one-arm lat pull-ins and you’re right-handed, do your left side first…
There are two exceptions to this rule…
1) If your dominant side is injured, start with that side; the injury has already hampered neuromuscular efficiency
2) If your dominant side is lagging in development, train it first
Example for number 1: I’m right-handed, but I have a damaged right shoulder. That’s why I train my right side first.
Example for number 2: If you’re right-handed, but your left biceps is more peaked, you may want to train your dominant right side first.
These are the little details that drug-free bodybuilders should pay attention to for the most efficient, mass-producing workouts possible—even more so if you’re old.
If you’re on drugs, it probably doesn’t matter. You can lift farm animals and you’ll grow.
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