Does doing squats at the beginning affect your numbers on non-related lifts later?

[enwar3]

So I usually do squats at the beginning of every day, but one day I skipped out on the squats and benched better than I thought I would. The next workout, I put the squats back in and didn't bench as well as I should've (worse than the previous workout).

But squats don't work the same muscles as the bench. Does my body have a limited amount of energy it can access in a short time? Did doing squats hurt my bench? Or was I just off that day?

 

[TallBill]

Yes, if you are at the point where you are squatting more then just beginner weight then it will adversely affect all lifts afterwards. This is why I like mixing the order that I do lifts. Except with deadlifts or squats, because they are so draining.

 

[KoolDrew]

If I bench and squat in the same day, I'll usually bench first. In my experience, squatting will effect my bench, but benching won't effect my squat.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: enwar3
So I usually do squats at the beginning of every day, but one day I skipped out on the squats and benched better than I thought I would. The next workout, I put the squats back in and didn't bench as well as I should've (worse than the previous workout).

But squats don't work the same muscles as the bench. Does my body have a limited amount of energy it can access in a short time? Did doing squats hurt my bench? Or was I just off that day?

Squats find a way to work pretty much every muscle under the bar. So, yes, they can and do affect your subsequent lifts because they fatigue your body and some of the muscles necessary to bench.

 

[Deeko]

Sure - not only do you have less energy in general, they affect each other more directly than you think. In a proper, non-beginner bench press your entire body is tensed and you're driving your feet through the floor as you bench - so squatting before benching will detract from the effectiveness of this and isolate your chest area more. Just change it up from now and then, personally I always start with squats or deadlifts though.