I saw a trainer once and she devised a strength training routine for me, consisting of a variety of exercises in a specific order:

leg press machine
chest press (dumbells on bench)
seated row machine (for back)
hamstrings machine
lunges
biceps (free weights)
shoulders (free weights)
tricep (machine)
crunches
bird dog - erector spine?

She said that this helps me to work out larger muscle groups first followed by smaller muscle groups and leaves the abs until the end because by the time I'll get to them I'll have already used them for other exercises and I guess that makes for a better workout. I feel slightly silly walking circles between all the different equipment since I'm alternative between upper body and lower body - is she right? should I keep this order of exercises?

Secondly, I'm at 222 right now at 5'5 - does anyone know if lunges will put undue stress on my knees joints, same with the leg press? thanks!

First I'm 5'8" and weigh 214. I do squats, lunges and the leg press. I figure they strenghten my muscles around my weak knees. I don't know about the order. My son who is into body building and reads about often said the biggest thing is not the sequence but to give a days rest so your muscles repair. You might checkout www.fitsite.com for my information. Or google your question.

That is a full body workout that looks like it takes a lot of gym time per session. I like my two-day split that only takes about 45 minutes each time.

If you like that routine, I think that the shoulders are bigger muscles than biceps, so should be moved to after the lunges.

If lunges and leg presses don't hurt, then they probably aren't doing any damage.

I agree with sharonrr - there is tons of information available on workout routines on the web. Too much really - you can drive yourself crazy finding the "best" workout. Find one that makes sense to you and start with it. You need to change occasionally anyway, so if several sound good, just rotate between them.