Advanced Training Techniques: Pre Exhaust Method

If you are looking for a way to shock a stubborn muscle group or set the tone for your workout with a nasty pump, then you'll want to try the Pre-Exhaust Method!

The Pre-Exhaust Method is a tried and true technique to aid in activating the proper muscle fibers in a desired muscle group in the very beginning of a training session.

The Pre-Exhaust method was one of the first advanced methods that I experimented with in my own training, and I still use it frequently to this day in a lot of my programs.

Purpose/Benefits:

The purpose of the Pre-Exhaust method is to fatigue an individual muscle group by beginning the workout ensuring that the desired body part will fatigue first when the compound movement is trained rather than the muscles that assist in the movement.

It is historically recommended that this be accomplished by using an isolation movement to begin the workout rather than the traditional compoundmovement (More on this later in the article). The Pre-Exhaust method ensures that the desired body part in focus will fatigue first when the compound movement is trained rather than the muscles that assist in the movement. Pre -Exhausting your chest prior to performing the Bench Press is a perfect example. When we perform the bench press other muscle groups are involved (Triceps, Deltoids especially), and Pre-Exhausting the chest will help to make sure that the chest fatigues first in the movement rather than the shoulders and triceps.

Pre-Exhaust training not only ensures that the desired body part fatigues first, but in my experience, it helps to pump as much blood as possible into the muscles, giving you that pumped up feeling before your workout technically even begins, which is always a nice bonus!

When and How to Use Pre-Exhaust Training:

I have found that Pre-Exhaust training is best used during hypertrophy (muscle gain) phases, at a time where your goal is training a muscle to grow, rather than training a movement for strength.  Since the Pre-Exhaust method does exhaust your muscles, it is important to remember that this method should only be used once at the beginning of the workout and I personally rarely use this method before workouts that call for near maximal weights, since I like to go into these movements with my muscles completely fresh.

As I noted earlier in this article, isolation movements (chest flies, leg extensions, leg curls, lateral raises) are historically recommended for Pre-Exhaust training. While using isolation movements certainly do accomplish the goal of Pre-Exhausting the muscles, I personally have also used compound movements for pre-exhaust in my training and have found that this happens to work quite well too- I do prefer to keep these on machines though, as they provide superior stability which is nice when your goal is to isolate a specific muscle.

The key with the pre-exhaust method is to pick a medium weight that you can control very well, and use a slower tempo with a partial range of motion to keep the tension on the desired muscle throughout the exercise.

Sample Pre-Exhaust Routines:

The following are a few sample Pre-Exhaust rep schemes that you can add into your workouts. The combinations are pretty much limitless, but here are a few to start off!

All pre exhaust exercises can be completed with the following rep schemes just to name a few:

4-5×15, 3-5×20, 5-7×12, 3-6×10

**Remember to choose a weight that you can control! Do not go too heavy, we want mind to muscle connection here, get a pump and prime your muscles for a great workout!

** Remember to do these routines at the BEGINNING of your workout only